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Shaping Tunes: Sharing Musical Information Across Cultural Boundaries

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Language, Music, and Computing (LMAC 2015)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 561))

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Abstract

Indian music and its notation system has always been a complicated subject for Western musicologists due to differences in their fundamental structure and contradictory axioms. Distinct (and often subjective) note intervals and scale structures, prevalence of microtones, grace notes, intrinsic ornamentals, rhythmic control and absence of harmony in Indian music contrast it against Western music, which largely builds on equal temperament scales, mean tones and ubiquitous primacy of harmony. These differences make rendering Indian music notation into Western Staff notation extremely difficult. Another contention is that printed music is inherently limited in usefulness and it is worth considering an audio-visual digital notation format to supersede sheet music. This paper explains the structural differences between Indian and Western musical systems and proposes a new digital audio visual notation system for Indian music to reconcile them while addressing the limitations of printed sheet music through computer software solutions.

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References

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Further Reading

  1. Arnold, J., Bel, B.: A scientific study of north Indian music. National Centre Perform. Arts Q. J. XII(2-3), Mumbai (1983)

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  2. Bharat, N.: Manisha Granthalaya, Kolkata (1967)

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  3. Bhatkhande, V.N.: Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati. Sangeet Karyalaya, Hathras (1979)

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  4. Danielou, A.: Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales. The India Society, London (1943)

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  5. Danielou, A.: The Ragas of Northern Indian Music. Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi (1980)

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  8. Kaufmann, W.: Musical Notations of the Orient; Notational Systems of Continental, East, South and Central Asia. Indiana University Press, Bloomington (1967)

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  14. Tagore, S.M.: Six Principal Rags. Neeraj Publishing House, New Delhi (1982)

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Acknowledgments

Swarasruti has been a private initiative, without any institutional funding. I would like to acknowledge the efforts put up by my father, M.N. Roy, who after his retirement single handedly transcribed and digitized over 2000 notations in this new prototype and created the corpus that formed the base of Swarasruti project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Kolkata, India

    Indranil Roy

Authors
  1. Indranil Roy
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Correspondence to Indranil Roy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Polina Eismont

  2. University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    Natalia Konstantinova

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Roy, I. (2015). Shaping Tunes: Sharing Musical Information Across Cultural Boundaries. In: Eismont, P., Konstantinova, N. (eds) Language, Music, and Computing. LMAC 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 561. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27497-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27498-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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