The rhythmic organisation of North Indian classical music: Tal, lay and laykari.

North Indian (Hindustani) classical music is remarkable for both the sophistication and the diversity of its rhythmic organisation. Rhythm and metre are controlled by a number of concepts which, although developed over the course of many centuries, have acquired new meaning as a result of radical changes in performance practice over the last century. This work examines the rhythmic organisation of North Indian music on all levels- from large scale performance scheme, to metric structure, to the generation and variation of surface rhythm patterns. It does so by synthesising two research methodologies- combining the study of indigenous concepts and hence of the music's wider cultural context, with objective and empirical analytical techniques- in order to build up a comprehensive and culturally appropriate model of rhythmic organisation. Section I looks at various aspects of rhythmic organisation, proposing a flexible theoretical model of metric structure, and demonstrating its relevance with sudies of key rhythmic parameters. Chapter 1 puts forward the principal arguments for this theoretical model. The next four chapters cover the following topics in turn- tal (metric structure), lay (tempo, rhythmic density), performance practice and surface rhythm (including composition structure, and development techniques), and finally laykari (rhythmic variation). Section II illustrates the findings of Section I, by means of a case study. This study shows how two instrumental forms- the madhya lay gat and vilambit gat as performed in the repertoire of sitarist Deepak Choudhury- may be characterised in terms of rhythmic parameters. This characterisation is used to inform a discussion of the status of these gats as independent genres, and of their relationship with analogous vocal forms. The research generates a wide range of insights into North Indian classical music, demonstrating the application of Section I's theoretical model, and of the the analytical approach developed in the thesis as a whole

Measuring musical interaction: analysing communication in embodied musical behaviour

This thesis addresses the ubiquity and necessity of embodied interaction to musical activity, using video analysis to observe communication in musical events. Through the specific study of classical North Indian instrumental duo performance, the thesis examines how processes of social interaction may inform human musical activity, using a combined methodology of ethnographic study and quantitative data analysis of original video-recordings. Proposing a pragmatic approach to the study of the meaningful nature of musical events, the thesis keeps sight of the generative context of the human body in social interaction, and offers a model of musical communication that privileges nonlinguistic, socially co-regulative elements in its account of human musical interaction. The socially meaningful nature of the behaviour-in-time of the musicians included in the study is investigated by means of a novel methodology. This combines the qualitative exploration of emic concepts related to the practice of North Indian classical music with an empirical analysis of video data, based on a cognitive ethological framework. The thesis draws on current notions of embodied cognition and contributes to the growing corpus of musicological literature emphasising the embodied and social nature of musical communication. The results of this exploratory study suggest that both social-interaction and music-structural factors contribute to the organisation of the musicians' communicative behaviours and that, to a certain extent, these organisational factors can be separated in analysis

The Harmonic Perspective of Rhythm: applications for the expansion of musical awareness and the acquisition of rhythmically complex music.

Doctoral of Philosophy. University of KwaZulu-Natal, November, 2017.This study describes and evaluates a new paradigm for informed rhythmic practice: the harmonic perspective of rhythm. Normal, theoretically driven or written rhythmic conceptions have tended to rely on a limited grid based on one predominate metric cycle that is expanded by binary division into twos, fours, eights and so on, or by ternary division into threes, sixes, twelves, etc. The harmonic perspective, however, posits that, for much of the world's music, a broader, multidimensional grid is in use. Such a conception allows not only for a wider palette, drawing on metric structures of one through nine and beyond, but also for the simultaneous use of several of those structures, thus rendering those musics in question rhythmically multidimensional. This multidimensionality seems to operate on the level of feel—where two subdivisional references exhibit a unique pull from which different styles and/or performers find their own subtle, non-isochronous balance; on the level of basic compositional structure—where two or more metric structures co-exist in relative balance to create the background of the piece; and on the level of melody and improvisation, where performers draw on more than the usually considered, compositionally prescribed, metric structures for their expression. The viability of this perspective is established using examples from the African Diaspora. Practical exercises as prescribed by Puerto Rican percussionist and theorist Efrain Toro are presented, discussed and evaluated, and the applicability of the perspective to the learning of Indian rhythm is considered. The research is conducted as a subject-centred ethnography, combined with a self-reflexive/auto-ethnographic approach, where the researcher applies his own experience, observations, and insight to questions raised by the study. Foundational discussions of constructed versus experiential knowledge, the author's background, and Indian rhythmic systems precede and accompany the primary discussion

An Exploration into North Indian Classical Music: Raga, Alif Laila, and Improvisation.

This thesis explores three themes: North Indian classical music, the individual Alif Laila, and the philosophical connection each has to improvisation. The process that was followed to analyze the interactions between raga in the North Indian classical tradition and one well-known musician's path within that tradition bridges theory with individual insight. Alif Laila is the individual at the center of the study. As a prominent professional sitarist living in the Washington, D.C. region, her input is analyzed placing focus on individuality within the life of a traditionally trained musician living and teaching in a Western context. Her expression in traditional sharing of musical knowledge from teacher to student, in raga performance and in musical philosophy expand upon the new generation of teacher/performers who translate their craft in order to continue their tradition of North Indian classical music. Improvisation, both as a social and musical design, extends the scholarly research and personalized ethnography to complete the thesis

