Musical Autobiography

I was born into a country where music is traditionally not of the western-music culture. Situated in the Indian Ocean, just below India, Sri Lanka is rich in its own cultural heritage and the music of this island relates closely to the eastern-musical tradition which is also known as oriental music. Even though I was influenced by the music of Asia from an early age, I mostly grew up listening to Mozart and Beethoven. My family had a strong background in western classical music and my grandfather exposed me to it since I was four years old. It is only when I began to go to school and reached fourth grade that I began to learn about the music of my own country and culture. I studied the words of folksongs and learnt how to sing some. I sang songs in the two languages native to my country, Sinhala and Tamil. I began to understand more about Sri Lankan music and its different styles. I learnt that some of these styles were very different to those found in the western music tradition.
I feel that both western music as I know it and non-western music have had an equally important role to play in my life as a musician. Both styles although they seem worlds apart in some ways, have been strongly connected with one another. When I was fifteen years old, my piano teacher told me I was ready to begin learning a second musical instrument. At that time I had a deep fascination with the western flute, so I decided to study the flute as a second instrument. However,I realized that my idea of learning the flute needed to be pushed back until I was in a position to purchase an instrument for my own. This led me to doing research about what opportunities were available in my school to study a wind instrument. I found out that my school “Hewisi Band” (name used for oriental music band) needed musicians to play the wooden Sri Lankan flute. Through studying the Sri Lankan flute which is made out of “bamboo” I was able to learn more about the Sinhalese scale. It follows the idea of “Do-re-mi-fa….etc.” but had different syllabus for each pitch. (“Sa-ri-ga-ma…”etc.) Studying the Sri Lankan flute prepared me for the western flute my grandfather gifted to me three years later.
I feel the connection between these two cultures even more strongly today, as I stand as an aspiring composer. Music truly is a universal language where diverse cultures can be brought together. By understanding the music of a culture that is not of our own, we can get a deeper understanding of the people related to that culture. I often try to include a touch of my own culture when I am composing music. I feel that I am truly expressing myself when I combine my roots with the western music that I have been studying all my life. Using differences and combining contrasting ideas to create unity: to me, this is what music is all about.