Notation Writing System in the Field of Applied Music in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Applied Music has been influenced by Eastern and Western arts throughout history, nurtured by various genres such as simple music, film music, tele - drama music and stage drama music. Simultaneously with that, Sri Lanka applied notation system has evolved over time from the sources of Western and Indian musical traditions to the present day. Also, there is no direct set of rules has been in place since the inception to the Sri Lankan applied notation system. As a result, it has taken the core elements of the Western and Eastern notation system and built the current notation system by incorporating the subjective knowledge of artists in the field of applied music. The purpose of this research is to find out how the basic features of Eastern and Western notation system have affected Sri Lankan notation writing system and the problems that have arisen with it. Data have been collected from the theoretical study of Western and Indian musical notation system and observations of applied musical notations rules, as well as from interviews with leading scholars in the field of applied music in Sri Lanka. The problem with this research is that there is no symbolic system for above complications of notation writing based on musical literacy and notation writing skills from musician to musician and no symbolic system to show up volume and effect control, dynamics, ornaments and tempo in notation system of applied music. The importance of this research is to solve the problems in the notation system of the Sri Lankan field of applied music and to identify the universally used symbols and techniques and adapt them to the Sri Lankan Musical Notations. The observation made in this research show that the symbols used to express the dynamics, the rules of notation writing, ornaments that exist in the use of Western and Indian music have not directly contributed to this.