Abstract:
It is evident that Sri Lankan musicologists have mainly used the meanings of traditional
folk poetry/verses and the occasions on which they are sung to categorize them. The
authors of this paper attempt to introduce a classification that can be used according to the
characteristics of the melody/pitches, focusing on seepada, currently only known as a poetic
stanza in Sinhala folk songs. The authors explain the distinctive features of seepada identified
employing yathi and the notion of ‘Cents’, a logarithmic unit used for measuring musical
intervals, and reveal those characteristics, acknowledging seepada as a traditional singing
style unique to Sri Lanka. Suggestions for sustaining this fading art form are presented in
this article including the urgent need for action by stakeholders to preserve the identity of
traditional Sinhala folk songs, music and melodies of Sri Lanka
