Academic literature on the topic 'Carnatic music, South Indian'

The violin is a major stringed instrument in South Indian music. It is played as the main instrument in Carnatic music and as an accompaniment to musical performances such as vocals. This is not the heritage instrument of India. Today there is no concert without Carnatic music. Thus it plays an important role in Carnatic music.The present form of this violin was composed in 16th century Italy. The violin, a folk instrument, was first used in South Indian music in the 18th century. It is also more important than any other instrument. It also plays an important role in major concerts. There are many reasons why it is played as the main instrument in Carnatic music more than any other instrument. It has developed to the point where it can be read more than any other instrument in the 20th century for various performances such as vocals, other instrumental events, orchestras, and dance performances. It is also found that Carnatic musicians (male/female) can adjust their pitch to suit their convenience. Since its introduction to Carnatic music, many great scholars have read and succeeded in Carnatic music. In addition, it plays a very important role in Palliya music and has a wide place in Carnatic music.

Music is an art that is loved by all the people of the world. Music is seen as the key factor in uniting all living beings in the world with God. There are many different types of music found all over the world. Among them, Carnatic music is found as a branch of Indian music genres. Carnatic music is seen as a music genre that mainly represents South India and is loved by many people worldwide. Our hymn is joyful. Music consists of three sections, namely: songs; instrumental music; and the mode of dancing. "Geetham" means vocal music, "Vaathiyam" means instrumental music, and "Niruthiyam" means dance. Carnatic music concerts are organised as vocal music and instrumental music concerts. The mridangam is the most important rhythmic and pitching instrument in Carnatic music concerts. The mridangam, the primary percussion instrument, is also the main instrument used in Carnatic music concerts to keep all the songs in a rhythmic pattern. In this research paper, the importance of the mridangam in Carnatic music concerts has been examined by presenting various matters. In that way, apart from the introduction and summary of the research paper, the introduction to the Carnatic music concert, the history of the mridangam instrument, and the uniqueness of the mridangam in Carnatic music concerts have been examined in this study.

Abstract Palghat Raghu was a master of the mridangam and one of the leading figures in South Indian Carnatic music. In this article, I want to contribute a perspective on his musical life and, through my reflections on my time with him, contribute insights toward a fuller understanding of Carnatic music and Western engagements with it. I do so by drawing on fieldwork I conducted in Chennai, India, at various times between 2005–2013. Specifically, I use examples of solkattu from my lessons with him to illustrate Raghu's approach to rhythm and the general rhythmic approach within Carnatic music, including the kinds of musical-cognitive skills involved in rhythmic production within the Carnatic system. By describing aspects of his practice and his various interactions with other musicians, I also reflect on his position as a culture-bearer and on the relationships between musical cultures.

Music is an integral part of human evolution. Indian music is religiously rooted and added as an essential part of religious activities. It is believed that Indian music originated and evolved from Samaveda. The origin of musical sounds perceived by birds and animals illustrates the close relationship of music with the environment. The other species of planet earth can also be influenced by music documented in various earlier literature. Experiments on the influence of music on the milking habit of cows started amid the 19th century in foreign countries. In India, this is a primordial attempt made by the author to study the influence of Carnatic music on the cows. This paper is intended to highlight the positive power of various aspects of Carnatic music on the milk yield of the cows. This paper is an outcome of the UGC- Major Research project, sanctioned to the author, entitled “Impact of Carnatic music on the milk yield of S.V. Gosamrakshanashala- Tirupati.”

We introduce two large open data collections of Indian Art Music, both its Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, comprising audio from vocal concerts, editorial metadata, and time-aligned melody, rhythm, and structure annotations. Shared under Creative Commons licenses, they currently form the largest annotated data collections available for computational analysis of Indian Art Music. The collections are intended to provide audio and ground truth for several music information research tasks and large-scale data-driven analysis in musicological studies. A part of the Saraga Carnatic collection also has multitrack recordings, making it a valuable collection for research on melody extraction, source separation, automatic mixing, and performance analysis. We describe the tenets and the process of collection, annotation, and organization of the data. We provide easy access to the audio, metadata, and the annotations in the collections through an API, along with a companion website that has example scripts to facilitate access and use of the data. To sustain and grow the collections, we provide a mechanism for both the research and music community to contribute additional data and annotations to the collections. We also present applications with the collections for music education, understanding, exploration, and discovery.

A vital aspect of Indian Classical music (ICM) is raga, which serves as a melodic framework for compositions and improvisations for both traditions of classical music. In this work, we propose a CNN-based sliding window analysis on mel-spectrogram and modgdgram for raga recognition in Carnatic music. The impor- tant contribution of the work is that the pro- posed method neither requires pitch extraction nor metadata for the estimation of raga. CNN learns the representation of raga from the pat- terns in the melspectrogram/ modgdgram dur- ing training through a sliding-window analysis. We train and test the network on sliced-mel- spectrogram/modgdgram of the original audio while the nal inference is performed on the au- dio as a whole. The performance is evaluated on 15 ragas from the CompMusic dataset. Multi- stream fusion has also been implemented to identify the potential of two feature representations. Multi-stream architecture shows promise in the proposed scheme for raga recognition.

