Tony Donaldson
From 1946 to the end of his life in 1981, the composer Sunil Santha pioneered a modern Sinhala song style and form which the film director, actor, and scriptwriter Tissa Abeysekera describes as ‘the most atavistic of all art forms’ in Sri Lanka. To commemorate the centenary of Sunil Santha’s 100th birth anniversary in April 2015, this article examines his search for a music language and defines some fundamental characteristics of his music. Readers should note that the version posted earlier on the 23rd February 2015 was an initial draft (generated by a computer quirk) which is now superseded by this version — so copies of the former should be replaced. The initial print version can be found in The Ceylankan 2015.
In an essay published in 1906 in the Journal of the Ceylon University Association, the art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy made a plea for the teaching of Indian music in Ceylon. Along with his contemporaries, he complained that Western music was invading indigenous music and based on the assumption that Sinhala music did not exist, he attempted to segregate Western from indigenous music by arguing that the best method for reviving indigenous music was through Indian music. In his view, the notion that Sinhala music could be independent of India was unthinkable and impossible. But what was thought impossible in 1906 was made possible forty years later, when the composer and recording artist Sunil Santha began to search for a music language independent of Indian music for his songs. Continue reading
