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| Ananda Samarakone | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ananda Samarakone |
| Born | January 13, 1911 |
| Origin | Sri Lanka |
| Died | April 5, 1962 |
| Genre(s) | Sri Lankan music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-Songwriter |
| Years active | 1940 – 1962 |
Ananda Samarakone (1911 – 1962) was a Sri Lankan composer and musician. He composed the Sri Lankan national anthem "Sri Lanka Matha" and is considered the father of artistic Sinhala music, and founder of the modern geeta sahitya.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Life and career
[edit] Early life
Samarakone was born George Wilfred Alwis to a Christian family in Padukka,in Ceylon, on January 13, 1911 in Sri Lanka. In 1936,He had his primary and secondary education at Christian College ,Kotte,presently known as Sri Jayawardenapura M.V.Kotte.His Sinhala Guru was Pandit D.C.P. Gamalathge.Later he served his Alma mater as a teacher of Music and Art. Samarakone left for Santiniketan in India to study art and music. After six months he abandoned his studies and returned to Sri Lanka, and changed his name to Ananda Samarakone, embracing Buddhism[1].
He was strongly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore while in India and his fascination and the desire to imitate the great Indian musician would go on to take him in the direction of creating a musical tradition for the Sri Lankan people.
[edit] Composer
In 1937, the popular music of Sri Lanka consisted of songs derived from the North Indian Ragadhari music. These songs lyrics often contained meaningless phrases with little or no literary merit. Samarakone set out to create a form of a music that can be classified as Sri Lanka's own and came out with the song Endada Menike (1940) that paved the foundation for the artistic Sinhala music.
The love themed song unfolds in the form of a dialogue between a young village boy and a girl. It, poetic and beautifully rustic, became a success and Samarakone followed it with a string of successful songs in the early to mid 1940s, the period considered his golden age. Among his best known works are:
- Podimal Etano
- Vilay Malak Pipila
- Poson Pohoda
- Asay madura
- Sunila Guvanay
- Punchi Suda
- nilvala Gangay
- Sumano
- Pudamu Kusum
- Siri Saru Saara Ketay
[edit] Painter
In 1945 Samarakone's only son died at the age of five and the grieving Samarakoon left Sri Lanka for India where he pursued a painting career and held eleven art exhibitions there. Though his painting were critically acclaimed, he returned to music in 1951 back in Sri Lanka.
During Samarakone's stay in India, one of his early compositions, Namo Namo Mata (composed in 1940, recorded in 1946) was nominated as the national anthem and was officially adopted by the State as the Sri Lankan national anthem in 1952. Critics attacked Namo Namo Mata, particularly the "Gana" significance of the introductory words (Namo Namo Matha) which designate disease and ill luck. Samarakone was not a believer in "Gana", and the criticism caused him to write numerous articles counter attacking his critics to defend his composition. However, without his consent, the introductory words were changed to "Sri Lanka Mathaa" so that the "Gana" significance now would designate victory and prosperity.
[edit] Death
On April 5, 1962, at the age of fifty one, Samarakone committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping tablets.
Samarakone's legacy lives on in his music and in the musical style he created.
[edit] Relatives
Ananda Samarakone is related to the great teacher Mr. Victor Samarakone who teaches at the prestigious Bergen County Academies as an Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) teacher. Mr. Samarakone is one of the greatest, prolific, and most proficient teachers to ever teach, been hired, or to even exist at the Academies and is admired for his intense teaching ethics, his accent, and mostly for his incredibly incessant use of the word "actually" (pronounced AK-shü-lee). He is also well known for his pronunciation of the word "Yahoo" (pronounced ya-HAO). In his technology classes, which are noted for his long speeches, the World Wide Web, better known as the "WWW," has become the "WW".
The element Samarium was named after him for receiving a Nobel Prize and for his work in the elements and their relation to manufacturing using various software programs. Some science students have stated they have found an element with 164 protons (which is the number of his classroom), to be named "Samarakonium." However, since such an element would exist right in the Sea of Instability, it is unlikely whether an atom of Samarakonium will be synthesized.
Mr. Samarakone is also known for his hatred against most freshmen males and his love for busty females pursuing engineering. He commonly gives students A's in his class, even if they are very bad students and fail every test. A failing grade in his class is an A- or lower. Mr. Samarakone is also known for his ridiculously easy tests on material he did not teach, especially concepts introduced in Autodesk Inventor 2009.
Because of his infamy, the administration of Bergen County Academies has recognized his ability, and his income is quite comparable to professional surgeons.
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