Background and Objectives: The current study investigates pitch coding using frequency following response (FFR) among vocalists, violinists, and non-musicians for Indian Carnatic transition music stimuli and assesses whether their listening biographies strengthen their F0 neural encoding for these stimuli.Subjects and Methods: Three participant groups in the age range of 18-45 years were included in the study. The first group of participants consisted of 20 trained Carnatic vocalists, the second group consisted of 13 trained violinists, and the third group consisted of 22 non-musicians. The stimuli consisted of three Indian Carnatic raga notes (/S-R2-G3/), which was sung by a trained vocalist and played by a trained violinist. For the purposes of this study, the two transitions between the notes T1=/S-R2/ and T2=/R2-G3/ were analyzed, and FFRs were recorded binaurally at 80 dB SPL using neuroscan equipment.Results: Overall average responses of the participants were generated. To assess the participants’ pitch tracking to the Carnatic music stimuli, stimulus to response correlation (CC), pitch strength (PS), and pitch error (PE) were measured. Results revealed that both the vocalists and violinists had better CC and PS values with lower PE values, as compared to non-musicians, for both vocal and violin T1 and T2 transition stimuli. Between the musician groups, the vocalists were found to perform superiorly to the violinists for both vocal and violin T1 and T2 transition stimuli.Conclusions: Listening biographies strengthened F0 neural coding, with respect to the vocalists for vocal stimulus at the brainstem level. The violinists, on the other hand, did not show such preference.

This research project is a documentation of a developmental journey centered on the incorporation of rhythmic elements from South Indian Carnatic music into an existing musical practice. The research provides an insight into the creative process of learning, adaptation and recontextualization of new musical elements into an existing musical practice that may provide a model and transferable methodology for musicians endeavouring to undertake similar research journeys of musical development. The Adaptation of Indian Carnatic Rhythmic Structures and Improvisation Methods into Drum Set Language and Performance explores the transformation process that occurs as a result of incorporating Carnatic rhythmic elements into the author’s drum set playing style. Through learning Carnatic rhythms, adapting the rhythms to the drum set and then applying the rhythms to musical situations, the research aims to observe the influence of this process on the author’s drum set playing within a performance context. The research focuses on examining the drum set playing on two different recordings. The recordings are presented as the creative works of the research, emphasizing audio-as-research which places listening as the central method of transmission. The creative works can be considered the primary vehicles through which the investigation of the performance practice occurs, with the exegesis serving to place the recordings within a written research context. The exegesis also provides the necessary background and contextual framework for the creative works.
Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
Queensland Conservatorium of Music
Arts, Education and Law
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This research considers musicians from different cultural backgrounds, improvising together, and ‘improvising’ new musical contexts. It springs from my practice as a composer and improvising guitarist, exploring the borders between South Indian Carnatic music and jazz. The process of collaborating with musicians from different traditions raises questions about the ways that musicians draw on their acquired knowledge in the production of intercultural music: How do musicians from different cultures interpret each others’ musical gestures and negotiate a cohesive performance? At play throughout the dissertation are the conflicting notions of individual expression, and culturally derived archetypal models of expression. The relationship between musicians and cultures is explored through an ethnographic methodology. The dissertation begins with a critical review of the literature on intercultural hybridity that reveals the way that power inequalities have historically characterised many of the exchanges between the West and its Others. In the course of analysing the products of interculture, the discussion also examines the inherent problem of hybridity’s reception, given the different cultural frames of reference of different audiences. From the analysis of hybridity, improvisation emerges as a key locus for examining the way in which musicians are heard to negotiate self and culture in intercultural hybridity. A new understanding of improvisation is proposed based on an examination of the literature from diverse disciplines including cognitive psychology, complex adaptive systems, embodiment and ethnographic accounts of improvisers. Improvisation is situated as a dynamic process of developing preferences based on cultural acquisition, which enables us to understand the different approaches developed by improvisers and broader cultural differences between musical systems. The relationship between improvisation and culture necessitates a rethinking of the way that we listen to and analyse the products of interculture.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Queensland Conservatorium
Arts, Education and Law
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This research looks at contemporary understandings of performance arts in India, specifically Karnatic Music and Bharatnatyam as ‘religious’ arts. Historically, music and dance were performed and patronized in royal courts and temples. In the early 20th century, increased nationalist activities led to various forms of self-scrutiny about what represented ‘true’ Indian culture. By appropriating colonial discourses based on the religious/secular dichotomy, Karnatic Music was carefully constructed to represent a ‘pure’ Indian, specifically ‘Hindu’ culture that was superior to the ‘materialistic’ Western culture. Importantly, the category called divine was re-constructed and distinguished from the erotic: the divine was represented as a category that was sacred whilst the erotic represented ‘sexual impropriety.’ In so doing, performance arts in the public sphere became explicitly gendered. Feminity and masculinity were re-defined: the female body was re-imagined as ‘sexual impropriety’ when in the public sphere, but when disembodied in the private sphere could be deified as a guardian of spirituality. Traditional performing communities were marginalized while the newly defined music and dance was appropriated by the Brahmin community, who assumed the role of guardians of the newly constructed Indian-Hindu identity, resulting in caste-based ‘ownership’ of performance arts. Mechanical reproduction of Karnatic Music has created a disconnect in contemporary Indian society, in which Karnatic Music is disembodied from its contexts in order to be commodified as an individual’s artistic expression of creativity. This move marks a shift from substantive economics (music was performed and experienced within a specific context, be it royal patronage or Indian nationalist movements) to formal economics (music as a performer’s creative property). I question the understanding of Karnatic Music as ‘religious’ music that is distinguished from the ‘secular’ and seek to understand the colonial patriarchal mystification of the female body in the private sphere by deconstructing the definition of the ‘divine.’ In doing so, I also question the contemporary understanding of Karnatic Music as an item of property that disembodies the music from its historical context.

