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Baila
Baila (also known as bayila; from the Portuguese verb ''bailar'', meaning ''to dance'') is a form of music, popular in Sri Lanka and among Goan Catholics. The genre originated centuries ago among the Portuguese Burghers and Sri Lankan Kaffirs. Baila songs are played during parties and weddings in Sri Lanka, Goa, Mangalore and Portugal accompanied by dancing. Baila music, as a form of folk art, has been popular for centuries in Sri Lanka. During the early 1960s, it entered into Sri Lanka's mainstream culture, primarily through the work of police officer turned singer Wally Bastiansz. He began adapting the 6/8 "''kaffirhina''" rhythms to accommodate Sinhala lyrics. By the 1970s musicians, including MS Fernando and Maxwell Mendis, had helped Baila grow into a well known and respected style of Sri Lankan popular music. It is primarily considered dance music. History After their arrival in 1505, the Portuguese began to convert the Sinhalese to Roman Catholicism, building their weal ...
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MS Fernando
Mahagamage Samson Fernando, ( si, එම්. එස්. ප්‍රනාන්දු; 4 March 1936 - 9 April 1994), popularly as M. S. Fernando, was a Sri Lankan singer and musician. He is a major player in the development of Baila music and was widely popular among Sri Lankan audiences commonly referred to as the "Baila Chakkrawarthi" (Baila emperor). Personal life Fernando was born on 4 March 1936 in Moratuwa to Laron Fernando and Lilee Gomes as the eldest child of the family. He attended St. Anthony's College, Wattala and Christ Church College, Dehiwela. He had three younger sisters and one younger brother. Fernando was married to Tulin Fernando and has 7 Children: Susil, Telina, Shantha, Sarath, Sujitha, Sujeewa and Sunimal. Fernando also has 17 Grandchildren. Career Fernando studied under veteran musician J. A. Sathiadasan. He debuted as a singer with the duet, "Malak Kada Konde Gasala," done with Pushparani Ariyaratne. It was written by Karunaratne Abeysekera. The so ...
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Sri Lankan Kaffirs
The Sri Lankan Kaffirs (cafrinhas in Portuguese, කාපිරි ''kāpiriyō'' in Sinhala, and காப்பிலி ''kāpili'' in Tamil) are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are partially descended from 16th-century Portuguese traders and Bantu slaves who were brought by them to work as labourers and soldiers to fight against the Sinhala Kings. They are very similar to the Zanj-descended populations in Iraq and Kuwait, and are known in Pakistan as Sheedis and in India as Siddis. The Kaffirs spoke a distinctive creole based on Portuguese, and the "Sri Lankan Kaffir language" (now extinct). Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja and their popular form of dance music Baila. Etymology The word '' Kaffir'' is an obsolete English term once used to designate natives from the African Great Lakes and Southern Africa coasts. In South Africa, it became a slur. "Kaffir" derives in turn from the Arabic ''kafir'', "unbeliever". History Kaffirs ha ...
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Sri Lanka Kaffirs
The Sri Lankan Kaffirs (cafrinhas in Portuguese, කාපිරි ''kāpiriyō'' in Sinhala, and காப்பிலி ''kāpili'' in Tamil) are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are partially descended from 16th-century Portuguese traders and Bantu slaves who were brought by them to work as labourers and soldiers to fight against the Sinhala Kings. They are very similar to the Zanj-descended populations in Iraq and Kuwait, and are known in Pakistan as Sheedis and in India as Siddis. The Kaffirs spoke a distinctive creole based on Portuguese, and the "Sri Lankan Kaffir language" (now extinct). Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja and their popular form of dance music Baila. Etymology The word '' Kaffir'' is an obsolete English term once used to designate natives from the African Great Lakes and Southern Africa coasts. In South Africa, it became a slur. "Kaffir" derives in turn from the Arabic ''kafir'', "unbeliever". History Kaffirs ha ...
