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The WG St Clair Musical Orchestra in Ceylon, 1930-by Hugh Karunanayake Source:Thuppahis Western music in Sri Lanka today is a broad musical canvas encompassing many musical genres such as the classics, pop, jazz, rock and roll etc. It is indeed a live entity drawing musicians of talent to meet the unceasing demand from an ever-growing audience. Sri Lanka [today] boasts a formidable musical culture which seems to be institutionalised and embedded within all classes and ethnicities. At the turn of the twentieth century however, the musical scene was either non-existent or bleak enough to be relegated into the backwoods of social activity. The intervention which sparked off the change could be attributed to the efforts of two persons: Major and Mrs WG St Clair. Their names may not even evoke a nod of recognition in contemporary Sri Lanka, but in the 1920s and 30s, they were names to conjure with. ...