Automatically describing contents of recorded music is crucial for interacting with large volumes of audio recordings, and for developing novel tools to facilitate music pedagogy. Melody is a fundamental facet in most music traditions and, therefore, is an indispensable component in such description. In this thesis, we develop computational approaches for analyzing high-level melodic aspects of music performances in Indian art music (IAM), with which we can describe and interlink large amounts of audio recordings. With its complex melodic framework and well-grounded theory, the description of IAM melody beyond pitch contours offers a very interesting and challenging research topic. We analyze melodies within their tonal context, identify melodic patterns, compare them both within and across music pieces, and finally, characterize the specific melodic context of IAM, the rāgas. All these analyses are done using data-driven methodologies on sizable curated music corpora. Our work paves the way for addressing several interesting research problems in the field of mu- sic information research, as well as developing novel applications in the context of music discovery and music pedagogy. The thesis starts by compiling and structuring largest to date music corpora of the two IAM traditions, Hindustani and Carnatic music, comprising quality audio recordings and the associated metadata. From them we extract the predominant pitch and normalize by the tonic context. An important element to describe melodies is the identification of the meaningful temporal units, for which we propose to detect occurrences of nyās svaras in Hindustani music, a landmark that demarcates musically salient melodic patterns. Utilizing these melodic features, we extract musically relevant recurring melodic pat- terns. These patterns are the building blocks of melodic structures in both improvisation and composition. Thus, they are fundamental to the description of audio collections in IAM. We propose an unsupervised approach that employs time-series analysis tools to discover melodic patterns in sizable music collections. We first carry out an in-depth supervised analysis of melodic similarity, which is a critical component in pattern discovery. We then improve upon the best possible competing approach by exploiting peculiar melodic characteristics in IAM. To identify musically meaningful patterns, we exploit the relationships between the discovered patterns by performing a network analysis. Extensive listening tests by professional musicians reveal that the discovered melodic patterns are musically interesting and significant. Finally, we utilize our results for recognizing rāgas in recorded performances of IAM. We propose two novel approaches that jointly capture the tonal and the temporal aspects of melody. Our first approach uses melodic patterns, the most prominent cues for rāga identification by humans. We utilize the discovered melodic patterns and employ topic modeling techniques, wherein we regard a rāga rendition similar to a textual description of a topic. In our second approach, we propose the time delayed melodic surface, a novel feature based on delay coordinates that captures the melodic outline of a rāga. With these approaches we demonstrate unprecedented accuracies in rāga recognition on the largest datasets ever used for this task. Although our approach is guided by the characteristics of melodies in IAM and the task at hand, we believe our methodology can be easily extended to other melody dominant music traditions. Overall, we have built novel computational methods for analyzing several melodic aspects of recorded performances in IAM, with which we describe and interlink large amounts of music recordings. In this process we have developed several tools and compiled data that can be used for a number of computational studies in IAM, specifically in characterization of rāgas, compositions and artists. The technologies resulted from this research work are a part of several applications developed within the CompMusic project for a better description, enhanced listening experience, and pedagogy in IAM.
La descripció automàtica d’enregistraments musicals és crucial per interactuar amb grans volums de dades i per al desenvolupament de noves eines per a la pedagogia musical. La melodia és una faceta fonamental en la majoria de les tradicions musicals i, per tant, és un component indispensable per a la descripció automàtica d’enregistraments musicals. En aquesta tesi desenvolupem sistemes computacionals per analitzar aspectes melòdics d'alt nivell presents en la música clàssica de l’Índia (MCI), a partir dels quals descrivim i interconnectem grans quantitats d'enregistraments d'àudio. La descripció de melodies en la MCI, complexes i amb una base teòrica ben fonamentada, va més enllà de l’anàlisi estàndard de contorns de to (“pitch” en anglès), i, per tant, és un tema de recerca molt interessant i tot un repte. Analitzem les melodies dins del seu context tonal, identifiquem patrons melòdics, els comparem tant amb ells mateixos com amb altres enregistraments, i, finalment, caracteritzem el context melòdic específic de la música IAM: els rāgas. Tots els anàlisis s’han realitzat utilitzant metodologies basades en dades, amb un corpus musical de mida considerable. Iniciem la tesi recopilant la col·lecció més gran de MCI obtinguda fins al moment. Aquesta col·lecció comprèn enregistraments de qualitat amb metadades de música Hindustani i Carnatic, les dues grans tradicions de la MCI. A partir d’aquí analitzem el to predominant i normalitzem la peça pel context tonal. Un element important per a descriure melodies és la identificació d’unitats temporals rellevants, per la qual cosa detectem les ocurrències de nyās svaras en la MCI, que serveixen com a marques identificadores dels patrons melòdics més destacats. Utilitzant aquestes característiques melòdiques, extraiem els patrons melòdics recurrents més destacats. Aquests patrons són els blocs que construeixen les estructures melòdiques, tant en la improvisació i com en la composició. Per tant, són fonamentals per a la descripció de col·leccions de música MCI. Proposem partir d’un enfocament no supervisat que utilitza eines d'anàlisi basades en sèries temporals per descobrir patrons melòdics en grans col·leccions de música. En primer lloc, hem realitzat un anàlisi supervisat extensiu sobre la similitud melòdica, que és un component fonamental per al descobriment de patrons. A continuació, millorem els resultats (respecte al millor competidor segons l’estat de la qüestió) explotant les característiques peculiars dels patrons melòdics de la música MCI. Per identificar patrons musicalment