The Art of Tablā Accompaniment in Vilambit Ektāl

Accompaniment is by far the primary usage of the tablā in modern Hindustānī music. This research presents the framework by which tablā accompaniment is developed throughout a performance. This framework is developed through transcription and analysis of two performances provided by tablā musician, Vishwanath Shirodkar. Thought processes and theories on accompaniment are scrutinised through interviews and comparison with the transcriptions. The model proposed in this thesis is that the tablā accompanist has a pre-conceived tablā motif which he manipulates depending on certain parameters. These parameters include familiarity between co-performers, gender, tāl, and tempo

Culturally sensitive strategies for automatic music prediction

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-112).Music has been shown to form an essential part of the human experience-every known society engages in music. However, as universal as it may be, music has evolved into a variety of genres, peculiar to particular cultures. In fact people acquire musical skill, understanding, and appreciation specific to the music they have been exposed to. This process of enculturation builds mental structures that form the cognitive basis for musical expectation. In this thesis I argue that in order for machines to perform musical tasks like humans do, in particular to predict music, they need to be subjected to a similar enculturation process by design. This work is grounded in an information theoretic framework that takes cultural context into account. I introduce a measure of musical entropy to analyze the predictability of musical events as a function of prior musical exposure. Then I discuss computational models for music representation that are informed by genre-specific containers for musical elements like notes. Finally I propose a software framework for automatic music prediction. The system extracts a lexicon of melodic, or timbral, and rhythmic primitives from audio, and generates a hierarchical grammar to represent the structure of a particular musical form. To improve prediction accuracy, context can be switched with cultural plug-ins that are designed for specific musical instruments and genres. In listening experiments involving music synthesis a culture-specific design fares significantly better than a culture-agnostic one. Hence my findings support the importance of computational enculturation for automatic music prediction. Furthermore I suggest that in order to sustain and cultivate the diversity of musical traditions around the world it is indispensable that we design culturally sensitive music technology.by Mihir Sarkar.Ph.D

Controllers as musical instruments, controllerism as musical practice - practices of a new 21st century musical culture

This thesis consists of an ethnomusicological approach to the development of Controllers as musical instruments, and conceptualizes Controllerism as a musical practice. I make a case for a revision in organology that includes Controllers, and other instruments of the computer society, by seeking out commonalities and providing comparative analyses between historical instruments and modern Controllers. I then provide definitions of the term Controllerism; by discussing its origins, history, musical logics, strains of musical practice, and current technological explorations. By situating the Controller and Controllerism in a cultural and historical timeline, I have traced informing logics that have led to the development of this new instrument and musical practice. Ethnography has been undertaken with informants from Europe, America and Japan in order to ascertain generalized understandings of the instrument and musical practice; and participatory action research undergone in three separate artist residencies with the intent of determining common perspectives and concerns of international Controllerists. A Portuguese case-study has provided a unique glimpse, by comparison, of this emerging art-form and growing mind-set in modern music.Esta tese é uma aproximação etnomusicológica ao desenvolvimento dos controladores como instrumentos musicais, e conceitualiza o chamado Controllerism como uma prática musical. Defendo a ideia de uma revisão no campo da organologia que inclua os controladores e outros instrumentos da computer society, procurando pontos em comum e providenciando análises comparativas entre instrumentos históricos e controladores modernos. Apresentarei definições do termo Controllerism; discutindo as suas origens, história, lógicas musicais, vertentes de prática musical, e as atuais explorações tecnológicas. Situando o controlador e o Controllerism numa linhagem cultural e histórica, identifico as lógicas que levaram ao desenvolvimento deste novo instrumento e desta nova prática musical. Para tal, elaborei uma etnografia com informantes da Europa, América e Japão com o objetivo de compreender noções comuns sobre o instrumento e a prática musical; fiz também pesquisa participativa em três residências artísticas, com a intenção de determinar perspetivas e preocupações comuns entre Controllerists internacionais. Finalmente, através de um estudo de caso em Portugal, providencio uma visão única, comparativamente falando, desta forma de arte emergente e estilo de vida na música moderna

Landscapes of the invisible: sounds, cosmologies and poetics of space

In this PhD by Publication I revisit and contextualize art works and essays I have collaboratively created under the name Flow Motion between 2004-13, in order to generate new insights on the contributions they have made to diverse and emerging fields of contemporary arts practice/research, including digital, virtual, sonic and interdisciplinary art. The works discussed comprise the digital multimedia installation and sound art performance Astro Black Morphologies/Astro Dub Morphologies (2004-5), the sound installation and performance Invisible (2006-7), the web art archive and performance presentation project promised lands (2008-10), and two related texts, Astro Black Morphologies: Music and Science Lovers (2004) and Music and Migration (2013). I show how these works map new thematic constellations around questions of space and diaspora, music and cosmology, invisibility and spectrality, the body and perception. I also show how the works generate new connections between and across contemporary avant-garde, experimental and popular music, and visual art and cinema traditions. I describe the methodological design, approaches and processes through which the works were produced, with an emphasis on transversality, deconstruction and contemporary black music forms as key tools in my collaborative artistic and textual practice. I discuss how, through the development of methods of data translation and transformation, and distinctive visual approaches for the re-elaboration of archival material, the works produced multiple readings of scientific narratives, digital X-ray data derived from astronomical research on black holes and dark energy, and musical, photographic and textual material related to historical and contemporary accounts of migration. I also elaborate on the relation between difference and repetition, the concepts of multiplicity and translation, and the processes of collective creation which characterize my/Flow Motion’s work. The art works and essays I engage with in this commentary produce an idea of contemporary art as the result of a fluid, open and mutating assemblage of diverse and hybrid methods and mediums, and as an embodiment of a cross-cultural, transversal and transdisciplinary knowledge shaped by research, process, creative dialogues, collaborative practice and collective signature