Distinctive Features of Traditional Singing in Sri Lanka

Abstract

It is evident that Sri Lankan musicologists have mainly used the meanings of traditional folk poetry/verses and the occasions on which they are sung to categorize them. The authors of this paper attempt to introduce a classification that can be used according to the characteristics of the melody/pitches, focusing on seepada, currently only known as a poetic stanza in Sinhala folk songs. The authors explain the distinctive features of seepada identified employing yathi and the notion of ‘Cents’, a logarithmic unit used for measuring musical intervals, and reveal those characteristics, acknowledging seepada as a traditional singing style unique to Sri Lanka. Suggestions for sustaining this fading art form are presented in this article including the urgent need for action by stakeholders to preserve the identity of traditional Sinhala folk songs, music and melodies of Sri Lanka.