All of us have been wounded and carry secret pain in our hearts. We need to feel that someone understands and cares. The language of music is universal around the world. All humans feel the need to connect with love and language and music. Playing music with others, even strangers provides a feeling of connection that is unparalleled.
Today’s managers are always wanting to “outsource” things. They talk about savings and partnerships and choice, while really they are trying to rid themselves of responsibility. If something has been outsourced, it is not the manager’s fault when it fails. In seeking to find “efficiencies,” whether, in a hospital or a music school, the managers must recruit collaborators from within. You can spot these people fairly easily in music. They are the ones who refer cheerfully to the “music business” – even the “music industry” – and who speak of “outcomes.” Real musicians don’t talk like that, though sometimes when trying to communicate with managers, they do edit themselves.
The trouble is that most managers have experience only of management, the bulk of our politicians have spent their whole lives in politics, and too many of our economists can do little more than count. When musicians talk to these people, then, we bang on about how music makes children smarter, how it generates jobs and how it boosts the economy.
Now I dare say all these things are true, but we speak in such terms principally because we think we may be heard. The most important reason for the proper funding of music and music education lies elsewhere and is harder to convey.
The arts, in general, are how we explain ourselves to each other and to future generations. Music is a unique and fundamental element of this, because being non-verbal, non-pictorial and, to all intents and purposes, non-representational, it is the most abstract of our arts. This is its chief glory. But when it comes to people who like to weigh and measure things and talk about efficiencies and outcomes, it is also a weakness.
Gamini Pathirana has earned a reputation as a radio vocalist and music director over the past three decades. A felicitation ceremony was organised to celebrate his so far journey. Pathirana first entered the mass pulse by singing HR Jothipala’s songs on public platforms at the request of the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
He has produced several original hits as well. They include Senehasa Obage Kelesa Patannada penned by George Robson de Silva, Oba Adararen Magen by Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe, Obata Nethido Denenne by Dr Ajantha Ranasinghe (a duet with Indrani Perera), Jeevithe Gevei Pare by Ananda Padmasiri and Sundara Davasaka by Erananda Hettiarachchi.
Pathirana has also composed music to Pempath Pura sung by Nirmala Ranatunga, Seetha Nil Sagare by Latha Walpola, Kandulu Duk Jeevithe by Anjalin Gunathilaka, and Pemmal Tatake by Uresha Ravihari. He has also established a music academy named Sipsara Kalayathana in Borella for anyone interested in the subject.
Pathirana has provided music on local as well as foreign platforms.
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