rellevants, explotem les relacions entre els patrons descoberts mitjançant un anàlisi de xarxa. Extenses proves realitzades amb músics professionals revelen que els patrons melòdics descoberts són musicalment interessants i significatius. Finalment, fem servir els nostres resultats per al reconeixement de rāgas en actuacions gravades d'IAM. Proposem dos enfocaments nous que capturen conjuntament el to i els aspectes temporals de la melodia. El primer enfoc utilitza patrons melòdics, l’aspecte més important per als éssers humans a l’hora d’identificar rāgas. Utilitzem els patrons melòdics descoberts i fem servir tècniques de modelatge de temes (“topic modeling” en anglès), on considerem que la interpretació d’un raga és similar a la descripció textual d’un tema. En el nostre segon enfocament, proposem utilitzar el “time delayed melodic surface”, una característica innovadora basada en coordenades de retard que captura l’evolució melòdica del rāga. Amb aquests enfocaments demostrem una precisió sense precedents per al reconeixement de rāgas en el conjunt de dades més gran utilitzat mai per a aquesta tasca. Encara que el nostre enfocament està basat en les característiques de les melodies MCI i la tasca en qüestió, creiem que la nostra metodologia es pot estendre fàcilment a altres tradicions de la música on la melodia és rellevant. En general, hem incorporat nous mètodes computacionals per a l'anàlisi de diversos aspectes melòdics per a interpretacions de MCI, a partir dels quals descrivim i inter-connectem gran quantitat d'enregistraments de música. En aquest procés hem recopilat dades i hem desenvolupat diverses eines que poden ser utilitzades per a diferents estudis computacionals per a MCI, específicament en la caracterització de rāgas, composicions i artistes. Les tecnologies resultants d'aquest treball d’investigació són part de diverses aplicacions desenvolupades dins el projecte CompMusic que pretén millorar la descripció, l’experiència auditiva, i la pedagogia de la MCI.
La descripción automática del contenido de música grabada es crucial para la interacción con grandes colecciones de grabaciones de audio y para el desarrollo de nuevas herramientas que faciliten la pedagogía musical. La melodía es un aspecto fundamental para la mayoría de las tradiciones musicales, y es por tanto un componente indispensable para tal descripción. En esta tesis desarrollamos propuestas computacionales para el análisis de aspectos melódicos de alto nivel en interpretaciones musicales de Música Clásica de la India (MCI), con las que podemos describir e interrelacionar grandes cantidades de grabaciones de audio. Debido a su complejidad melódica y a su sólido marco teórico, la descripción de la melodía en MCI más allá de la línea melódica supone un interesante y desafiante objeto de investigación. Analizamos melodías en su contexto tonal, identificamos patrones melódicos, comparamos ambos tanto en piezas individuales como entre diferentes piezas, y finalmente caracterizamos el contexto melódico específico de MCI, los rāgas. Todos estos análisis se llevan a cabo mediante métodos dirigidos por datos en corpus de música de considerable tamaño y meticulosamente organizados. La tesis comienza con la confección y estructuración de los mayores corpus musicales hasta la fecha de las dos tradiciones de MCI, indostaní y carnática. Dichos corpus están formados por grabaciones de audio de alta calidad y sus correspondientes metadatos. De estas extraemos la línea melódica predominante y la normalizamos según la tónica de su contexto. Un elemento importante para la descripción de melodías es la identificación de unidades temporales significativas, para lo que proponemos detectar en música indostaní las ocurrencias de nyās svaras, marcas que delimitan patrones melódicos musicalmente prominentes. A partir de estas características melódicas, extraemos patrones melódicos recurrentes y musicalmente relevantes. Estos patrones son las unidades básicas con las que se construyen estructuras melódicas tanto en improvisaciones como composiciones, y por tanto son fundamentales para la descripción de colecciones de audio en MCI. Proponemos un método no supervisado basado en el análisis de las series temporales para el descubrimiento de patrones melódicos en colecciones musicales de tamaño considerable. En primer lugar llevamos a cabo un análisis supervisado en profundidad de similitud melódica, que es el componente crítico para el descubrimiento de patrones. A continuación mejoramos la propuesta más competitiva sirviéndonos de las características melódicas propias de MCI. Para identificar patrones musicalmente significativos, hacemos uso de las relaciones entre los patrones descubiertos mediante la implementación de análisis de redes. Exhaustivas evaluaciones auditivas por parte de músicos profesionales de los patrones melódicos descubiertos revelan que estos son musicalmente interesantes y significativos. Finalmente, utilizamos nuestros resultados para el reconocimiento de rāgas en interpretaciones grabadas de MCI. Proponemos dos métodos nuevos que captan conjuntamente los aspectos tonales y temporales de la melodía. Nuestro primer método se sirve de patrones melódicos, los principales indicadores para la identificación de rāgas por parte de oyentes humanos. Utilizamos los patrones melódicos descubiertos y empleamos técnicas de modelado de temas, en las que equiparamos la interpretación de un rāga a la descripción textual de un tema. En nuestro segundo método, proponemos una superficie melódica de tiempo de retardo, una característica nueva basada en las coordenadas de retraso que captan el contorno melódico de un rāga. Con estos métodos alcanzamos precisiones sin precedentes en el reconocimiento de rāgas en los mayores conjuntos de datos nunca usados para esta tarea. Aunque nuestra propuesta se fundamenta en las características de las melodías en MCI y la tarea en cuestión, creemos que nuestra metodología puede ser fácilmente aplicable a otras tradiciones musicales predominantemente melódicas. En resumen, hemos construido nuevos métodos computacionales para el análisis de varios aspectos melódicos de interpretaciones grabadas de MCI, con las que describimos e interrelacionamos grandes cantidades de grabaciones musicales. En este proceso hemos desarrollado varias herramientas y reunido datos que pueden ser empleados en numerosos estudios computacionales de MCI, específicamente para la caracterización de rāgas, composiciones y artistas. Las tecnologías resultantes de este trabajo de investigación son parte de varias aplicaciones desarrolladas en el proyecto CompMusic para la mejora de la descripción, experiencia de escucha, y enseñanza de MCI.