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Wally Bastiansz
Ogustus or Martalanus Bastiansz, better known as 'Wally Bastiansz'' ( Sinhala: වොලී බැස්ටියන්ස්) (died January 10, 1985) was a Sri Lankan singer who developed the style of chorus baila in the 1940s. Biography Bastianz was a police officer attached to the traffic division. He was also an experienced guitarist, banjo player, and violinist. Drawing from his orchestral roots, he transformed the tunes of standards like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Mademoiselle from Armentières (Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous)" into classic baila songs. He is also known as the King of Sri Lankan Baila Songs. There has always been some controversy over his name "Wally". It is very customary in Sri Lanka, even today, for children to have nicknames. Although he was baptized Ogustus Martalanus after his grandfather Wilhelmus Martalanus, in the family, amongst close relatives, and even amongst his old neighbors, Ogustus was only known as either "Olie, or Olinton". Young ...
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Charles Matthew Fernando
Charles Matthew Fernando (1866 - 9 June 1909) was a Ceylonese lawyer and scholar. He was the first Ceylonese Crown Counsel. Early life and education Charles Matthew Fernando was born in 1866 in Colombo, the son of Andrew Fernando Jr. and the grandson of Andrew Fernando Sr., the Mudaliyer of Colombo. He was the brother of Sir Marcus Fernando. Educated at the St Benedicts Academy (later known as St Benedict's College Colombo) and at Royal College, Colombo, where he won the Turnour Prize, Shakespeare Prize and the Junior Cambridge Scholarship. Taking his matriculation, he was the first Ceylonese student to pass the Intermediate in Arts of the University of London. He attended St John's College, Cambridge where he completed law tripos in 1886 gaining a BA and LLB degrees, he was called to the bar as a barrister from the Lincoln's Inn in 1888. Legal career On his return to Ceylon in 1889, he was enrolled as an Advocate and started his legal practice. In 1897, he was appointed acting D ...
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka has a population of around 22 million (2020) and is a multinational state, home to diverse cultures, languages, and ethnicities. The Sinhalese are the majority of the nation's population. The Tamils, who are a large minority group, have also played an influential role in the island's history. Other long established groups include the Moors, the Burghers ...
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Tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head. Tambourines are often used with regular percussion sets. They can be mounted, for example on a stand as part of a drum kit (and played with drum sticks), or they can be held in the hand and played by tapping or hitting the instrument. Tambourines come in many shapes with the most common being circular. It is found in many forms of music: Turkish folk music, Greek folk music, Italian folk music, French folk music, classical music, Persian music, samba, gospel music, pop music, country music, and rock music. History The origin of the tambourine is unknown, but it appears in historical writings as early as 1700 BC and was used by ancient musicians in West Africa, the Middle East, Greece and India. The ...
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Rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time can apply to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or frequency of anything from microseconds to several seconds (as with the riff in a rock music song); to several minutes or hours, or, at the most extreme, even over many years. Rhythm is related to and distinguished from pulse, meter, and beats: In the performance arts, rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences that occur over time, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. In some performing arts, such as hip hop music, the rhythmic delivery of the lyrics is one of the most important elements of the style. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed mov ...
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Humour
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: ', "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke)—and thus are considered to have a ''sense of humour''. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste (aesthetics), taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, Maturity (psychological), maturity, level of education, inte ...
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Debate
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, academic institutions, debate halls, coffeehouses, competitions, and legislative assemblies. Debate has also been conducted for educational and recreational purposes, usually associated with educational establishments and debating societies. These debates put an emphasis upon logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeal to an audience. Modern forms of competitive debate also include rules for participants to discuss and decide upon the framework of the debate (how the debate will be judged). History Debating in various forms has a long history and can be traced back to the philosophical and political debates of Ancient Greece, such as Athenian democracy or Shastrartha in Ancient India. Modern forms of debating and the es ...
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Portuguese Language
Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe, while having co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as " Lusophone" (). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Celtic phonology in its lexicon. With approximately 250 million native speakers and 24 million L2 (second language) speakers, Portuguese has approximately 274 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the sixth-most spoken language, the third-most sp ...
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Modara
Modara ( si, මෝදර, translit=Mōdara; ta, முகத்துவாரம், translit=Mukattuvāram), also known as Mutwal ''(anglicised version)'', is a municipal ward of Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. The mouth of the river Kelani Ganga also lies nearby. It is part of the postal area ''Colombo 15''. See also * Rock House Army Camp Rock House Army Camp is a military base located at Modera, north of Colombo in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. It serves as the regimental headquarters of the Sri Lanka Armoured Corps of Sri Lanka Army. History The base gains its name from the ... References Populated places in Western Province, Sri Lanka {{WesternLK-geo-stub ...
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