World Music Workshop in South Korea.
Cast: The Outside Track, Claire Memory Orchestra, Pradeep Ratnayake, Barbara Furtuna, Muzykanci, Hasan Hujairi
Time & Date: 14:00 Oct 07(Wed) ~ 11(Sun)
Venue: Cypress Forest behind the Sori Arts Center of Jeollbuk-do
Time & Date: 11:00, 16:00, Oct 09(Fri)
Venue: Yeomyeong Camera Museum, Hanok Village
Photo credit: Akiko Uesugi
Pradeep Ratnayake performed at Yeonji Hall, Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do, Jeonju, South Korea on 10th of October, 2015. The event also featured Hwang Byeonggi who is Gayageum master of composition and performance broadening the horizon of Korean music with only the gayageum and Satoh Masahiko, Modern jazz piano master having a wide musical spectrum. Pradeep wove a vivid web of sitar based on Sri Lanka’s traditional melodies.
Pradeep Ratnayake and Masahiko Satoh at the Korean Education Broadcasting Service – taking their music to the world.
The “Sri Lankan launch” of the CD “SERENDIP” by Pradeep Ratnayake & Masahiko Satoh will be held on the 10th of September 2015, at the Lionel Wendt Theater at 7 p.m. This CD was also released in Japan, in 25th of July this year.
For this film, I got the Best Music Director Award at the Signis Award Ceremony in Sri Lanka. I have experimented with styles from different parts of the world to get particular effects on this film, for example – I have used choral work with a male choir to create the feeling of church music and used an instrument from West Bengal called the Ek Tar (one string) to get the folk and a rural environment in the film.
In this film I experimented with music software and used music technology to prove that by using music technology in the correct way, you can get the real orchestral effect comparable to natural musical instruments.
I have used Logic Pro 9 Music software and for the instruments, I used the East West Quantum Leap music software. This enabled me to get the real after touch effects and dynamics of the musical instruments in a symphony orchestra like Strings, Woodwind, Brass and Percussion. I used the M Audio midi keyboard Axiom Pro.
In this film it was a challenge for me to get the all the ‘Rasas’ like shanta, and create very deep emotional music with music software.
According to my knowledge, this is the first Sri Lankan movie done with music software. The reason I had to do experiments with music soft ware is there were no music studios big enough in our country to put in a symphonic orchestra. Therefore I learnt how to handle this music technology in Columbia University, New York, where I studied on a Fulbright Scholarship from 2008 – 2010.
The result of this work, I got the Best Music Director award for the film in the International Buddhist Film Festival organized by the United Nations in Vietnam in 2014, and out of 70 films and 44 countries including Japan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam for the final round. This is the first ever international film music award given to a Sri Lankan composer.
In this CD I have tried to show all performing techniques and research done among all the musical styles of Sri Lanka: Indian ragas, Sri Lankan folk, Indian folk, fusion music, popular music, choral music, south Indian music. I have also experimented with Western, Sri Lankan, North Indian and South Indian instruments. The main characteristics of this music is there were no words in any of the compositions. Though this is not what Sri Lankan people are used to, those who experienced this at the BMICH gave it a standing ovation at the end.
In this C.D., I have experimented in 2 ways:
This is an experimental research and I have shown that the sitar is the closest instrument to the human voice and that it can play any pitch that a singer can sing – for example, it can play in C major, E flat major, F major, and G major. It is not easy to do so, in fact it was a real challenge for the sitar to transfer the pitches and play the exact pitch that C.T. Fernando sings in.
In this CD, I have used all acoustic musical instruments and show the popular music styles that can be played on the sitar and also how fast moving songs also can played in this instrument.
For this I have used only the Shadaj panchama sitar, which produces the closest sound to the human voice, and not the Gandhara panchama sitar, which is not close to the human voice. For example in India, the gandhara panchama sitar is used for film songs but up to now it has rarely been used as an instrumental to play the main melody of a film song.
This CD is based on North Indian Classical Ragas. I am playing two Indian ragas in the traditional style and techniques of the Maihar Gharana. The tabla accompaniment is by Nitin Mitta, Indian tablist based in New York. The rhythmic framework is rupak and teental. Here, while improvising, I play deferent layakaris, tanas and tihais.