This thesis is a result of our research efforts in building a multi-modal knowledgebase for the specific case of Carnatic music. Besides making use of metadata and symbolic notations, we process natural language text and audio data to extract culturally relevant and musically meaningful information and structuring it with formal knowledge representations. This process broadly consists of two parts. In the first part, we analyze the audio recordings for intonation description of pitches used in the performances. We conduct a thorough survey and evaluation of the previously proposed pitch distribution based approaches on a common dataset, outlining their merits and limitations. We propose a new data model to describe pitches to overcome the shortcomings identified. This expands the perspective of the note model in-vogue to cater to the conceptualization of melodic space in Carnatic music. We put forward three different approaches to retrieve compact description of pitches used in a given recording employing our data model. We qualitatively evaluate our approaches comparing the representations of pitched obtained from our approach with those from a manually labeled dataset, showing that our data model and approaches have resulted in representations that are very similar to the latter. Further, in a raaga classification task on the largest Carnatic music dataset so far, two of our approaches are shown to outperform the state-of-the-art by a statistically significant margin. In the second part, we develop knowledge representations for various concepts in Carnatic music, with a particular emphasis on the melodic framework. We discuss the limitations of the current semantic web technologies in expressing the order in sequential data that curtails the application of logical inference. We present our use of rule languages to overcome this limitation to a certain extent. We then use open information extraction systems to retrieve concepts, entities and their relationships from natural language text concerning Carnatic music. We evaluate these systems using the concepts and relations from knowledge representations we have developed, and groundtruth curated using Wikipedia data. Thematic domains like Carnatic music have limited volume of data available online. Considering that these systems are built forweb-scale data where repetitions are taken advantage of, we compare their performances qualitatively and quantitatively, emphasizing characteristics desired for cases such as this. The retrieved concepts and entities are mapped to those in the metadata. In the final step, using the knowledge representations developed, we publish and integrate the information obtained from different modalities to a knowledge-base. On this resource, we demonstrate how linking information from different modalities allows us to deduce conclusions which otherwise would not have been possible.
Esta tesis es resultado de nuestro trabajo de investigación para construir una base de conocimiento multimodal para el caso específico de la música carnática. Además de hacer uso de metadatos y notación simbólica, procesamos texto de lenguaje natural y datos de audio para extraer información culturalmente relevante y musicalmente significativa, y estructurarla con representaciones formales de conocimiento. En líneas generales, este proceso consiste en dos partes. En la primera parte, analizamos grabaciones de audio para describir la entonación de las alturas usadas en las interpretaciones. Llevamos a cabo un exhaustivo análisis y evaluación de los métodos basados en distribución de altura propuestos anteriormente, señalando sus ventajas y limitaciones. Proponemos un nuevo modelo de datos para la descripción de alturas con el fin de superar las limitaciones identificadas. Esto amplía la perspectiva del modelo actual de nota para contribuir a la conceptualización del espacio melódico en música carnática. Ofrecemos tres propuestas diferentes para la extracción de una descripción compacta de las alturas usadas en una grabación dada utilizando nuestro modelo de datos. Evaluamos cualitativamente nuestras propuestas comparando las representaciones de alturas obtenidas según nuestro método con aquellas procedentes de un conjunto de datos anotado manualmente, con lo que mostramos que nuestro modelo de datos y nuestras propuestas resultan en representaciones muy similares a estas últimas. Además, en una tarea de clasificación de raagas en el mayor conjunto de datos de música carnática hasta la fecha, dos de nuestras propuestas muestran mejor rendimiento que el estado del arte con un margen estadístico significativo. En la segunda parte, desarrollamos representaciones de conocimiento para varios conceptos en música carnática, con un particular énfasis en el marco melódico. Discutimos las limitaciones de las tecnologías de web semántica actuales para expresar el orden de datos secuenciales, lo que restringe la aplicación de inferencia lógica. Presentamos nuestro uso de lenguajes de reglas para superar hasta cierto punto esta limitación. A continuación utilizamos sistemas abiertos de extracción de información para extraer conceptos, entidades y sus relaciones a partir de texto de lenguaje natural relacionado con música carnática. Evaluamos estos sistemas usando los conceptos y las relaciones de las representaciones de conocimiento que hemos desarrollado, así como información de referencia contrastada con datos de Wikipedia. Dominios temáticos como el de música carnática tienen un volumen limitado de datos disponibles en internet. Considerando que estos sistemas están construidos para datos a escala de la web, en la que es posible beneficiarse de las repeticiones, comparamos sus rendimientos cualitativa y cuantitativamente, enfatizando las características deseadas para casos como este. Los conceptos y entidades extraídas son mapeadas a aquellos existentes en los metadatos. En el paso final, usando las representaciones de conocimiento desarrolladas, publicamos e integramos la información obtenida por diferentes modalidades en una base de conocimiento. Con este recurso demostramos como la conexión de información de diferentes modalidades nos permite deducir conclusiones que de otra manera no habrían sido posibles.
Aquesta tesi és el resultat de la nostra investigació per a construir una base de coneixement multimodal per a la música Carnàtica. A part d’utilitzar metadades i representacions simbòliques musicals, també processem text en llenguatge natural i l’àudio mateix per tal d’extreure informació que sigui rellevant tant des d’un punt de vista cultural com musical i que puguem estructurar amb representacions formals de coneixement. El procés que seguim està compost principalment de dues parts. En la primera part analitzem les gravacions d’àudio per descriure’n l’entonació de les altures tonals utilitzades. Comparem i avaluem aproximacions existents basades en histogrames d’altures tonals utilitzant una base de dades comuna de referència i en subratllem els avantatges i les limitacions. Proposem un nou model de dades per descriure l’altura tonal de les notes i superar les limitacions prèviament identificades. Aquest model va més enllà dels ja establerts i permet acomodar la conceptualització de l’espai melòdic en la música Carnàtica. Utilitzant el nostre model de dades proposem tres mètodes diferents per extreure descripcions compactes de les altures tonals de les notes d’una gravació. Fem una avaluació qualitativa a través de la comparació de descripcions generades amb els mètodes proposats i descripcions generades manualment, i comprovem que els nostres mètodes generen descripcions molt semblants a les generades manualment. També comprovem com els nostres mètodes són útils per a la classificació de raga avaluant amb la base de dades més gran de música Carnàtica que s’ha creat fins al dia d’avui. Dos dels nostres mètodes obtenen puntuacions més altes que els millors mètodes existents, amb marges de millora estadísticament significatius. En la segona part de la nostra investigació desenvolupem representacions de coneixement sobre diversos conceptes de la música Carnàtica, posant un èmfasi especial en aspectes melòdics. Parlem sobre les limitacions de les tecnologies de la web semàntica pel que fa a la representació del concepte d’ordre en dades seqüencials, fet que limita les possibilitats d’inferències lògiques. Proposem l’ús de llenguatges de normes per, fins a cert punt, superar aquestes limitacions. Després utilitzem sistemes d’extracció d’informació per recuperar conceptes, entitats i les seves relacions a partir de l’anàlisi de text natural sobre música Carnàtica. Avaluem aquests sistemes utilitzant conceptes i relacions extretes de representacions de coneixement que nosaltres mateixos hem desenvolupat i també utilitzant dades curades provinents de la Wikipedia. Per temàtiques com la música Carnàtica hi ha un volum de dades limitat accessible en línia. Tenint en compte que aquests sistemes estan pensats per funcionar amb grans volums de dades on les repeticions són importants, en fem una comparació qualitativa i quantitativa emfatitzant aquelles característiques més rellevants per casos amb volums de dades limitats. Els conceptes i entitats recuperades són emparellats amb conceptes i entitats presents a les nostres metadades. Finalment, utilitzant les representacions de coneixement desenvolupades, integrem les informacions obtingues de les diferents modalitats i les publiquem en una base de coneixement. Utilitzant aquesta base de coneixement demostrem com el fet de combinar informacions provinents de diferents modalitats ens permet arribar a conclusions que d’una altra manera no haurien estat possibles.

