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Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

INFLEXIONS AND MICROTONALITY IN SOUTH INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC


Arvindh Krishnaswamy Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics Dept of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University arvindh@ccrma.stanford.edu http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/~arvindh/ ABSTRACT
Localized inflexions used in Carnatic music, whose average pitch is indeed in- etween the !" ma#or intervals and which lead to the perception of microtones, are discussed and categorized$ %ome of these inflexions can function as pure ornamentations too$ &e also discuss the numerous interpretations and uses of the term sruthi in vogue today ut maintain that only through pitch inflexions of the !" asic swarasthanams do microtones, as many people thin' of them, exist in Carnatic music$ (or each swaram, we also list the various distinct sthanams and localized inflexions that are employed to render it at various occasions and contexts$ &hile sruthis and gama'ams )melodic graces* have usually een discussed separately y musicologists, we argue that pitch inflexions and the percept of microtones are inextrica ly coupled$ +hese pitch inflexions, as used in Carnatic music, are multi-dimensional phenomena, the most important dimensions eing pitch and time, and these inflexions should e categorized and analyzed separately from constant-pitch notes$

INTRODUCTION
If one picks up a typical ook on Carnatic music theory and starts reading, more often than not, he or she !ill encounter a chapter on "## sruthis$ and a different chapter on the different types of "gamakams$ %melodic graces& used in this art form' (his separation of sruthis and gamakams into different sections !ill often leave the reader !ith the impression that Carnatic music employs "microtones$ !ith at least ## pitch positions in an octave, and that gamakams are graces that do not have any direct connection !ith these microtones' (he careful reader may also find out that certain ragams re)uire some mandatory gamakams, and !ithout these pitch movements, the ragams* characters !ould e lost' +inally, upon hearing actual music, these aforementioned impressions !ould pro a ly e reinforced' Indeed, Carnatic music uses pitch slides,glides,movements u i)uitously and systematically, and !ould sound )uite strange !ithout them to a seasoned listener' Also, a listener !ould often hear or perceive sensations of "in- et!een$ pitches' Everything . theory and practice !ould seem to e in perfect agreement' (hose more technically inclined might find out that different "sruthis$ have een assigned different ratios,rationals,relative fre)uencies y authors' +or e/ample, a particular R0 that appears in 1aulai or Saveri is )uite famous in this regard, referred to as the "eka-sruthi risha ham$ and commonly "assigned$ the ratio #23,#45' (here !ill e many other ratios stated, and a lot of them !ould seem )uite reasona le' Indeed, ased on consonance relationships, string harmonics and string lengths, various people have derived a lot of num ers that have some underlying meanings or significance' 6ut it may escape the casual reader, ho!ever, that most current-day Indian music theorists have ased their !ritings on historical te/ts and have asserted certain "facts$ !ithout supplying much empirical evidence !ith regard to currently performed music' 6oth Ayyar 789 and Deva 7:9 have commented on this lack of hard data and on the need to scientifically and o ;ectively analy<e current-day music, and oth these authors have also engaged in a limited scientific study of pitch in Carnatic music' A more detailed study !as initiated y =aira< hoy 70>9 and continued y Callo! 7009 and ?evy 70#9, all of

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

!hom investigated @orth Indian music, !hich also had similar claims of ## sruthis' (he general conclusion in these last three studies !as that intonation !as fle/i le and varia le in performances and that Aindustani music seemed to e ased on a system of only 0# intervals that !ere similar to the Bestern semitones' =aira< hoy also pointed out that the term "sruthi$ !as eing used y practicing musicians predominantly to refer to various types of pitch infle/ions that a s!aram appeared in con;unction !ith' Recent !ork on empirical analysis of Carnatic music has led us to conclude that in Carnatic music also, there seem to e only 0# s!arasthanams 75,4,29' And !e found that even the intonation of the 0# asic constant-pitch notes !as varia le, and that there !ere not ## %or more& distinct pitch positions used in the octave consistently, as far as non-inflected notes !ere concerned' Ao! does one then e/plain the audi le phenomenon of multiple versions of the same note and the perception of microtonal intervals sometimes and ho! can one reconcile these issues !ith the various ooks !hich insist on the e/istence of more than 0# sruthis and even assign them ratiosC In this paper, !e hope to shed some light on this situation' Be egin !ith a discussion of "sruthis$ and proceed to discuss the idea of microtones' Be then introduce ne! categories of musical entities along !ith the idea of a #dimensional or a multi-dimensional s!aram or note'

