Sri Lankan identity on the sitar

Sri Lankan identity on the sitar by Pradeep Ratnayake, Senior Lecturer, Head, Department of Languages, Cultural Studies and Performing Arts, University of Sri Jayawardenepura organised by the Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka (RASSL) will be held at the Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium, 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7 on September 26 at 5.00 p.m.

The lecture will demonstrate how it was done, how the sound of Sri Lankan folk melodies was created by the sitar by using innovative techniques like the use of harmony (playing two notes at one time on the sitar); by using non-traditonal accompanying instruments like the Kandyan drum; by composing for the sitar outside the ragadhari tradition and by using Sri Lankann folk melodies as the base of the compositions and so on.

The lecture will use video clips and performances on the sitar to demonstrate its points.