This dissertation is an exploration of the rhythmic concepts used in two South Indian musical theory concepts, solkattu and konokol. Konokol application largely depends on instrument limitations and musical contexts. The principle focus here is on my personal application of konokol to the guitar both through composed and improvised music. A detailed study of konokol was undertaken through private lessons in India and personal experimentation to determine how these concepts could be adapted to Western improvisation, harmony and composition, as well as right--‐hand classical guitar and plectrum techniques. This was done intuitively by exploring guitar techniques and konokol simultaneously. The outcome of this study was a process applied to guitar composition and improvisation. Graphic numerical tables and geometrical representations are outlined in this dissertation as a guide to understanding this process. The second outcome of this research includes a series of Western compositions improvised and through--‐composed. This outcome explores a fundamental concept, the practical applications of konokol and mrdangam patterns to guitar composition and guitar improvisation. The appendices include a practical reference guide to many of these concepts, providing a valuable and a beneficial resource for any musician who would like to use and understand rhythmic concepts outside the Western musical tradition. A compact disc of my original compositions demonstrating my application of konokol concepts and theories to guitar composition is also included as part of this research. This dissertation presents an alternative framework and methodology to the Western canon of rhythmic knowledge and involves rethinking numbers, rhythm and phrasing in a manner that is essentially different to the Western pedagogy of rhythmic knowledge. Possible future research on the collective memory and fractal design of konokol and how this is related to memory is also proposed.

