Features
Colombo’s most popular caricaturist in a bygone era
by Avishka Mario Senewiratne
With the passing of time, Lorenz did not have the time he would like to dedicate to the arts as before. The demand on his time in other fields such as in law and politics necessitated him to mainly if not totally focus on those aspects. However, his pencil and sketchbook never left his side. When inspiration struck him, out came a fine caricature. It has been over 150 years since his death and most of his once famous caricatures have been lost. A few have been reproduced as plates in some important publications over the last 100 years and preserved for posterity.
Caricatures have always been endearing pieces of art which have commented on sophisticated matters. In the dynasty of Lankan caricature artists such as J. L. K. van Dort, Bevis Bawa, Aubrey Collette, W. R. Wijesoma and Gihan de Chickera, C.A. Lorenz can be safely positioned as the ‘pioneer’.
One of the oldest surviving caricatures by Lorenz is that of the famous Wansapurna Dewage David (alias Gongalegoda Banda), leader of the 1848 Matale rebellion and pretender to the Kandyan throne. Upon being captured by the British, Gongalegoda Banda was brought to the Borella Criminal Gaol. It was here that Lorenz had the chance to see him and be inspired. Curious too. His pen did the rest. The result was a lovely caricature of the National hero. Perhaps the first and only live caricature of Banda.
This illustration was hitherto unknown for nearly 75 years until it was published in 1932 in G.K. Pippet’s A History of the Ceylon Police: Volume 1. Here it is mentioned that the illustration was in the possession of Dr. Andreas Nell, nephew of Lorenz’s wife, Eleanor. This sketch was signed and dated by Lorenz on March 3, 1849. Gongalegoda Banda would pass away later that year from a stomach ailment in Malacca where he was exiled.
When Lorenz and his wife left for England in 1853, he once again found some time on his hands as the voyage from Ceylon to Europe would take at least three months. Onboard the ship, Lorenz spent a lot of time drawing caricatures of the crew and various islands and features the ship sailed by. During the long trip to England, Mrs. Lorenz who was uncomfortable with the movements of the ship, fell ill quite often. Lorenz drew a few caricatures of her in this state captioning them as “cribbed, cabined and confined”.
After their arrival and briefly settling in England, Eleanor Lorenz began to regain her health. Lorenz did more illustrations of her. One was captioned as follows: “Ellen is literally rosy, and after a walk in the Park, comes home as red as a boiled crab, as if one could light one’s pipe at her nose.” (Blaze, p. 3)
Morgan and Lorenz caricatures
Sir Richard Morgan was one of Ceylon’s most beloved lawyers and legislators in the mid-19th century. A few years senior to Lorenz, he was one of the first to join the Colombo Academy (later Royal College) in its original batch. Lorenz and Morgan, who shared many interests and were on the same wavelength were great friends. In 1856, Morgan, while serving as the Burgher Member of the Legislative Council and Leader of the Unofficial Bar, was made District Judge of Colombo by Governor Sir Henry Ward. By this time, Morgan who had considerable power in the Colony and its affairs was nicknamed “Governor”. Overjoyed by his friend’s appointment to the high rank, Lorenz drafted the following brief note and caricature of himself celebrating Morgan’s appointment:
Hooray ! ! !
My dear Governor,
The language at my command couldn’t do it. But I’ve tried it in a sketch. So, I says Hooray again!
Yours very sincerely,
C. A. Lorenz
11th July, 1856
Sporting a beard then, upon hearing the news Lorenz leaps with joy. His top hat falls. The rooster crows ‘Hooray’ and the dog joins in the celebration. Sketch by Lorenz himself in 1856.
