Nisadas

I’ve always been a big fan of choral music. Not being able to carry a tune in a bucket, I always admired how people could create such powerful art with their voices. Then again, being somewhat a philistine, perhaps I’m just miscategorising some of my favourite music.

Mainly, my favourites have been the likes of Lebo M and Enya, with Celtic Woman and Il Divo coming up with some pretty impressive performances, which I can share with you thanks to the wonders of that thing called YouTube.

But more interesting are the accapella titles that I came across on Youtube (Papareboy, it is total coincidence that you have discovered many of these yourself). There’s a whole lot of people, of whom I only mention a few in Daiyel, Nayamarie, Sam Tsui and Corey Vidal who combine their singing abilities (and beatboxing capacity) with the digital editing facilities of modern day computers to create some amazing music themselves.

Lebo M has Disney popularizing his songs (contributing to the Lion King would’ve certainly helped him), while Celtic Woman, Enya and Il Divo clearly benefit from the more traditional music promotions. I mean, I don’t think a lot of people can afford to set up a concert at a Roman Coliseum. But thanks to the personal publishing facility available with personal computers today and content delivery channels like YouTube, other people can showcase their talents and create their own fan following.

I’m surprised that our very own Revelations and Soul Sounds don’t have too many performances of their own online. Actually, the Revelations do have some good quality uploads, but the ones of Soul Sounds IMHO don’t do justice to those ladies.

Whereas uploads from Bodyrock or HotForWords seem to have no trouble gathering viewers, it would seem that their job might be just a little bit easier.

There’s always the chance for people to make money off viral videos on Youtube but it all depends on how many subscribers you get. Given the creativity of our fellow Lankans, I’m hoping to see more of it coming out.

Lebo M – One by One

Celtic Woman – May it be

Il Divo – Amazing Grace

Il Divo – Amazing Grace / RUS from ILDIVORUS on Vimeo.

The Revelations – Brown Eyed Girl

Daiyel – Yesterday (Boyz II Men version cover)

Nayamarie – Lady Gaga Medley:

Sam Tsui – Micheal Jackson Medley

Corey Vidal – an irreverant but relevant tribute to the great John Williams

So there’s this little segment on radio called “The first step” or something of that sort. It involves a particular phrase being said in all three main Sri Lankan languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English.

It’s a good thing certainly and most of the phrases are likely to come in handy. Except that since I’m concentrating on driving, I don’t really remember most of them.

Except for one.

The lady says in Sinhala : ???? ???? ???? (Oyata call ekak – there’s a call for you)
Then some guy says in tamil the same thing in Thamil, except he uses the real Thamil words (my knowledge of the language is rudimentary, but it involved something like Ungalukku Tholeikasu Pesi)

That’s interesting because “????” isn’t even proper Sinhala – it’s the english word expressed in Sinhala. The right term would be “?????? ???????” (Durakathana Amathumak – phone call). Why complicate the Thamil version when it’s most likely that speakers of both languages would slip into using the easier english word? Especially since that word would be understood definitely by both of them (which is quite fascinating in itself – how ubiquituous English is in our daily lives).

This struck me as especially interesting when I was talking to an Indian colleague today – he was telling me about his driver teaching himm how to say good morning and good night. Of course, the driver had used the original Sinhala words – “??? ???????”(subha udhaesanak) and “??? ??????????” (subha raathriyak) – which my colleague found helpful due to their similarity to Sanskrit. Of course, I explained that no one really uses those terms anymore and the usual greetings are in English. Turns out, most people in India don’t really use purely Hindi while speaking, slipping in quite a few English words as they go.

The last time I heard anyone speak pure Sinhala was when we had Sathischandra Edirisinghe deliver a lecture at a workshop I attended.

Purists will shudder and thunder about the pollution of the language, but can that really be avoided in this day and age? With the proliferation of communication technology and all that jazz about the world getting flatter and smaller, there’s going to invariably be mixing. If that means we can all understand each other a little better – is that really a bad thing?