Las colecciones de música son cada vez mayores y más variadas, haciendo necesarias nuevas fórmulas para su organización automática. El análisis automático del ritmo tiene como fin la extracción de información rítmica de grabaciones musicales y es una de las principales áreas de investigación en la disciplina de recuperación de la información musical (MIR por sus siglas en inglés). La dimensión rítmica de la música es específica a una cultura y por tanto su análisis requiere métodos que incluyan el contexto cultural. Las complejidades rítmicas de la música clásica de la India, una de las mayores tradiciones musicales del mundo, no han sido tratadas hasta la fecha en MIR, motivo por el cual la elegimos como nuestro principal objeto de estudio. Nuestra intención es abordar cuestiones de análisis rítmico aún no tratadas en MIR con el fin de contribuir a la disciplina con nuevos métodos sensibles al contexto cultural y generalizables a otras tradiciones musicales. El objetivo de la tesis es el desarrollo de técnicas de procesamiento de señales y aprendizaje automático dirigidas por datos para el análisis, descripción y descubrimiento automáticos de estructuras y patrones rítmicos en colecciones de audio de música clásica de la India. Tras identificar retos y posibilidades, así como varias tareas de investigación relevantes para este objetivo, detallamos la elaboración del corpus de estudio y conjuntos de datos, fundamentales para métodos dirigidos por datos. A continuación, nos centramos en las tareas de análisis métrico y descubrimiento de patrones de percusión. El análisis métrico consiste en la alineación de eventos métricos a diferentes niveles con una grabación de audio. En la tesis formulamos las tareas de deducción de metro, seguimiento de metro y seguimiento informado de metro de acuerdo a la tradición estudiada, se evalúan diferentes modelos bayesianos capaces de incorporar explícitamente información de estructuras métricas de niveles superiores y se proponen nuevas extensiones. Los métodos propuestos superan las limitaciones de las propuestas existentes y los resultados indican la efectividad del análisis informado de metro. La percusión en la música clásica de la India utiliza onomatopeyas para la transmisión del repertorio y la técnica. Utilizamos estas sílabas para definir, representar y descubrir patrones en grabaciones de solos de percusión. A tal fin generamos una transcripción automática basada en un modelo oculto de Márkov, seguida de una búsqueda aproximada de subcadenas usando una biblioteca de patrones de percusión derivada de datos. Experimentos preliminares en patrones de percusión de ópera de Pekín, y en grabaciones de solos de tabla y mridangam, demuestran la utilidad de estas sílabas, identificando nuevos retos para el desarrollo de sistemas prácticos de descubrimiento. Las tecnologías resultantes de esta investigación son parte de un conjunto de herramientas desarrollado en el proyecto CompMusic para el mejor entendimiento y organización de la música clásica de la India, con el objetivo de proveer una experiencia mejorada de escucha y descubrimiento de música. Estos datos y herramientas pueden ser también relevantes para estudios musicológicos dirigidos por datos y otras tareas de MIR que puedan beneficiarse de análisis automáticos de ritmo.
Large and growing collections of a wide variety of music are now available on demand to music listeners, necessitating novel ways of automatically structuring these collections using different dimensions of music. Rhythm is one of the basic music dimensions and its automatic analysis, which aims to extract musically meaningful rhythm related information from music, is a core task in Music Information Research (MIR). Musical rhythm, similar to most musical dimensions, is culture-specific and hence its analysis requires culture-aware approaches. Indian art music is one of the major music traditions of the world and has complexities in rhythm that have not been addressed by the current state of the art in MIR, motivating us to choose it as the primary music tradition for study. Our intent is to address unexplored rhythm analysis problems in Indian art music to push the boundaries of the current MIR approaches by making them culture-aware and generalizable to other music traditions. The thesis aims to build data-driven signal processing and machine learning approaches for automatic analysis, description and discovery of rhythmic structures and patterns in audio music collections of Indian art music. After identifying challenges and opportunities, we present several relevant research tasks that open up the field of automatic rhythm analysis of Indian art music. Data-driven approaches require well curated data corpora for research and efforts towards creating such corpora and datasets are documented in detail. We then focus on the topics of meter analysis and percussion pattern discovery in Indian art music. Meter analysis aims to align several hierarchical metrical events with an audio recording. Meter analysis tasks such as meter inference, meter tracking and informed meter tracking are formulated for Indian art music. Different Bayesian models that can explicitly incorporate higher level metrical structure information are evaluated for the tasks and novel extensions are proposed. The proposed methods overcome the limitations of existing approaches and their performance indicate the effectiveness of informed meter analysis. Percussion in Indian art music uses onomatopoeic oral mnemonic syllables for the transmission of repertoire and technique, providing a language for percussion. We use these percussion syllables to define, represent and discover percussion patterns in audio recordings of percussion solos. We approach the problem of percussion pattern discovery using hidden Markov model based automatic transcription followed by an approximate string search using a data derived percussion pattern library. Preliminary experiments on Beijing opera percussion patterns, and on both tabla and mridangam solo recordings in Indian art music demonstrate the utility of percussion syllables, identifying further challenges to building practical discovery systems. The technologies resulting from the research in the thesis are a part of the complete set of tools being developed within the CompMusic project for a better understanding and organization of Indian art music, aimed at providing an enriched experience with listening and discovery of music. The data and tools should also be relevant for data-driven musicological studies and other MIR tasks that can benefit from automatic rhythm analysis.
Les col·leccions de música són cada vegada més grans i variades, fet que fa necessari buscar noves fórmules per a organitzar automàticament aquestes col·leccions. El ritme és una de les dimensions bàsiques de la música, i el seu anàlisi automàtic és una de les principals àrees d'investigació en la disciplina de l'recuperació de la informació musical (MIR, acrònim de la traducció a l'anglès). El ritme, com la majoria de les dimensions musicals, és específic per a cada cultura i per tant, el seu anàlisi requereix de mètodes que incloguin el context cultural. La complexitat rítmica de la música clàssica de l'Índia, una de les tradicions musicals més grans al món, no ha estat encara treballada en el camp d'investigació de MIR - motiu pel qual l'escollim com a principal material d'estudi. La nostra intenció és abordar les problemàtiques que presenta l'anàlisi rítmic de la música clàssica de l'Índia, encara no tractades en MIR, amb la finalitat de contribuir en la disciplina amb nous models sensibles al context cultural i generalitzables a altres tradicions musicals. L'objectiu de la tesi consisteix en desenvolupar tècniques de processament de senyal i d'aprenentatge automàtic per a l'anàlisi, descripció i descobriment automàtic d'estructures i patrons rítmics en col·leccions de música clàssica de l'Índia. Després d'identificar els reptes i les oportunitats, així com les diverses tasques d'investigació rellevants per a aquest objectiu, detallem el procés d'elaboració del corpus de dades, fonamentals per als mètodes basats en dades. A continuació, ens centrem en les tasques d'anàlisis mètric i descobriment de patrons de percussió. L'anàlisi mètric consisteix en alinear els diversos esdeveniments mètrics -a diferents nivells- que es produeixen en una gravació d'àudio. En aquesta tesi formulem les tasques de deducció, seguiment i seguiment informat de la mètrica. D'acord amb la tradició musical estudiada, s'avaluen diferents models bayesians que poden incorporar explícitament estructures mètriques d'alt nivell i es proposen noves extensions per al mètode. Els mètodes proposats superen les limitacions dels mètodes ja existents i el seu rendiment indica l'efectivitat dels mètodes informats d'anàlisis mètric. La percussió en la música clàssica de l'Índia utilitza onomatopeies per a la transmissió del repertori i de la tècnica, fet que construeix un llenguatge per a la percussió. Utilitzem aquestes síl·labes percussives per a definir, representar i descobrir patrons en enregistraments de solos de percussió. Enfoquem el problema del descobriment de patrons percussius amb un model de transcripció automàtica basat en models ocults de Markov, seguida d'una recerca aproximada de strings utilitzant una llibreria de patrons de percussions derivada de dades. Experiments preliminars amb patrons de percussió d'òpera de Pequín, i amb gravacions de solos de tabla i mridangam, demostren la utilitat de les síl·labes percussives. Identificant, així, nous horitzons per al desenvolupament de sistemes pràctics de descobriment. Les tecnologies resultants d'aquesta recerca són part de les eines desenvolupades dins el projecte de CompMusic, que té com a objectiu millorar l'experiència d'escoltar i descobrir música per a la millor comprensió i organització de la música clàssica de l'Índia, entre d'altres. Aquestes dades i eines poden ser rellevants per a estudis musicològics basats en dades i, també, altres tasques MIR poden beneficiar-se de l'anàlisi automàtic del ritme.

