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| Pics by Chandana Wijesinghe |
Many critics and scholars are of the view that songs of the new
generation are contemptible and meaningless. Melody has been replaced by
loud and spiritless music, they say. Some even predict the complete
downfall of the music industry. But there is this one man who sees
things differently. “We cannot say that there are no good songs or good
song writers. There are some who are better than those of the older
generation. Some are worse. Everyone begins as amateurs, after all. It
is the media’s responsibility to choose what should be broadcasted. If
you say you hear bad quality songs, it is the weakness of that channel.
That’s what Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe has to say about the issue.
Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe is a man of many talents. He is not only a lyricist, but also an experienced senior journalist. He started his career as a journalist while still in school, due to the influence of his father Wimal Weerasinghe who was also a renowned journalist and a newspaper editor. “Once I wrote a short story about a depressed young boy who was sad because someone stole bittergourd from his garden. It ended in a suicide. My father told me not to write negatively. It is true that my father pushed me into journalism but he always pointed out faults, even when I when I was working for him” he added.
His lyrics have stood the test of time. Even as people remember and appreciate the older lyrics he comes up with new ones for younger artists. H R Jothipala, Punsiri Soyza, Latha Walpola, Gunadasa Kapuge, T M Jayarathna, Vijaya Kumarathunge, Victor Ratnayake, and Sunil Edirisinghe to Madumadawa Aravinda, Samitha Mudunkotuwa, Chamika Sirimanna, Nilupuli Dilhara and Nalinda Ranasinghe make a wide spectrum of singers, after all. He was recently honored with the State Literary Award for the Best Lyrics Collection for his second lyrics book ‘Sanduni’.
According
to him, a good song is a combination of a good lyricist, a talented
composer and a suitable voice: ‘A proper combination creates a proper
output. There are voices which are suitable for specific types of
songs. Not all voices are made to sing love songs, and not all
devotional songs. Anyone can love, anyone can have romantic thoughts but
if a love song isn’t sung by a romantic voice it will be like monitor
lizard’s skin, very rough.’He denied that song writers become framed
when they have to write to a given tune. “A song writer should be
capable of writing a song for a tune and a composer must be capable of
creating a tune to a written song. If you say a lyricist is constrained
when they write to a composed tune, then you must say a composer is
constrained when he creates a tune for a lyric,” he explained.
For him a song is not just a piece of literature but something which goes far beyond than that: ‘A song has a literary aspect. But it is an art that goes beyond. If you read the lyrics it is literature. When you listen it is not. You cannot get the complete feeling when you read out loud the lyrics of a song. There has to be the music and the singer’s voice to get the complete feeling. Lyrics should have flow. You can also “sing” a news story in a rhythmic manner, but that won’t be a song.’
Like many lyricists, he didn’t have positive things to say about royalties. ‘Sirasa makes the royalty payments in an organized way. All the others make symbolic payments. This was one of the main reasons of establishing the Outstanding Song Creator’s Association (OSCA) Sri Lanka. Measures to charge a royalty fee on the commercial use of local artists’ creations was implemented under the Intellectual Property Act of Sri Lanka. But there are loopholes in the law,’ he lamented.
He is also very critical about certain programs: ‘There are some children’s reality shows where kids perform songs that are not suitable for their age. It destroys their childhood.’He said that the journalist within him is ready to retire. “I did new things to the field, introduced guidelines, got fired, left newspapers, rejoined and left again. Once I got fired from a newspaper where the cause of termination was ‘terminated’. Now that enthusiasm is gone. I don’t find the same freedom in the media now,” he lamented.
“Earlier newspapers were editor based, now its owner based. Politics rules. I have to maintain my individuality, so I will say good bye to journalism.’ “It is measured according to his work. A person cannot be taught to write songs. He could be taught to read, write or to sing, but not to write songs. Do what you do. At some point you will understand that you are an expert” he advised the new generation of lyric writers in conclusion.
http://www.nation.lk/edition/fine/item/11613-%E2%80%98i-will-be-a-lyricist-to-the-end%E2%80%99.html?iframe=true&width=90%&height=90%
Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe is a man of many talents. He is not only a lyricist, but also an experienced senior journalist. He started his career as a journalist while still in school, due to the influence of his father Wimal Weerasinghe who was also a renowned journalist and a newspaper editor. “Once I wrote a short story about a depressed young boy who was sad because someone stole bittergourd from his garden. It ended in a suicide. My father told me not to write negatively. It is true that my father pushed me into journalism but he always pointed out faults, even when I when I was working for him” he added.
His lyrics have stood the test of time. Even as people remember and appreciate the older lyrics he comes up with new ones for younger artists. H R Jothipala, Punsiri Soyza, Latha Walpola, Gunadasa Kapuge, T M Jayarathna, Vijaya Kumarathunge, Victor Ratnayake, and Sunil Edirisinghe to Madumadawa Aravinda, Samitha Mudunkotuwa, Chamika Sirimanna, Nilupuli Dilhara and Nalinda Ranasinghe make a wide spectrum of singers, after all. He was recently honored with the State Literary Award for the Best Lyrics Collection for his second lyrics book ‘Sanduni’.
According
to him, a good song is a combination of a good lyricist, a talented
composer and a suitable voice: ‘A proper combination creates a proper
output. There are voices which are suitable for specific types of
songs. Not all voices are made to sing love songs, and not all
devotional songs. Anyone can love, anyone can have romantic thoughts but
if a love song isn’t sung by a romantic voice it will be like monitor
lizard’s skin, very rough.’He denied that song writers become framed
when they have to write to a given tune. “A song writer should be
capable of writing a song for a tune and a composer must be capable of
creating a tune to a written song. If you say a lyricist is constrained
when they write to a composed tune, then you must say a composer is
constrained when he creates a tune for a lyric,” he explained. For him a song is not just a piece of literature but something which goes far beyond than that: ‘A song has a literary aspect. But it is an art that goes beyond. If you read the lyrics it is literature. When you listen it is not. You cannot get the complete feeling when you read out loud the lyrics of a song. There has to be the music and the singer’s voice to get the complete feeling. Lyrics should have flow. You can also “sing” a news story in a rhythmic manner, but that won’t be a song.’
Like many lyricists, he didn’t have positive things to say about royalties. ‘Sirasa makes the royalty payments in an organized way. All the others make symbolic payments. This was one of the main reasons of establishing the Outstanding Song Creator’s Association (OSCA) Sri Lanka. Measures to charge a royalty fee on the commercial use of local artists’ creations was implemented under the Intellectual Property Act of Sri Lanka. But there are loopholes in the law,’ he lamented.
He is also very critical about certain programs: ‘There are some children’s reality shows where kids perform songs that are not suitable for their age. It destroys their childhood.’He said that the journalist within him is ready to retire. “I did new things to the field, introduced guidelines, got fired, left newspapers, rejoined and left again. Once I got fired from a newspaper where the cause of termination was ‘terminated’. Now that enthusiasm is gone. I don’t find the same freedom in the media now,” he lamented.
“Earlier newspapers were editor based, now its owner based. Politics rules. I have to maintain my individuality, so I will say good bye to journalism.’ “It is measured according to his work. A person cannot be taught to write songs. He could be taught to read, write or to sing, but not to write songs. Do what you do. At some point you will understand that you are an expert” he advised the new generation of lyric writers in conclusion.
http://www.nation.lk/edition/fine/item/11613-%E2%80%98i-will-be-a-lyricist-to-the-end%E2%80%99.html?iframe=true&width=90%&height=90%
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