Realising a musical dream

by Charith Perera

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Friedrich Nietzsche,
Twilight of the Idols

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”

Albert Einstein

Apart from demonstrating an untapped pool of music talents, the concert ‘Beats and Bars’ offered an exhilarating evening of music and performances. What is noteworthy in the exercise on the part of the teachers at the Studio Fine Arts was that the rich repertoire of songs and pieces of music. In a way, it is a rekindling of legacy of music which marked the formative year in the evolution of occidental tradition of music.

A significant feature which made the evening universally appreciable was the versatility on the part of the students and true-to-the original nature of the performances.

What struck me during the recent music concert ‘Beats and Bars’ by the students of the Studio Fine Arts at the Bishop’s College was the rich repertoire of songs including all-time hits such as ‘ I dreamed a dream’ taken from the 1985 hit musical Les Misarables. In fact, it were the lyrics of ‘I dreamed a dream’ I recollected even before the concert commenced at the Bishop’s College’s auditorium. Anisha Fernando and Roshanara Tissaratchy’s rendition of ‘I dreamed a dream’, which was so true to the original, nearly moved me into tears. Theirs was a precursor to a host of excellent renditions which made the evening a memorable musical fiesta.

In a way, students’ performances were highly professional given the fact that the origin of the rich repertoire of songs was a challenge for students of music however much they tried their best at rendering.

Nexus between music and intelligence

One of the noteworthy features of music is its close link with the intelligence of the performer. Researchers have found that music lessons will improve intelligence in vital areas such as Spatial-temporal skills, Mathematics skills, Reading skills,Vocabulary, Verbal memory and phonemic awareness.

According to research published on Journal Brain, Canadian team of researchers including Dr Laurel Trainor, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University and Director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind has clinically proved that music has positive impact on children improving their cognitive skills in general and their intelligence in particular.

In a study titled ‘Impact of Music, Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and Youth’, the American Academy of Pediatrics said; “Music plays an important role in the socialisation of children and adolescents. Popular music is present almost everywhere, and it is easily available an radio, various recordings, the Internet, and new technologies, allowing adolescents to hear it in diverse settings and situations, alone or shared with friends. Parents often are unaware of the lyrics which their children are listening because of the increasing use of downloaded music and headphones. Research on popular music has explored its effects on schoolwork, social interactions, mood and affect, and particularly behaviour. ”

The fact that parents should bear is that good music has positive impact on children’s intelligence and behavioral patterns while the bad music would have an adverse impact on their social behavior. However, the students of the Studio Fine Arts will not experience the negative impact of music given the rich and qualitative music education they receive, which is amply manifested by the rich repertoire of songs they performed at the concert.

Rich repertoire

One of the salient features of the concert was its rich repertoire of songs and pieces of music that the students performed at the concert. It is not an exaggeration that each and every piece of music they performed or rendered their voices to has its own illustrious history.

For instance, Let’s Twist Again is a song by Kal Mann and Dave Appell. It was released as a single by Chubby Checker.Being one of the biggest hit singles in 1961, the song reached number two in the UK and number eight on the U.S. Billboard pop chart. A noteworthy feast of the song is that it received the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Rock and Roll Recording. Checker also made a song in German entitled Der Twist Beginnt and it appears on the soundtrack of 2011 film The Help. The song McNamara’s Band was recorded in late 1945 by the singer Bing Crosby. The song is woven around the tongue-in-cheek story of a small Irish band which was written by the song-writing team of O’Connor and Stamford. Having released on Decca Records in early 1946, it became a top-ten hit for Crosby. The song is still one of Crosby’s most popular repertoires of songs. McNamara’s Band is often sung on St. Patrick’s Day. Earlier recording of McNamara’s Band was a hit in the 1945 film The Way to the Stars.

The song Whistle While You Work was one of the hits performed at the concert. The lyric of the song was by Larry Morey for the 1937 animated Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs while Frank Churchill composed music for the song. What is obvious is that Ishan de Lanerolle and Directors of the show Shyama Perera had chosen the best repertoire of songs which represents a profile of best songs.