Caricatures in the Christmas Debates 1860-65
In a lecture on July 6, 1929, at the Dutch Burgher Union, E. H. Van der Wall says the following about Lorenz:
“Lorenz was as gifted with the artist’s pencil as with his pen. During the sittings of the Legislative Council, while pleading at the Bar, and even on the Bench at Chilaw, he often found a few moments for a humorous sketch of passing events. A few words of description or a few strokes with his pencil and the picture was true to life, for Lorenz had the unmistakable artist’s touch.” (Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union, Volume XIX, p. 58)
The debates were initially published in the Ceylon Examiner during 1860 and 1868, with the exception of 1862. Among Lorenz’s many literary pursuits, the Christmas Debates of 1860-65 are widely considered his magnum opus. A true masterpiece, this work printed in 1866 by John Maitland consists of five short reports of Debates and Council Meetings supposed to have taken place on Christmas Eve of each relevant year. Full of humour, wit and facts, the Christmas Debates is an endearing piece of work which was essentially enhanced by Lorenz’s sketches and skilful caricatures.
The then custodian of most Lorenziana, Guy O. Grenier published the Christmas Debates again in 1925 with some additions such as an introduction and blurbs by famous personalities praising them. In both books, the illustrations depicted were hand-pasted photographs of the sketches, possibly taken by W. H. Skeen & Co. in sepia tone and included with a blue circular border.
Personalities pre-eminent in the mid-19th century of Ceylon and who may be labelled as ‘legends’ such as Sir Richard Morgan, George Wall, Thomas Skinner, Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy, etc. as well as British officials like Governor Sir Charles MacCarthy and C. P. Layard are featured in the Christmas debates. The caricatures of these personalities bear an uncanny resemblance to them. It was known that when Lorenz had little work to do during the sittings of the Council or Committees, he would employ his time by sketching the members. Only those published in the Christmas Debates have survived up to today. In the 1866 preface to the Christmas Debates, Francis Fonseka, the printer of that volume comments as follows:
“The illustrations annexed to the said several Debates shall be deemed and construed to represent the person or persons, whom they are intended to represent, and no other”
This writer has made every effort to trace the identity of the 10 caricatures drawn by Lorenz by comparing them with photographs of certain members of the Legislature at that time. Lorenz did not caption the original sketches in the book. One must read the book through to understand what sort of an individual is depicted in the illustrations. However, without knowing what these personalities looked like in reality, it is hard to identify them. Sir Richard Morgan, who is included in the Christmas Debates as well as other illustrations by Lorenz, commented on this masterpiece of Lorenz as follows:
“When Christmas came around and relatives and friends met to express to each other the glad wishes of the Season, the Christmas Supplement of the Examiner; the Mock Council Debates, the rich songs and the richer jokes with which they abounded and his inimitable pen and ink sketches, the gift he had of hitting off a person at almost the first view and perpetuating his peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, gave us no end of merriment and joy.” (Quoted from Grenier, G.O. (Ed.), (1925), Christmas Debates of the Island of Ceylon, p. i)
We had last week inadvertently dropped a painting illustrating “Charles Amrose Lorenz: an unsung artist of the 19th century by Avishka Mario Senewiratne” which is reproduced here. Much of the writer’s text referred to that illustration appearing above. We apologize for the error.
Caricatures of various figures drawn by Lorenz in the Christmas Debates
Muniandi
In 1869, the Examiner press endeavoured a very enthusiastic project by chartering a magazine called Muniandi.. Lorenz’s old friend and colleague in the legislature, John Capper who had just returned from England was made its editor. This magazine, full of satire, illustrations and humour was in the style of the British Punch Magazine. Though Punch lasted till the 21st century, Muniandi had only a brief but notable period of existence. Priced one shilling, the ten-page Muniandi was a good way of amusing the government with its satirical outlook on the affairs of that time. By then, Charles Lorenz was facing the travails of the illness that would result in his early death. Therefore, for this reason, as well as his involvement in multiple fields, disallowed Lorenz to be active in Muniandi as much as he would have liked.
Though there are hardly any signatures or initials differentiating the artists of these satirical caricatures, many scholars then and now have widely accepted that J. L. K. Vandort is one of the leading artists. However, if one is familiar with the works of Lorenz, it is more than fair to assume that Charles Lorenz himself was one of the illustrators in Muniandi. Yasmin Gunaratne in her monumental work English Literature in Ceylon confirms the above as follows: “Muniandi… illustrated almost entirely by a talented Burgher artist, J. L. K. Van Dort, although Lorenz contributed in some drawings.” (Gunaratne, Yasmin, (1968), English Literature in Ceylon 1815-1878, Tisara Press)
The illustration depicted below published in Muniandi is assumed to be by C. A. Lorenz.
