Modernizing Composition: Sinhala Song, Poetry, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Sri Lanka

by Garrett Field

Overview

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The study of South Asian music falls under the purview of ethnomusicology, whereas that of South Asian literature falls under South Asian studies. As a consequence of this academic separation, scholars rarely take notice of connections between South Asian song and poetry. Modernizing Composition overcomes this disciplinary fragmentation by examining the history of Sinhala-language song and poetry in twentieth-century Sri Lanka. Garrett Field describes how songwriters and poets modernized song and poetry in response to colonial and postcolonial formations. The story of this modernization is significant in that it shifts focus from India’s relationship to the West to little-studied connections between Sri Lanka and North India.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520294714
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/22/2017
Series:	South Asia Across the Disciplines
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Garrett Field is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and the School of Music at Ohio University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Note on Translation and Transliteration xii

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Colonial Era

1 Nationalist Thought and the Sri Lankan World 19

2 Brothers of the Pure Sinhala Fraternity 34

3 Wartime Romance 56

Part 2 The Postcolonial Era

4 Divergent Standards of Excellence 77

5 For the People 99

6 Illusions to Disillusions 116

Conclusion 136

Notes 141

Bibliography 191

Index 203