There’s a story related by a journalist who was associated with a Sinhala newspaper. He had once gone to interview someone. The person concerned had asked him several times if indeed he (the journalist) worked for the said newspaper. The reason was simple. The particular newspaper had never thought it fit to carry any feature about this person for reasons best known to those who had the decision-making power in that newspaper.
Lionel Ranwala never sought publicity. His work was his advertisement. He was not a glamour-seeker and never hobnobbed with the so-called ‘glamourous’. It is possible that some saw in him an arrogance that was insufferable. It is possible that he was seen to be proud and distant. Some thought apparently that he was not ‘classical’ enough and that said more about their understanding of what’s classical and what’s not than about Ranwala.
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| Lionel Ranwala |
Today, Lionel Ranwala’s name is always heard whenever there is any discussion about Sri Lankan folk music. He actively sought and documented folk songs, categorized and popularized them. Today, his son Sahan, continues the pioneering work undertaken by his father. Thanks to people like Lionel Ranwala we have a better understanding of what a rich folk art tradition we are heirs to, for it was not only melody but lyric as well that he ascribed currency to.
It’s all recorded now. In 1997 when his younger son Sahan had passed his O-L, Ranwala had asked what he would like as a present. Sahan, noting how effective his father’s lectures on music were when he used folk songs, had asked him to collect his (the father’s) songs and put out an album. That’s how Ahase Innavalu came into being. It was launched on the old man’s 60th birthday (November 27, 1999). Gama Avulagngnang was to come out on his 63rd birthday, but Lionel Ranwala met with a tragic accident and died a few days before. It was launched a year later. Two subsequent albums were produced by the foundation his sons helped start: Yuddetath Avith and Podi Ayata Jana Gee.
Ranwala’s research revealed the rich diversity of our folk music and especially how most modern forms were anticipated by our musical ancestors.
The flexibility and freedom of expression evident is our traditional music is truly amazing and speaks of a culture that placed great value on creativity, innovation, exploration and experimentation. Ranwala gave us pride and if he was proud he had a right to be so.
There’s ‘rap’ in our drums, drum beats, the bera pada, the mantara, the tika seepada. There’s rap in the ditty that almost every Sinhala child knows, athuru mithuru dambadivathuru raaja kapuru settiya... There’s education in our folk songs. They taught the young child courage; the athinniya (she-elephant) runs away in fear of the baby, for example: babuta baye duwanniya. You learn the folk songs and at the end of it all you’ve learnt a lot about paddy cultivation. Education was a song and not a curse as it should be, Sahan is wont to say: Adyaapanaya vaathayak nemei, geethayak.
Today would have been his 71st birthday. Today, his son and his students will be present when the last song that Lionel Ranwala wrote, composed melody for and arranged the music, is officially launched.
Rae elivena thuru or ‘Until the night is done’ was written a few weeks before this remarkable man left us. Thankfully his work, the traditions he helped unearth and give new life-lease to, remain. The song will be launched this morning at 9.30 at the Gangarama Temple.
It is based on the ‘Samudraghosha Viritha’, according to Sahan, the livewire of the Lionel Ranwala Padanama.
It is as it should be: men die, their work live on. Traditions outlive their champions and exponents. Lionel Ranwala would not have claimed that these art forms would have perished had he not done what he did. They would have been weak indeed if that kind of fate awaited these traditions. We are fortunate, nevertheless.
I’ve listened to these songs and even when it is for the first time it feels as though I’ve known them all my life.
Our ancestors live in us in some form or another, as remnant and life-thread. It awakens us to who we are and therefore inspire us to become who we want to be.
A little prompting helps. That’s a small part of what Lionel Ranwala achieved in his lifetime. Good to remember. Especially today.
Courtesy - Daily News By Malinda