Some other work
Even though his busy public life took much of his time, on a few occasions Lorenz did not hesitate to use his prowess in composing music. On one occasion as stated by J. R. Toussaint of the Ceylon Civil Service (1956, p. 51), Sir Richard Cayley during his early stage of serving Ceylon, lived in Lorenz’s Elie House in Mutwal, Colombo. Here they both produced a popular song. Cayley wrote the words and Lorenz arranged the music for the pianoforte. Titled The Pipe of Clay, the two of them performed this song when among friends. Accompanied by Lorenz on the piano, Sir Richard Cayley; who would go on to be a Chief Justice of Ceylon, did the singing. The following are the words:
The Pipe of Clay
To Beauty’s charms or wars alarms
Let others tune their lay, Sir,
But as for me my theme shall be
My rare old pipe of clay, Sir,
Though bowls of wine may be divine
To drive dull care away, Sir,
Yet there’s no bowl can ease the soul
As the bowl of a pipe of clay, Sir.
What incense breaths from fleecy wreaths,
Of vapour lightly rising,
As we sit at night with our pipes alight
All care and strife despising.
Though Fortune flees, though Friendship dies,
Though Hope may fade away, Sir,
Yet there’s a friend that’ll last to the end
In the rare old pipe of clay, Sir.
A note on the art of Lorenz
Among the many artists who followed Lorenz in the 19th century, no one came to prominence or to the brilliance of J. L. K. van Dort. Lorenz invited this fellow student of the Colombo Academy in 1850 to collaborate with him in the Young Ceylon magazine. Van Dort was only 18 years old then. One of the most conspicuous features of the inaugural Young Ceylon magazine was the caricature of The Giant of Matura based on a real-life 6’6 tall man who picked coconuts in Matara.
As the illustration was not signed many readers believed it to be of Lorenz. However, the truth was that it was by van Dort, who though not in his heyday and on the threshold of his fame, had a very similar style to Lorenz. B. R. Blaze comments that Lorenz inspired young van Dort in his early work and that the ‘Lorenz touch’ in van Dort was not ambiguous.
Only a handful of illustrations of Lorenz have survived to date. They are nearly all what was published in Blaze’s Life of Lorenz, the caricatures in Christmas Debates, Muniandi and the Examiner. Dr. Andreas Nell, the nephew of Eleanor Lorenz had a fair collection of Lorenz’s illustrations. However, their fate is not known. Guy O. Grenier who owned a large number of letters, illustrations and memorabilia of Lorenz sold them to the Royal Asiatic Society in the early 1960s.
Some of the contents of that collection remain to date. Unlike the artists who followed in the 20th century such as Keyt, Daraniyagala, Amarasekere, etc., the art of Lorenz may not win the collector’s interest or value. From the perspective of its historical significance, the art of Lorenz is phenomenal, special and endearing. Intertwined with humour, wisdom and knowledge, his caricatures will surely linger for generations not born.
“He (Lorenz) was an admirable artist…”
– Dr. R. K. de Silva, 1998 in 19th Century Newspaper Engravings of Ceylon
References
1. Blaze, B.R., (1948), Life of Lorenz, The Associated Newspapers of Sri Lanka Ltd.
2. Toussaint, J.R., (1956), Lorenz and his Times, Dutch Burgher Union
3. Roberts, Colin-Thome, Raheem, (1989), People Inbetween, Sarvodaya
4. Lorenz collection in the Royal Asiatic Society Library
5. Lorenz, C.A., (1866), Christmas Debates,
6. Mahendran, M.S., (1918), A Brief Sketch of the Life of Charles Ambrose Lorenz, American Ceylon Mission Press
7. De Silva, R.K., (1998), 19th Century Newspaper Engravings of Ceylon, Serendib Publishers
8. Pippet, G.K., (1932), A History of the Ceylon Police, Volume 1
9. Warnapala, K, (2012), ‘Caricaturing Colonial Rule in Sri Lanka: An Analysis of Muniandi, The Ceylon Punch?’, Early Popular Visual Culture, Vol.10, No.3, pp. 227-244
10. Jayawardena, K., (2012), Erasure of the Euro-Asians
It could be quite premature to claim that the US has closed ranks completely with the world’s foremost fascist states: Russia, China and North Korea. But there is no denying that the US is breaking with tradition and perceiving commonality of policy orientation with the mentioned authoritarian states of the East rather than with Europe and its major democracies at present.
