Charming in Calypso?

In 1965 they competed as ‘Dharmaratne Brothers’ in an all-island singing competition organized by Methodist College Kollupitiya and made an impression among masses. Eventually Christie and Maxwell the other two brothers in the family too joined the bandwagon to fulfil their beloved mother’s wish and the rest was history.

Dharmaratne Brothers rocked the country for over five decades with their soothing music and were loved by the masses.

A hale and hearty Melroy Dharmaratne who would complete 60 years in showbiz in just another three years spoke with the Daily News T&C.

Q: What made the Calypso style of music so popular in our country in the eras of 1960 and 1970?

This music style was popularized in our country initially by Los Caballeros music group. Late Neville Fernando pioneered it in our country. Los Caballeros had the influence of Latin American, Spanish, Italian groups singing Calypso style songs. I however prefer to call it ‘Group songs’ because in Sri Lanka we sang group songs (Kandayam Gee) and not Calypso. This was different from Calypso type music and was more bent towards our own folk songs (Jana Gee).

Q: Back then ‘Dharmaratne Brothers’ believed in acoustic and traditional hand drum (Rabana) while many pop bands resorted to guitars, percussive instruments and Congo drums.

Yes, that’s true. We were the first to use our traditional RABANA in group music which is being used for Viridu songs. All the others used African drum which was called Congo. Also when many group singers in this country sang Latin American, Spanish, Italian songs, Dharmaratne Brothers bequeathed listeners with a flavour of traditional folk songs. We were the first music group to play traditional folk instrument Udakkiya in one of our recordings. The song was Sura Sardiel.

Q: Tell us a bit about the Sooriya Show and Gerald Wickremesooriya.

Sooriya Shoe was the most popular musical show in Colombo in late 1960s and 1970s. Brainchild of the show was late Mr Gerald Wickremesooriya, the founder and proprietor of SOORIYA Records. His show catered to the tastes of a vast audience ranging from eight years to 80 years. Many popular and upcoming artists, musicians performed live on stage to packed audiences and Vijaya Corea was the compere. Often there were repeat shows due to heavy demand.

Wickremesooriya was a man of vision and a born marketer who spotted the talents of budding artists before they came into limelight. He helped and nurtured them until they bloomed and flourished.

Q: What made Calypso and acoustic music fade away paving way for electronic music?

Calypso, acoustic music or group songs trend did not just fade away. Some authorities at SLBC took measures to suppress it by banning and bringing limitations to broadcasting those on air stating that it was harmful to our Sinhala Music tradition.

Group singers were badly affected by this move and many artistes left the shore searching for employment. Few who remained too didn’t do any new creations and were just performing in restaurants, hotels to keep group singing alive.

But in 1990 group songs revived with a few remaining members. A brand new show called ‘Stars of 70s’ was initiated by Annesley Malewana, of Moonstones fame.

If proper recognition and due publicity is given in TV and FM channels, group songs could be revived to the past glorious position.

Q: Apart from being a singer and a musician, you are also a journalist, novelist, lyricist and a playwright.

While studying at St.Benedict’s College I was an active member of school literary activities and wrote and produced many plays and won awards. I began my writing career by contributing cinema articles to then popular KALA cinema magazine in 1964.

At their inception the Dharmaratne Brothers were compelled to write their own lyrics. The first lyric I wrote was Wessa Wahinawa. But before it was recorded we recorded Kalakata Pera Ae Bethlehem (Sinhala version of a famous English song by Nena and Fredrick) at SLBC. We wrote and composed many songs on mother nature and environment.

As of today I have written about 100 songs and composed melodies for numerous songs. I have composed songs and directed music for two films namely Pathini (1978) and Wes Walagath Tharuni (1986).

I wrote my first Sinhala Novel titled ‘Malawunge Kathawak’ in 1971 and up to date have written and published 10 novels apart from writing many serialized stories to various publications in the island.

Q: You have composed melodies for H R Jothipala.

Jothi for me was a versatile singer with inborn talents. His pronunciations of words in a song were much clearer than many male singers and he had the habit of improvising the melody of the song when singing.

I have composed melodies for him which became very popular in our country. They were; Oba Nidanna, Durakathanayakin, Malin Piri Giya, Mal Ethano, Gangawai, Sayonara.

Jothi changed his reputation as a singer of original melodies by recording these songs.

Q: What are your views on contemporary music and prevailing new genres of music?

I observe a lot of improvisations and experiments being done in music arrangements now. New generation has the necessary facilities, modern equipment, technical knowledge and support which were lacking in our times. It’s an innumerable opportunity to create quality songs and music. But unfortunately only very few good creations are being done.

I strongly consider that the melody is the backbone of a song and musical arrangements are only an outer dress to decorate it. If your song does not have a catchy melody to attract the listener it’s merely a waste.

Q: What do you think of digital music?

It has both good and bad effects on our music.

In the 1960s we had a spool type recording system and limited tracks were available for a song recording. There were few recording microphones available and many musicians had to rally around them and play their instruments. Even groups like Dharmaratne Brothers had to sing to one microphone which was very difficult because we were singing three-part harmony.

With the introduction of digital system it has become very much easy and comfortable to singers, musicians and recordists. With so many tracks, one can do wonders.

Q: Why are the simplicity, feel and smoothness in music and singing, fast diminishing now?

Lyrics of a song should be simple because a song is for listening pleasure and not for reading purposes like poems. Melody of a song should depict the meaning of the song and arouse satisfaction. Music arrangement must harmonize with the melody not overlapping it. In many new songs we see roughness, ruggedness and distracting sounds. Also new singers should pronounce words with clarity.