Rāgadhāri Musical Influence of Radio Operas in Sri Lanka; With Special Reference to ‘Ulpata Gīta Nātakaya’

Abstract

Ulpata Gīta Nātakaya is a Radio opera in Sri Lanka. It was broadcast in 1958. Radio Opera is an independent musical genre in Sri Lanka. Sri Chandrarathna Manawasinghe is the playwright of this Opera. The music composers of this opera are W.D. Amaradeva and P. Dunston de Silva. The objectives of this study are to identify how the Rāga concept has been used in composing songs; to investigate the contemporary situations, which affected to create the musical content of the Ulpatha Radio opera on the Indian music tradition. Accordingly, the research problem of this study was how to identify the utilization of Indian Rāgadhāri music of the Ulpatha Gīta Nātakaya. This study was done under the qualitative approach. Listening to the original audio recordings and semi- structured interviews were used under primary data sources. Journals, scholarly articles and secondary books were used under the secondary sources. Data analysis was done using qualitative methods. This study revealed that melodies associated with North Indian Rāgadhāri music were used for the content of the Ulpatha Radio Opera. Some melodies are inspired by one raga and others have a mix of several ragas. These melodies can be identified as creative independent melodies, which are associated with ragas. There are several reasons for the use of Rāgadhāri melodies in the background of the play 'Ulpatha' as a creation, which has a local identity. It seems that the socio-cultural factors such as the background of the Indian music education of the composers and the consideration of Indian music as a great tradition have influenced it. Accordingly, the Ulpatha Radio Opera can be identified as a creation with a unique musical usage.