Increasingly, it is seemingly becoming evident that the common characterization of the US as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’, could be a gross misnomer. Moreover, the simple fact that the US is refraining from naming Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its refusal to perceive Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia, proves that US foreign policy is undergoing a substantive overhaul, as it were. In fact, one could not be faulted, given this backdrop, for seeing the US under President Donald Trump as compromising its democratic credentials very substantially.
Yet, it could be far too early to state that in the traditional East-West polarity in world politics, that the US is now squarely and conclusively with the Eastern camp that comprises in the main, China and Russia. At present, the US is adopting an arguably more nuanced approach to foreign policy formulation and the most recent UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine bears this out to a degree. For instance, the UN resolution in question reportedly ‘calls for a rapid end to the war without naming Russia as the aggressor.’
That is, the onus is being placed on only Ukraine to facilitate an end to the war, whereas Russia too has an obligation to do likewise. But it is plain that the US is reflecting an eagerness in such pronouncements to see an end to the Ukraine conflict. It is clearly not for a prolongation of the wasting war. It could be argued that a negotiated settlement is being given a try, despite current international polarizations.
However, the US could act constructively in the crisis by urging Russia as well to ensure an end to the conflict, now that there is some seemingly friendly rapport between Trump and Putin.
However, more fundamentally, if the US does not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia as a result of the latter’s invasion, we are having a situation wherein the fundamental tenets of International Law are going unrecognized by the US. That is, international disorder and lawlessness are being winked at by the US.
It follows that, right now, the US is in cahoots with those powers that are acting autocratically and arbitrarily in international politics rather than with the most democratically vibrant states of the West, although a facile lumping together of the US, Russia and China, is yet not possible.
It is primarily up to the US voting public to take clear cognizance of these developments, draw the necessary inferences and to act on them. Right now, nothing substantive could be done by the US voter to put things right, so to speak, since mid-term US elections are due only next year. But there is ample time for the voting public to put the correct perspective on these fast-breaking developments, internationally and domestically, and to put their vote to good use in upcoming polls and such like democratic exercises. They would be acting in the interest of democracy worldwide by doing so.
More specifically it is up to Donald Trump’s Republican voter base to see the damage that is being done by the present administration to the US’ standing as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’. They need to bring pressure on Trump and his ‘inner cabinet’ to change course and restore the reputation of their country as the foremost democracy. In the absence of such action it is the US citizenry that would face the consequences of Trump’s policy indiscretions.
Meanwhile, the political Opposition in the US too needs to get its act together, so to speak, and pressure the Trump administration into doing what is needed to get the US back to the relevant policy track. Needless to say, the Democratic Party would need to lead from the front in these efforts.
While, in the foreign policy field the US under President Trump could be said to be acting with a degree of ambivalence and ambiguity currently, in the area of domestic policy it is making it all to plain that it intends to traverse a fascistic course. As has been proved over the past two months, white supremacy is being made the cardinal principle of domestic governance.
Trump has made it clear, for example, that his administration would be close to ethnic chauvinists, such as the controversial Ku Klux Klan, and religious extremists. By unceremoniously rolling back the ‘diversity programs’ that have hitherto helped define the political culture of the US, the Trump administration is making no bones of the fact that ethnic reconciliation would not be among the government’s priorities. The steady undermining of USAID and its main programs worldwide is sufficient proof of this. Thus the basis has been adequately established for the flourishing of fascism and authoritarianism.
