Gunadasa Kapuge

Gunadasa Kapuge (ගුණදාස කපුගේ; also written Gunadasa Kapuga), born Ellamulla Kapuge Gunadasa, was a Sri Lankan singer, composer and music director whose grave, philosophical voice made him one of the most distinctive figures in modern Sinhala music. From his 1973 debut to his death in 2003 he built a body of work prized for its social conscience and its weight of feeling, and his songs remain a fixture of the Sinhala diaspora’s listening.

Early life and training

Kapuge was born on 7 August 1945 in Thanabaddegama, a village near Elpitiya in southern Sri Lanka, the second of eight children. He studied at Karandeniya Central College and later Dharmasoka College in Ambalangoda, where he began in the sciences before turning to music. He went on to formal musical training, including study in India, before joining the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation late in the 1960s, where he worked as an operational assistant and, from 1975, as a programme producer.

Career and breakthrough

His first recorded song, Daasa Nilupul Thema (released in 1973), was an immediate success and earned him selection as a Grade A vocalist at Radio Ceylon. Over the following three decades Kapuge cut a series of cassette releases, among them Seethala Sanda Eliye, Unmada Sithuwam and Sanda Ra Sihinaye, that carried his reputation across the island.

In 1990 Gunadasa Kapuge launched Kampana, a one-man musical show that became a landmark of the Sinhala stage and which he is said to have performed close to a thousand times. Alongside his recording and concert work he served the SLBC as head of music for its Rajarata service and composed and sang playback for film and theatre.

Signature songs and collaborators

Kapuge worked closely with the lyricist Ratna Sri Wijesinghe, whose words suited his measured, often sombre delivery. Many of his best-loved recordings are hosted here, including Bimbarak Senaga, Uthuru Kone and Sonduru Numba Lihiniyaka. Kapuga composed the music for a number of his own songs as well as for other artists, and his settings are noted for their restraint and their fidelity to the lyric.

• Daasa Nilupul Thema
• Unmada Sithuwam
• Bimbarak Senaga
• Uthuru Kone
• Sonduru Numba Lihiniyaka
• Sanda Ra Sihinaye Radena Digasiye
• Bindu Bindu Tharaka
• Bindunu Pem Hada
• Birinda Mage Oba
• Mariyawe
• Kalladi Palama

Legacy

Gunadasa Kapuge died on 3 April 2003 at the Colombo National Hospital, after a fall from a shuttle bus at Bandaranaike International Airport. He was 57. Across the late 1990s he had received Presidential and Sarasavi awards for his singing, recognition of a catalogue admired as much for its political and social themes as for its melody. His son Mithra Kapuge has continued to perform his repertoire, and tribute concerts have kept the work in front of new audiences. For listeners who grew up with him, the songs of Gunadasa Kapuge remain among the most serious and enduring in the Sinhala canon.