Abstract:
Arnold Adriaan Bake (1899–1963), a Dutch ethnomusicologist, dedicated his scholarly pursuits to
the investigation of the music and cultural intricacies of South Asia. Bake meticulously
documented and studied traditional music in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The aim of this study is
to investigate the contemporary status of the aboriginal Vedda people’s songs Bake recorded and
documented using his recording catalogue as a guide and to determine how the music has changed
overtime. The methodology integrates analyzing archival material with contemporary
ethnographic fieldwork to comprehensively investigate the dynamism of Vedda music from 1938
to 2024. Bake’s archival materials are taken from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
archives. However, it is noteworthy that the original recordings by Arnold Bake are currently
preserved and archived in the British Library Sound Archive. As part of the community
engagement process, historical Vedda recordings from the Bake’s collection were shared with the
Dabana Village Veddas, followed by interviews to investigate the evolving nature of their musical
traditions. During the interviews, participants were unable to identify the singers featured in Bake’s
audio recordings. The study illustrated significant discrepancies between Bake’s recordings and
contemporary Vedda songs by highlighting variations in melodic patterns, lyrical and phonetic
changes. We will argue that these changes are due to dynamics in Vedda formal education,
interaction and intermarriages with other ethnic groups. This illustrates the interplay between
cultural heritage and external factors, shedding light on the intricate processes shaping the musical
and linguistic expressions of the Vedda people over time.