Yet, the US currently reflects a complex awareness of foreign policy questions despite having the international community wondering whether it is sealing a permanent alliance with the main powers of the East. For instance, President Trump is currently in conversation on matters in the external relations sphere that are proving vital with the West’s principal leaders. For example, he has spoken to President Emmanuel Macron of France and is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK.
Obviously, the US is aware that it cannot ‘go it alone’ in resolving currently outstanding issues in external relations, such as the Ukraine question. There is a clear recognition that the latter and many more issues require a collaborative approach.
Besides, the Trump administration realizes that it cannot pose as a ‘first among equals’, given the complexities at ground level. It sees that given the collective strength of the rest of the West that a joint approach to problem solving cannot be avoided. This is particularly so in the case of Ukraine.
The most major powers of the West are no ‘pushovers’ and Germany, under a possibly Christian Democratic Union-led alliance in the future, has indicated as much. It has already implied that it would not be playing second fiddle to the US. Accordingly, the US is likely to steer clear of simplistic thinking in the formulation of foreign policy, going forward.
by Upali Gamakumara,
Upali.gamakumara@gmail.com
The Clean Sri Lanka (CSL) is a project for the true renaissance the NPP government launched, the success of which would gain world recognition. It is about more than just cleaning up places. Its broader objectives are to make places attractive and happy for people who visit or use services in the country, focusing more on the services in public institutions and organisations like the SLTB. Unfortunately, these broader objectives are not apparent in its theme, “Clean Sri Lanka,” and therefore there is a misconception that keeping the environment clean is the main focus.
People who realise the said broader objectives are excited about a cleaner Sri Lanka, hoping the President and the government will tackle this, the way they are planning to solve other big problems like the economy and poverty. However, they do not see themselves as part of the solution.
From the management perspective, the CSL has a strategic plan that is not declared in that manner. When looking at the government policies, one can perceive its presence, the vision being “A Prosperous Nation and a Beautiful Life,” the mission “Clean Sri Lanka” and the broader objectives “a disciplined society, effective services, and a cleaner environment.” If the government published these as the strategy, there would have been a better understanding.
Retaining the spirit and expectations and continuing the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project is equally important as much as understanding its deep idea. For this, it needs to motivate people, which differs from those motivators that people push to achieve selfish targets. The motivation we need here is to evolve something involuntarily, known as Drivers. Drivers push for the survival of the evolution or development of any entity. We see the absence of apparent Drivers in the CSL project as a weakness that leads to sporadic hiccups and free flow.
Drivers of Evolution
Drivers vary according to the nature of envisaged evolution for progress. However, we suggest that ‘the force that pushes anything to evolve’ would fit all evolutions. Some examples are: ‘Fitting to survival’ was the driver of the evolution of life. Magnetism is a driver for the unprecedented development of physics – young Einstein was driven to enquire about the ‘attraction’ of magnets, eventually making him the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
Leadership is a Driver. It is essential but do not push an evolution continually as they are not sprung within a system involuntarily. This is one of the reasons why CSL has lost the vigour it had at its inception.
CSL is a teamwork. It needs ‘Drives’ for cohesion and to push forward continually, like the Quality Improvement Project of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Their drivers are outlined differently keeping Aims as their top driver and saying: Aims should be specific and measurable, not merely to “improve” or “reduce,” engage stakeholders to define the aim of the improvement project and a clear aim to identify outcome measures.
So, we think that CSL needs Aims as defined by NHS, built by stakeholder participation to help refine the project for continuous evolution. This approach is similar to Deming’s Cycle for continual improvement. Further, two more important drivers are needed for the CSL project. That is Attitudinal Change and Punishment. We shall discuss these in detail under Psychoactive Environment (pSE) below.
Aside from the above, Competition is another driver in the business world. This helps achieve CSL objectives in the private sector. We can see how this Driver pushes, with the spread of the Supermarket chains, the evolution of small and medium retail shops to supermarket level, and in the private banks and hospitals, achieving broader objectives of CSL; a cleaner environment, disciplined behaviuor, efficient service, and the instillation of ethics.
The readers can now understand the importance of Drivers pushing any project.