Interestingly the rich repertoire of songs would not only enhance the students’ knowledge and practice of music but also improve their level of appreciation of hits. At a different level, the old hits (all of them were not old) rekindled the fond memories of the parents.

They are, indeed, all time hits which transcends the boundaries of age and time.

The first segment of the concert commenced with ‘Twist again’which served as a fitting opening act and also the closing act of the concert. Young Ramith Herath on guitar singing country roads to Avisha Perera singing Castle on a cloud and another hit by Roshanara Tissaratchy’s singing of Don’t cry for me Argentina, were some of the highlights of the first segment of the concert.

Tissaratchy’s voice suited the role of Evita and I wish some of the leads that performed her role recently at the Lionel Wendt would have been there to witness the high degree of the control and power that Tissaratchy brought to the stage.

The young organist who performed with much gusto and vigour added colour to the first segment of the concert.

Some of the organ pieces included Mc Namara’s Band - Bing Cosby 1945,Whistle while you work from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – 1937. A significant aspect of the performance was four-year-olds who played the part of seven dwarfs.

‘Besame mucho’ was followed, thereafter, rendering it a yet another different percussion shade gradually turning into ‘Sway’. Both songs were originally released in 1939 and in 1953 respectively. The tempo reached to a crescendo when ‘In the mood’ originally released in 1937, was played.

From the very commencement, the concert had lived up to its theme ‘Beats and Bars’ and it was, in fact, celebration of ‘beats and bars’ in style. Every type of beats were exploited by the performers.

The final segments of the concert was as alive and robust if not more energetic than the first segment. It commenced with an exceptional rendition of Edelweiss by 4 -6 aged group children in white dresses with pastel colored bands which was indeed conspicuous.

Renditions

A couple of solos were performed by the senior organ students and they were exceptional in their renditions. Most of the time, five organs played the same song in harmony. However, it must be pointed out that each student playing a different part at the same time is no easy task.

Climb every mountain from the Sound of music was performed well by the soloist and was joined by some of the senior girls towards the end of the song blending together in harmony.What a wonderful world and Somewhere over the rainbow were performed with perfect embellishments by the intermediate age group.

Deshith Gamage’s rendition of ‘I am yours’ was electrifying as he brought a lot of feeling to it which was followed by Roshana Tissaratchy’s dramatic version of ‘On my own’ from Les Miserables.

Another song, one of the favorites of the audience was the Sinhala song Piyabanna asai performed by Danica Lopez and was followed by the highlight of all soloists with Milindri Panditha’s rendition of I will survive with senior girls dancing to it showcasing their versatility brought the second segment of the concert to an end prior to the curtain call.

Thirty-three items packed into a performance was a feat by itself not forgetting that the show started at 7 pm and ended by 9 pm with a 15 minute intermission shows that the entire show was well choreographed unlike some of the more professional concerts that don’t start on time and end up close to midnight.

Thaveesha Lindsay-White, expressing her feelings said, “practices were fun and we did not feel time passing since we all love music and each and everyone of us were all amongst our friends. Frankly I felt good to be a part of a show where the proceeds were donated to the Ceylon school of the deaf and blind.

There is no interesting moment in particular as every moment during practices were interesting with so much going on. I believe the most interesting practice was the dress rehearsal where we actually saw how we would look like on the day of the show and watching little excited kids running here and there as fast as they could to make sure they will not miss their items .

Performance

Githara Gunawardena, young girl of 10 years, remarked “The performance felt great because I love to sing in any case and the songs were great, it was fun singing them with my friends.

The practice schedule was fine, because we actually stuck to it and so I was able to handle my homework and other activities without a problem.

Lushani Dassanayake, a parent said that she was inspired by Ishan’s performances and admitted her children to the school. Apart from improving her children’s skills in singing, the class also built her children much-needed self-confidence.

Principals and Directors of the show Shyama Perera, Swasha Perera and Ishan de Lanerolle should be commended for bringing out the talents of the young children through aprofessional performance and improving children’s performing skills.