Raga sculpting

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 16 Mar 2006, 00:21

Having asked for a new section I thought I would inaugurate it with a topic of general interest. This thread should look at the techicalities of 'raga sculpting'. Be as technical as you may want to, but make sure you explain your terms in a simple language for all to follow.

Let us start with an example.

DRS has just proposed a new raga (refer to DRS thread 'Dr. Shrikaanth K Murthy' under vaggeyakaras) named kAntasvara and he has briefly described his motivations there. His proposed arohanam is SGPNRMDS (with sampoorna avrohanam). The special feature is the steep NR prayogam. Note that the drop from kaakali nisShaadam (N3) to catushruti riShabham (R2) is a steep drop of nine (semi tones) notes:
R2G2G3M1M2PD1D2N2N3
To do this correctly (though S* to S (drop of 12 semitones or an octave)is easy) is difficult for the human voice. Maanambuchaavadi Venkatasubbier has commented on some of the voice gymnastics. But this one is not bad since it is just an inverted sixth that is negotiable. Hence congratulations first to DRS for showing the viability of such constructions and proving that such ragas would be melodious by constructing an example!

This indeed opens a new chapter in our outlook towards vakra ragas (who can deny the beauty of ritigowLai, anandabhairavi or sahana..) that gems do exist in CM waiting to be discovered.

Please discuss your ideas and feel free to experiment so that we can together explore with confidence new frontiers in CM!

ninjathegreat · Post by **ninjathegreat** » 11 May 2006, 11:24

cml sir,

Not being able to find a proper topic to put this in, I thought you would not mind putting this here - what software do you use for the fourier analysis of the music? I'd like to do some investigations on that...

I think that vocal gymnastics can essentially be done though voice culture. It's said that Wagner's operas are extremely difficult to the singers, because of rapid changes in octaves beween very few notes. But they are done, thorugh intense practice.

I guess this does not answer much!!!!

Cheers
ninja

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 11 May 2006, 21:29

Dear ninja

There is nothing fancy about the FFT software that I use. Since it was proprietary, developed by NASA scientists unfortunately it cannot be shared. But the best in this regard is the one written by Arun which however he has not released yet. The math of FFT is straight forward and if one has the patience and knowledge the program can be written which however is not in my domain.

It will be nice to discuss your ideas so that we can put together a group who will be interested and who will work together to develop voice analytic tools for CM!

ninjathegreat · Post by **ninjathegreat** » 12 May 2006, 06:15

cml sir,

thanks for the info. I was planning to write an sfft program myself, but was just wondering what you used. Once I succeed in writing that program, I will share it for the benefit of all. I expect I'll be free in about a month to start on it.

There are two things that I think we need to discuss. One is cheap.free ways of audio records restoration amd the other is audio analysis. I did do an analysis of some noisy recordings. The noise & music are highly correlated, and I think the noise can be removed by using adaptive filtering/nonlinear filtering techniques. I need to read up a little more, but I'll put my thoughts into proper words asap.