Three Types of Entities and Their Drives
We understand, that to do the transformation that CSL expects, we need to identify or adopt the drivers separately to suit the three types of entities we have in the country.
Type I entities are the independent entities that struggle for their existence and force them to adopt drivers involuntarily. They are private sector entities, and their drivers are the commitment of leadership and competition. These drivers spring up involuntarily within the entity.
Type II are the dependent entities. To spring up drivers of these entities commitment of an appointed trustee is a must. Mostly in state-owned entities, categorized as Boards, Authorities, Cooperations, and the like. Their drivers do not spring up within or involuntarily unless the leader initiates. The Government of a country also falls into this type and the emergence of drivers depends on the leader.
Type III entities have neither independent nor dependent immediate leader or trustee. They are mostly the so-called ‘Public’ places like public-toilets, public-playgrounds, and public-beaches. No team can be formed as these places are open to any, like no-man-land. Achieving CSL objectives at these entities depends on the discipline of the public or the users.
Clean Sri Lanka suffers the absence of drivers in the second and third types of entities, as the appointed persons are not trustees but temporary custodians.
The writer proposes a remedy to the last two types of entities based on the theory of pSE explained below.
Psychoactive Environment (pSE) –
The Power of Customer Attraction
Research by the writer introduced the Psychoactive Environment (pSE) concept to explain why some businesses attract more customers than others who provide the same service. Presented at the 5th Global Conference on Business and Economics at Cambridge University in 2006, the study revealed that a “vibe” influences customer attraction. This vibe, termed pSE, depends on Three Distinct Elements, which can either attract or repel customers. A positive pSE makes a business more attractive and welcoming. This concept can help develop Drivers for Type II and III entities.
pSE is not an all-inclusive solution for CSL, but it lays the foundation for building Drivers and motivating entities to keep entrants attractive and contented.
The structure of the pSE
The three distinct Elements are the Occupants, Systems, and Environment responsible for making a pSE attractive to any entity, be it a person, institution, organization, or county. Each of these elements bears three qualities named Captivators. These captivators are, in simple terms, Intelligent, Nice, and Active in their adjective forms.
pSE theorizes that if any element fails to captivate the entrant’s mood by not being Intelligent, Nice, or Active, the pSE becomes negative, repelling the entrant (customer). Conversely, the positive pSE attracts the entrants if the elements are Intelligent, Nice, and Active.
For example, think person who comes to a Government Office for some service. He sees that the employees, service, and environment are intelligent, nice, and active, and he will be delighted and contented. He will not get frustrated or have any deterioration in national productivity.
The Significance of pSE in CSL
The Elements and the Captivators are universal for any entity. Any entity can easily find its path to Evolution or Progress determined by these elements and captivators. The intangible broader objectives can be downsised to manageable targets by pSE. Achievements of these targets make the entrants happy and enhance productivity – the expectation of Clean Sri Lanka (CSL).
From the perspective of pSE, now we can redefine the Clean Sri Lanka project thus:
To make the Elements of every entity in Sri Lanka: intelligent, Nice, and Active.
How Would the pSE be A Remedy for The Sporadic Hiccups?
We have seen two possible reasons for sporadic setbacks and the discontinuity of some projects launched by the CSL. They are:
The absence of involuntary Drivers for evolvement or progress
Poor attitudes and behaviors of people and leaders
Remedy for the Absence of Drivers
Setting up a system to measure customer or beneficiary satisfaction, and setting aims can build Drivers. The East London NHS principles help build the Aims that drive type II & II entities. The system must be designed to ensure continual improvement following the Deming Cycle. This strategy will create Drivers for Type I & II entities.
This process is too long to explain here therefore we refrain from detailing.
Attitudinal Change
The most difficult task is the attitudinal and behavioural change. Yet it cannot be postponed.
Punishment as a strategy
In developed countries, we see that people are much more disciplined than in the developing countries. We in developing countries, give credit to their superior culture, mitigating ours as rudimental. The long experience and looking at this affair from a vantage point, one will understand it is not the absolute truth. Their ruthless wars in the past, rules, and severe punishment are the reasons behind this discipline. For example, anyone who fails to wear a car seatbelt properly will be fined 400 AUD, nearly 80,000 LKR!