During the mid-1930s, a tradition of music-making which drew its repertoire almost exclusively from the music of Indian films began among Indian South African ensembles in and around the city of Durban. This dissertation examines the ways in which the re-created music of Indian films served as a popular expressive medium for the majority of Indian South Africans in and around the city of Durban between 1930 and 1970. Unlike ethnomusicological and popular music studies that focus on musics which are generally both composed and performed by the same group of people, this study deals with a repertoire that was by and large imported directly from another geo- 'graphic, political, and social context: India. The study is based on the premise that the performance of music can serve as a valuable historical text, and it posits that the musical structures and performance practices of the ensembles under study encode vital information about shared socio-political experiences and the Indian South African identities that emerged during the period under discussion.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

Weddings have always been an indispensable and auspicious part of Hindu life both in South Africa and in India. This study is an examination of one aspect of Hindu weddings, viz. the vocal and sometimes instrumental recital of songs of blessing and praise. These songs are known as mangalams and have evolved in South Africa in the last century due to various factors. Analysis of the mangalam enables us to understand how traditions and customs continue and change in accordance with changing circumstances. Much of the data presented in this thesis has been gleaned from oral sources and, as such, the methodology of oral history has been extremely influential in the shaping of this dissertation.
Thesis (M.Mus)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

This chapter exposes the role of expressive culture in the rise and spread of late twentieth-century Hindu identity politics. Rumya S. Putcha examines how Hindu nationalism is fueled by affective logics that have crystallized around the female classical dancer and have situated her gendered and athletic body as a transnational emblem of an authentic Hindu and Indian national identity. This embodied identity is represented by the historical South Indian temple dancer and has, in the postcolonial era, been rebranded as the nationalist classical dancer. The author connects the dancer to transnational forms of identity politics, heteropatriarchal marriage economies, as well as pathologies of gender violence. In so doing, the author examines how the affective politics of 'Hinduism' have functionally disembodied the Indian dancer from her voice and her agency in a democratic nation-state. Putcha argues that the nationalist and now transnationalist production of the classical dancer exposes misogyny and casteism and thus requires a critical feminist dismantling.

Abstract Many musicians like the Carnatic vocalist MS Subbalakshmi became a national and perhaps nationalist icon. Since nothing in India is singular, and the idea of a national music, or a national dance or a national theatre based on singularity, is really not valid. There are and have been two types of Indian classical music, at least eight kinds of classical dance. Plurality is dominant in the classical realm as well. But there was definitely an attempt to assert that we exist as a people and this is our creative wealth. And this was more evident perhaps in music and dance.