Cheers
ninja

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 05 Oct 2006, 03:27

Dear CML, Either for Svarakalpana or for Ragalapana the real basics should be taught in a proper manner by the real Teacher. Nowadays there are hundreds of music teachers but not the real teachers. A real teacher always remains receptive, learning things in the process of teaching to his students but not deceptive. Only such a teacher should be called Guru. Such teacher always initiates his student more than teaching in making him independent in all aspects. The real basics for Svarakalpana start through Laya exercises like Jati-alankaras by maintaining Laya with both the hands but without teaching Tala at all even before Saralee-svaras and for Ragalapana through Akara-sadhana of all the preliminary exercises such as Saralees, Jantas, Datus and Svara-alankaras. This Akara-sadhana should start with Shankarabharana but not with Mayamalavagaula at all. There is a scientific reason for this and so, in Hindusthani and Western systems the preliminary exercises start with Shankarabharana only. Thus even Svara-alankaras should, scientifically, be taught in Hamsavinodini-raga which is Panchama-varja of Shankarabharana. Later, on one hand, only 6 Gitas should be taught with plain notes even without Kampita or Gamaka at all to give the student firm footing of the 12 basic notes and on the other hand the Jati-break-exercises of Trisra, Khanda and Mishra-jatis should be taught in Chaturashra-gati utilizing both the hands i.e., ki-ta with the right hand and ta-ka with the left hand consecutively (I was basically a Mridangist at my 8th year of age. So, with that knowledge, I have formulated all these exercises and since last 2 years, having been entrusted by the Govt. of AP, I have been traveling entire Andhra Pradesh extensively teaching all these things to the students in presence of their respective teachers, in all the 12 Govt. Music Colleges of our State successfully). Later, according to a scientific approach, Adi-tala-varnas in Ragas Natakuranji, Kambhoji, Darbar, Shankarabharana, Kalyani, Begada, Todi, Saveri and Ata-tala-varna in Bhairavi-raga should be taught in the same seriatim. The relation of Kampita and Gamaka of the notes of each and every Varna should at first be demonstrated in detail by the teacher and taught to the student. Simultaneously, the student should be initiated to sing Akara-sadhana of selected preliminary exercises along with Svara-alankaras in 32 non-vivadi Melas and their Avakra-janya-ragas. Here is a test to the teacher. After learning these Varnas, if a student is able to learn Kritis, only by the guidance of his teacher but not teaching and mostly depending upon the notation and listening to the same song sung by his teacher and recorded in a cassette or CD, it obviously reveals the efficiency of the teacher. If not , no. And, after learning 7 or 8 Kritis like that he should be able to render easy-jati-muktayis and easy-svara-muktayis ( with lesser calculations) in the process of Svarakalpana. Then, the student should be given the notation of Ragalapana (many teachers hesitate to teach Ragalapana giving them notation but it has been proved that it is incorrect). Bringing all these things, I have brought out a CD of 9 hrs. material in MP3 package (price $1/- only) and a book, Sangita Svararaga Sudha (Talugu/English) containing easy-jati and svara-muktayis in 6 popular Talas and notation of 36 Ragas and along with an album of 9 pre-recorded cassettes containing some easy-muktayis and Ragalapana of 36 Ragas sung by me. The Alapana of each a every Raga has been divided into 8 or 9 or 10 segments and each and every segment was sung once with notation and twice with Akara to enable the aspirant sing along with it . Thus, after completion of 10 or 15 Kritis, within a maximum period of 6 months, he will be able to give a concert of 45 minutes at the least. I have experimented this upon a talented student of 12 years and, within 2 years duration, now, he is able to give a concert of 2 hrs. This is for your kind information. amsharma.

jayaram · Post by **jayaram** » 18 Dec 2006, 00:01

Bringing all these things, I have brought out a CD of 9 hrs. material in MP3 package (price $1/- only) and a book, Sangita Svararaga Sudha (Talugu/English) containing easy-jati and svara-muktayis in 6 popular Talas and notation of 36 Ragas and along with an album of 9 pre-recorded cassettes containing some easy-muktayis and Ragalapana of 36 Ragas sung by me.

How can one obtain these resources??

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 20 Dec 2006, 08:56

Dear member, jayaram, If you are a resident of USA you can contact â€˜mtumuluri@wesleyan.eduâ€™ to get a copy of this CD and the book, Sangita Svararaga Sudha (English) along with an album of 9 pre-recorded cassettes. If you are a resident of Chennai you can get a copy of this CD from Shri Rajasimmhan, 044-43532537, 09444275141 and the copy of the book from Karnatic Music Book Centre â€“ 044-28111716 & 28113253. If you are a resident of Hyderabad you can contact me by phone No. 040 â€“ 27054232, 09440762711. Or, if you tell me where do you reside I may be able to find a way to help you. amsharma.

Ramanna · Post by **Ramanna** » 21 Jan 2007, 18:19

Very happy to see lot of innovation in carnatic music coming up. I think the very architecture and manodharmic rendering of the music opens up immense possibilities and the modern young minds could do plenty of Research and Development. Some of the thoughts on my mind are choosing rare ragas for rendering, developing new idioms (raaga bhava) in a raga, new constructs in swara prasthara, experimenting with new raagas retaining the grammar and essence of the system, the pallavi sahitya in RTP in raagamalika (like the chatur-raga RTP which rendered by a few artists). Similar work in percussion instruments playing can be thought of.

We could also consider enhancing instrument capability, better sound quality and organizing the entire music database.

Ramanna.

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 22 Jan 2007, 03:00

Dear member, Ramana, Yes. You are absolutely right. Many traditionalists, who cannot themselves contribute or even invite at all any kind of innovations for the development of the art, declare that the true values of our music are dying. No, I cannot agree with them. It is not at all true. There is vast development which such people may not be able to find. In fact, in the absence of the modern gadgets like tape-recorder or CD, we are in a position to assess up to a limited values of the depth of our music of our forefathers. After the innovation of such gadgets we are able to absolutely assess the same. At the same time, along with many other facets of our music, the sensitivity of either Shruti and Laya of our present artists has also gone up well. Even in the near future, no doubt, I am very optimistic about the all round development of our music. amsharma.