File:Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1895) (14774493152).jpg

Identifier: journalofceylonb13roya (find matches)
Title: Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Ceylon Branch
Subjects:
Publisher: Colombo
Contributing Library: Natural History Museum Library, London
Digitizing Sponsor: Natural History Museum Library, London

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use among the Mechanics are theviolin, the viaule or tenor violin, the mandoline (which theycall the banderinha), the guitar, and a small kind of tom-tomknown as the rabdna. The mandoline and the guitar arefast becoming obsolete. The Mechanics are clever execu-tants in respect of their own music, but when they attemptEuropean dance music they are less happy, and succeed onlyin travestying the original compositions. With the gradual dissemination of Western ideas andhabits of life, with the spread of English education, and withthe contempt which it unhappily engenders in certain mindsfor the institutions of this country, there are many who fearthat the Mechanic of the future will resemble only in namehis ancestor of the present day. But it is to be hoped thatthe innate conservatism of the Ceylon Portuguese, whichhas preserved them as a separate community through thetroubles and hardships of the Dutch period, and which isstill so characteristic of them, will help, not only to maintain,
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No. 45.-1894) THE MUSIC OF CEYLON. 189 but to further develop their national music, of which, unlikesome elements in their racial character, they have no needto be ashamed. Note.—The Author, after the reading of his Paper, introduced to thenotice of the Meeting an orchestra of Ceylon Portuguese whom he hadgot together for the occasion. They consisted of two violins, twoguitars, a tambourine, triangle, and a banderinha. Mr. Fernando said heregretted that the viaule, an instrument of the guitar shape, consistingof thirteen strings, was not represented ; the only person able to playthis instrument just now is old and decrepit, and was unable to bepresent. There was a specimen of the instrument in the ColomboMuseum, which unfortunately could not be goc in time to be exhibited.To enforce his contention that he was dealing with music of aEuropean character, and that it was amenable to European notation, hewould himself accompany the orchestra on the piano. The orchestraunder Mr. Fernandos

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