Impact of Digital Musical components on usage of Folk Music in Applied Musical Creations in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Folk culture in any community plays a major role in portraying the authentic and indigenous cultural elements, and many communities incorporate such elements to engrave their cultural identity in their creative work for that folk music is not an exception. Yet, in current Sri Lankan music compositions, it can be noted that, the Folk Music has been disregarded and as a result, the modern pieces of music appear more westernized than what it needs to be. Among the various factors, the use of digital devices in compositions has become more vigilant, due to the fact that many of the musical equipment and sound systems are embedded in one device and can be operated through computerized mechanism, thus by making it one person’s skill and the marvels of technological devices. The conflict behind such compositions is the use of western musical equipment rather than utilizing authentic Sri Lankan music patterns and sound that creates a recession in the usage of authentic elements. Therefore, the primary objective of the present study is to conduct an extensive study whether the use of digital music has become a reason to reduction in usage of folk music in applied music field. Music work of ten selected musicians were studied to examine their use of digital and folk music in their creative work. Data was gathered by interviews with the selected musicians, and listening to their creations. It could be highlighted that digital music has a considerable influence in reducing the use of folk music in their compositions, and many musicians have used digital music according to their potential. Further, it revealed that many musicians have created compositions which were influenced by western music and other music styles, while staying away from native music. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of digital music itself among the many factors that have affected the use and application of folk and native music in their productions. This situation needs extensive studies and discussions on further development of software like “Reason” which has used native percussion instruments and give more knowledge on the production and use of software that are based on native musical instruments in terms of bringing folk music towards their compositions.