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<\/a><\/p>\nRegarded as one of Sri Lanka\u2019s finest artistes, Dr.Tanya Ekanayaka is classically trained with a background in Asian and Popular music. The British concert composer- pianist is also a linguist, musicologist and record producer. Although she trained as a pianist, her compositional skills are the result of a purely intuitive and natural development.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Tanya Ekanayaka\u2019s Twelve Piano Prisms extend the concept heard on her debut album Reinventions: Rhapsodies for Piano . They correspond to the twelve primary notes of the keyboard, and combine Sri Lankan melodies with music from other countries in a deeply personal representation of diverse cultures; their style inspired not only by a rich heritage of Western classical and indigenous world music, but also by pop, rock and film music.<\/p>\n
According to Tanya the new album in an overall manner extends the concept she introduced in her first album. Collectively, they explore two concepts.<\/p>\n
The first is an extension of the concept introduced on her debut album,\u201d Reinventions: Rhapsodies for Piano\u201d, where each work contained adaptations of indigenous Sri Lankan folk and traditional melodies. The first album contained, among other melodies, adaptations of ten of the eighteen Sri Lankan vannams. Vannams are an ancient set of dances imbued with a rich percussive character dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, which developed in the courts of kings. Vannams are secular in character and most depict specific animal movements. The word \u2018vannam\u2019 is descended from the Sanskrit \u2018varnam\u2019, which translates as \u2018descriptive praise\u2019.<\/p>\n
Dr.Tanya Ekanayaka says that her new album contains adaptations of the remaining eight vannams, as well as transcreations of several other Sri Lankan folk and indigenous melodies. \u201cSome of the works also contain adaptions of traditional and ancient melodies of other countries in which I have performed or with which I have been associated musically. In some instances, I have combined adaptations of a section of a Sri Lankan melody with adaptations of sections of a melody belonging to another country to form a new blend. The effort has been to create an organic union rooted in the present \u2018moment\u2019, and yet formed through the adaptation and conflation of melodies stemming from diverse socio-cultural and historical spheres. The countries represented in addition to Sri Lanka include Armenia, Japan, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. The adapted melodies are simply a deeply personal re-presentation of, and tribute to, their original forms and their attendant cultures and people\u201d.<\/p>\n