The lesson we can learn is, that in Sri Lanka, we need strong laws and strict punishment together with a type of strategic education as follows.
Psychological Approach as a Strategy
The psychological theory of attitude formation can be used successfully if some good programmes can be designed.
All attitude formations start with life experience. Formed wrong or negative attitudes can be reversed or instilled with correct attitudes by exposure to designed life experiences. The programmes have been developed using the concepts of Hoshin Kanri, Brainstorming, Cause-and-Effect analysis, and Teamwork, in addition to London NTS Quality Improvement strategies.
The experience and good responses we received for our pSE programs conducted at several institutions prove and have built confidence in our approach. However, it was a time, when governments or organisations did not pay much attention to cultural change as CSL expects in the country.
Therefore, we believe this is a golden opportunity to take the CSL supported by the pSE concept.
Although they are visually impaired youngsters, under the guidance of renowned musician Melantha Perera, these talented individuals do shine bright … hence the name Bright Light.
Says Melantha: “My primary mission is to nurture their talent and ensure their sustainable growth in music, and I’m thrilled to announce that Bright Light’s first public performance is scheduled for 7th June, 2025. The venue will be the MJF Centre Auditorium in Katubadda, Moratuwa.”
Melantha went on to say that two years of teaching, online, visually impaired youngsters, from various parts of the island, wasn’t an easy ride.
There were many ups and downs but Melantha’s determination has paid off with the forming of Bright Light, and now they are gearing up to go on stage.
According to Melantha, they have come a long way in music.
“For the past few months, we have been meeting, physically, where I guide them to play as a band and now they show a very keen interest as they are getting to the depth of it. They were not exposed to English songs, but I’ve added a few English songs to widen their repertoire.
Melantha Perera: Invented a notation
system for the guitar
“On 7th June, we are opening up for the public to come and witness their talents, and I want to take this product island-wide, giving the message that we can do it, and I’m hoping to create a database so there will be a following. Initially, we would like your support by attending the show.”
Melantha says he didn’t know what he was getting into but he had confidence teaching anyone music since he has been in the scene for the past 45 years. He began teaching in 2015,
“When I opened my music school, Riversheen School of Music, the most challenging part of teaching was correcting tone deaf which is the theoretical term for those who can’t pitch a note, and also teaching students to keep timing while they sang and played.”
Melantha has even invented a notation system for the guitar which he has named ‘MelaNota’. He has received copyrights from the USA and ISO from Australia, but is yet to be recognised in Sri Lanka.
During Covid-19, Melantha showcased MelaNota online and then it was officially launched with the late Desmond De Silva playing one of his tunes, using MelaNota.
Melantha says that anyone, including the visually impaired, can play a simple melody on a guitar, within five minutes, using his notation system.
“I’ve completed the system and I’m now finalising the syllabus for the notation system.”
Melantha has written not only for the guitar, but also for drums, keyboards, and wind instruments.
For any queries, or additional information, you could contact Melantha at 071 454 4092 or via email at thebandbrightlight@gmail.com.
Michelle Trachtenberg, Gossip Girl and Buffy actress, dies aged 39
President Disanayake, Japanese Ambassador discuss bilateral cooperation
Thailand deports dozens of Uyghurs to China
-
Business4 days agoSri Lanka’s 1st Culinary Studio opened by The Hungryislander
-
Sports5 days agoHow Sri Lanka fumbled their Champions Trophy spot
-
News7 days agoKiller made three overseas calls while fleeing
-
News6 days agoSC notices Power Minister and several others over FR petition alleging govt. set to incur loss exceeding Rs 3bn due to irregular tender
-
Features5 days agoThe Murder of a Journalist
-
Sports5 days agoMahinda earn long awaited Tier ‘A’ promotion
-
Features5 days agoExcellent Budget by AKD, NPP Inexperience is the Government’s Enemy
-
News6 days agoMobile number portability to be introduced in June