Devar Suryasena
Ranjith Daluwatta
Devar Surya Sena (1899-1981) was born Herbert Charles Jacob Pieris, the son of Sir James Pieris, one of Ceylon’s most prominent politicians. The name “Pieris” stems from Portugal’s part-colonization of the country in the 16th and 17th centuries. By the 19th century, the Pieris family, in naming, education and aspirations had embraced the mores of the British colonists, even while Sir James worked for the country’s independence;Herbert was sent to boarding school in England from the age of 12, then studied at the University of Cambridge. In 1923, he married Winifred de Silva, from another prominent Ceylon family. In 1928, Sena gave a concert to the elite of Colombo, devoting the first half to operatic arias and the like from Europe, but reserving the second for the music of Ceylon. According to Sena’s own account, this was the “first time in history” Ceylonese music had been performed in such a setting. The recital was a great success, persuading Sena to dedicate himself to showcasing Ceylonese music to a wider audience, particularly a Western audience. He conducted research across the island, gave concerts internationally, led radio programs and made records. His appreciation of both local and Western culture, his musical ability, and proper English accent made him a particularly effective ambassador. I am unsure whether the apparent absence of any contemporary reissue of Suryasena’s recordings is an indication that he has been largely forgotten or that his approach has been called into question. While Sena was accomplished on a number of instruments central to Ceylonese music, he also made recordings accompanied by piano and violin. No doubt blurring the lines between Western and Ceylonese music was a tactic to engage Europeans, although it is certainly true that much so-called “traditional” creativity is precisely the appropriation of foreign influences. The western violin indisputably found new life on the Indian subcontinent. The competing instincts of preservation and improvement lie at the heart of many folk music revival efforts of the period. The piece included here, Malay Malay Oya, features vocal and violin that “sound Ceyonlese”, but piano that “sounds Western.” Today’s penchant for “raw” and “primitive” old recordings casts suspicion on anything refined or somehow tampered with. It would be wise to remember that “authenticity” is vulnerable to fashion and misreadings of how culture and change actually work. Sena’s blending of styles and instruments is really no different from various musical amalgams lauded today. I find this piece thoroughly charming and arresting, just the effect Sena intended. The arrangement makes sense in its historical context, and given Sena’s background and ambition, and should be considered not redacted. Malay is said to be a boatman’s song, chronicling the sights and sounds of the river. The other side of the record might be judged more “authentic”, but is not as strong as Side 1, in my view. I am not aware of any CD reissue of Sena’s work. In 2008, the Devar Surya Sena Trust published a compilation of Sena’s writing as Music of Sri Lanka. A CD accompanied the book but contains only five tracks, which appear to have been drawn from radio broadcasts and are sub-par in terms of sound quality. If anyone knows of a CD of Sena’s 78s, I’d be grateful to hear about it. It was said of him ‘the quantity of voice could be successfully abandoned to superb quality.’ Even dyspeptic critics waxed eloquent about his ‘indefinable human spirit,’ his ‘magnetism, technique, tone colour.’ The Cambridge educated Herbert Peiris changed his name to Devar Surya Sena and wore Indian dress to de-Westernise himself. He revered the music of Lanka and the orient. He was unrivalled in his knowledge of the music of Sri Lanka and Asia. He had mastered also the spirituals and Western music. Throughout his life beside him was his wife Nelun Devi, an accomplished musician herself. The Chairman of the Trustees, Westminster Theatre, K.D. Belden once wrote, ‘In 1972 my wife and I visited Sri Lanka, invited by Surya and Nelun to stay with them in their home. At the Colombo airport the customs official asked us, ‘what hotel are you staying at?’ I replied, ‘we’re not going to a hotel – we are staying with Devar Surya Sena.’ ‘Oh’ said the official as he waved us through, ‘he is a great man in our country.’ How right he was." But it was not only Belden who wrote of Surya Sena and his wife Nelun Devi this way. So many had been touched by this man — as a musician, a teacher, a friend, and visionary. Man of deepest inspiration Kim Beazley of Australia wrote of him "I remember Devar Surya Sena as the man with a beautiful voice dedicated to the holy spirit. In my contacts with him, I found him a man of the deepest inspiration...’ Winchester Reading Prize Devar Surya Sena performed in concert and on radio and television in all the leading cities of Europe, Asia, the USA and Canada. He was the son of the late Sir James Peiris, the first Ceylonese to preside over the Ceylon Legislative Council. Surya Sena was educated at the Government Training College in Colombo and Tonbridge School in Kent. A graduate of Cambridge University and a Barrister-at-Law, he was elected to a choral scholarship and became the first Asiatic to win the coveted Winchester Reading Prize. During his time in Cambridge he would attend music classes twice a week. W.S. Senior who coached him in the classics — Greek and Latin, before he made his way to Cambridge was to present him with one of his poems — ‘O father thou has promised the isles shall wait for thee.’ ‘Someday,’ Senior told him, ‘Surya, you will write a tune for this.’ And Surya did. Surya’s vision was to use his voice to bring understanding between the East and West. Collecting vannams and folk songs and writing in Western notation for them was how he began. He was to go to the Shantiniketan for nine months and then spend another 15 months travelling and collecting Indian folk songs to take to the West. Sinhala tunes for hymns The music for the Sinhala Liturgy which his cousin Rev. Lakdasa de Mel, later Bishop and Metropoliton, urged him to do was completed in 1959. Both Lakdasa and Surya had been collecting Sinhala tunes for the hymns and though both were Cambridge and Oxford educated men they were nationalists at heart so much so that one changed his name from Herbert Peiris to Devar Surya Sena and wore Indian costume to de-Westernise himself. Surya was a pioneer in re-discovering the folk songs of Ceylon and of creating a better understanding between the Orient and the Occident through music. He was decorated with the OBE in 1949 for his service to music and culture and he died at his home, Gitanjali, on November 11, 1981. Gitanjali is now the Deva Surya Sena Arts Centre. On March 28 this year a book titled Music Of Sri Lanka written by Devar Surya Sena will be launched at the Deva Surya Sena Arts Centre. The book also contains a CD and is priced at Rs. 1500. An easy and readable work it is of immense research value for ethnomusicologists and contains line drawings, music and an appendix with photographs. Surya and Nelun Devi started collecting and writing in Western notation in 1928 and this book is an account of their life work.