SRI LANKA ~Kandyan drummers~

...Happy looking musicians...wonderful costumes...life must be a lot nicer where the sun shines more...sigh...here it's cold, dark and rainy...makes me feel a bit down :(...Thanks a lot Ravindra!!

With a block of 4 lovely colorful flower stamps (Issued 07-10-2012)

There are various types of traditional drum. The most important is the classic Kandyan drum, the geta bera (literally “boss drum". This is a double-headed drum, measuring exactly 67cm (26in) long, slightly bigger in the middle than at the ends. The drum is suspended from the player’s waist by a piece of rope and played with both hands. Different skins are used for the two drum heads (monkey or goat on one side, for example, and cow on the other) to produce contrasting tones.
Sri Lankan drummers are usually deployed in ensembles (hewisi) of anything between three and, in the largest festivals, 50 performers.

Kandyan drumming is distinguished by its frequent sudden changes of tempo and highly irregular rhythmic patterns which ebb and flow in a series of percussive onslaughts – the almost telepathic coordination displayed by the members of top drum groups during performances can seem almost magical.