ලයනල් රන්වල
10 songs performed · 7 compositions
Lionel Ranwala (also written Lional Ranwala), ලයනල් රන්වල, was a Sri Lankan singer, composer, music teacher and folk-music collector who devoted his career to bringing the country’s village folk traditions into popular Sinhala music. Born on 27 November 1939 and active across the second half of the twentieth century, he is remembered above all for founding the Ranwala Balakaya, the folk ensemble that carried his arrangements to a national audience.
Lionel Ranwala was born in Kalubowila and studied at Kalubowila Buddhagosha College, Kumara College Wellawatta and Lumbini College in Colombo. He later trained in music at Panjab University in Chandigarh, India, an education that shaped his lifelong interest in melody and traditional form.
Ranwala began teaching in 1959 and worked for nearly four decades at leading Colombo schools, among them Ananda College and Royal College. Working alongside his mentor W. B. Makuloluwa, he became a central figure in the revival of Sinhala folk music, adapting village tunes for the stage and recordings while keeping their original character. He travelled through rural Sri Lanka recording and notating folk songs, much of which is now held by the national archives.
His ensemble work reached the widest audience through the Ranwala Balakaya, and several of those recordings are featured on Lyrics-lk, including Me Awurudu Kale (මේ අවුරුදු කාලේ), the New Year song most closely associated with him, and Wannam Sawdam Gayana, drawn from the classical wannam dance tradition.
Lionel Ranwala’s catalogue leans on harvest, seasonal and village themes set to folk rhythms. He composed and sang much of his own material, and on Ahase Innawalu he worked with singer Saman De Silva. The Lional Ranwala recordings hosted on the site span planting and harvest songs as well as festival pieces.
Lionel Ranwala died on 13 November 2002. He founded a foundation dedicated to preserving folk music, and the folk songs he collected from villages were given to the national archives so they would not be lost. His arrangements remain a touchstone for Sinhala New Year and harvest celebrations, and the Ranwala Balakaya continued to perform his repertoire after his death, keeping the work of Lional Ranwala in the living tradition rather than the museum.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Lionel Ranwala.
Performed by: Lionel Ranwala (ලයනල් රන්වල), Saman De Silva (සමන් ද සිල්වා)