Abstract

The concept of raga in Indian classical music serves as a complex, multifaceted melodic entity that can be approached through various perspectives. Compositions within a raga act as foundational structures, serving as the bedrock for improvisations. Analyzing their textual notations is easier and more objective in comparison with analyzing audio samples. A significant amount of musical insights can be derived from the discrete swara sequences alone. This paper aims to construct an intuitive visualization of raga space, using swara sequences from raga compositions. Notations from public sources are normalized, and their TF-IDF features are projected into a low-dimensional space. This approach allows for qualitative analysis of both Carnatic and Hindustani ragas, mapping them to known raga theory.

Abstract

ndian Musicology defines 22 distinct shrutis (microtones), 12 swa- rasthanas (semitones) and 7 swaras (tones). By implementing the mathematical concepts like cycle of fourths and fifths, these shrutis acquire a discrete frequency ratio which justifies the Bharatha’s 22 shrutis experiment. Indian classical music defines the 7 swaras and each swara is associated to an animal/bird call. The Grama system in Indian music distributes the 22 shrutis amongst the 7 swaras. We based our work on the Shadja Grama system. The traversal of pitches in a swara are more important in understanding the swara as compared to the fre- quency ratio. This shows us that swaras have peculiar properties and an identity independent of the octave.

Abstract

Ragas are a fundamental concept to the Indian Classical music which provides immense scope for artists to improvise aesthetically. Classification of ragas have been studied since the inception but even the best models in practice have ambiguities in the classification of certain ragas and this has troubled many musicians and musicologists. We have constructed a new model to classify ragas which adheres to all the existing conventions and resolves these ambiguities.