SRUTHIS
Bhat is a sruthiC It is perhaps the most overloaded and most used %misused even& term in Indian musicology' 6ut on the concert stage in Carnatic music today, there are some very practical meanings associated !ith this term' +or e/ample, the a solute pitch of the tonic is referred to y this term - "oru kattai sruthi$ %(amil& !ould mean that the tonic is set to the pitch C %"0 st key$&' "Sruthi saythukko$ is a !ay to indicate to an instrumentalist to tune the strings of his instrument' Also, to sing !ith "sruthi suddham$ !ould mean that a vocalist is employing good intonation as thought of or as perceived y typical listeners' In ancient Sanskrit te/ts, sruthi includes everything that is heard, and is virtually a synonym for an audi le sound' Be are not as much interested in the preceding uses or connotations of this term as !e are !ith the association of sruthis !ith the idea of small or microtonal intervals or more than 0# pitch positions' In an ancient treatise on dance, drama and music, 6haratha muni, in the @atyasastra, !rote that there !ere various num ers of sruthis !ithin the D notes of oth the Sa and Ma-gramas that add up to a total of ## in an octave, and many su se)uent authors have agreed !ith this num er also' (o 6haratha, a sruthi !as the smallest interval different so that t!o ad;acent pitches !ould e distinctly cogni<a le' 6ut 6harathaEs music did @F( employ all the ## sruthis as individual chromatic pitchesG rather his sruthis served as a )ualitative unit to measure the various s!arams that !ere used in his gramas, !hich num ered even less than 0#' A very simple calculation, dividing an octave of 0#>> cents into ## e)ual parts, yields a value of 24'2 cents' @o!, !e are not implying that all of 6harathaEs sruthis !ere e/actly e)ual' Ao!ever, at least one of his "sruthis$ must have een at least as large as 24'2 cents, if not larger' Be kno! no! from recent results that humans can perceive a pitch difference even as small as 2-8 cents !hen presented !ith consecutive pure tones' Bith harmonic sounds presented simultaneously, the acoustic cue of eating !ould ena le a human listener to perceive even smaller differences, perhaps much less than a cent' Bhen !e compare these cent values !ith 24'2 cents, !e can e sure that 6haratha !as not trying to descri e ";ust-noticea le-differences$ %=@Ds& as !e think of them today' Rather, his su ;ective idea of a distinctly audi le difference !as much stronger and more conservative' Bhile !e can understand !hy some authors have insisted that there are more sruthis in an octave, !e !ould disagree !ith them if they try to relate their o servations to 6harathaEs !ritings, !hich !ere o viously done in a completely different spirit' +urthermore, some other people are not happy !ith dividing the octave into ;ust noticea le differences onlyH they stress that the num er of sruthis is infinite' Bhile !e can again sympathi<e !ith the spirit of this assertion . theoretically, any cent value or real num er et!een > and 0#>> could e called a sruthi, is it really practical musically or even physically to have an infinite num er of pitchesC Rather, this idea of an infinite num er of sruthis is more of a mathematical ideali<ation'

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

+irst of all, there is a physical limit as to ho! accurately even synthetic tones can e produced' And practically speaking, distinctly audi le or musically relevant intervals are much more interesting any!ay' +or instance, in the rendition of the note Sa alone, the pitch could vary and flutter due to human inaccuracies, though the artistEs intent may e to render it as a perfectly constant note' (!o su se)uent renditions of Sa may not e e/actly identical, and the differences may e perceiva le too' Ao!ever, most people !ithout any hesitation !ould lump oth pitch renditions into one "musically useful$ category . the note Sa' @o! !hat a out the ## %or more& sruthis that current-day authors have !ritten a out and !hat a out the notes that have een identified in various ragams that correspond to each of the ## sruthisC Bhat a out the ratios these ## sruthis have een assignedC And !hat a out the "microtones$ that are indeed audi le in todayEs musicC +irst of all, each of the ## "most popular$ sruthis has een assigned a fre)uency ratio selected from the !ell kno!n =ust Intonation %=I& or Iythagorean tuning lists 729 !hich are foreign to India' 6ut the stranger thing is that some of these sruthis seem to e descri ing many different musical phenomena' +or instance, the e/amples for the "eka-sruthi risha ham$ that are suggested y musicologists are typically those !here the note is not constant in pitch ut rather moving in pitch up!ards from Sa' 6ut there are other notes in such lists that are supposedly used as constant-pitch notes, slightly sharpened or flattened in pitch in certain ragams' And there are yet other e/amples !hich are )uoted for e/ample one of the various types of Ma0 that appears in the ragam 6egada is assigned a sruthi, !here in practice, this particular Ma0 that people have in mind spans multiple semitones in range !hen it is produced via a pitch infle/ion' (he most i<arre thing is that all these different kinds of s!arams - constant-pitch and inflected s!arams - are assigned ratios derived through cycles of fourths and fifths %and some mathematical ad;ustments to arrive at the =I ratios&, !hile one !onders a out the reasons !hy a melodic note or infle/ion in a ragam like Saveri has anything to do !ith ratios arrived at through 4ths or 2ths cycles, !hich are really more relevant to harmonies and consonance under tonic and key modulations' It is indeed true that the ancient Indians used moorchanams %tonic shifts& to derive or descri e various scales' 6ut !as their tuning precise even thenC Does their intonation still prevail todayC Also, !hen !e see that the 1aulai Ri0 has een assigned the rational #23,#45, !e have to askH is this num er valid for the constant-pitch version of the Ri0, the Sa- ased inflected version or othC +or the inflected version, is it the upper limit or is it the mean pitch or something elseC And !hat do !e do then !ith the other distinct categories of Ri0 that appear in various conte/ts, like the Ri0 ased up!ard and do!n!ard infle/ionsC Bhat a out the various types of Ma0 that appear in 6egadaC Ao! does the single num er #D,#> play a role !ith respect to the 6egada Ma0 that is constantly moving in different !aysC Bhat use are ## rationals that do not e/plain all of the phenomena that occurs in Carnatic musicC @o! Sam amurthy 7059 even mentions that, in current-day music, more sruthis than the ## are used' +or e/ample, he states that in Saveri, in the phrases, "pdndp$ J "srgrs,$ ne! sruthis are used for @i5 and 1a5' Ao!ever, unlike the other sruthis, these ones are not assigned any ratios' 6ut if he !ere to do so, !hat might he have doneC (he rationals from the cycles of 4ths and 2ths process seem to have een e/hausted, unfortunately, going after the "main$ ## sruthis' As one can imagine, many different people !ith different ackgrounds have interpreted the ## sruthi ratios in many different !ays' +or e/ample, to some, all these ratios represent ## distinct constantpitch positions, and they might insist that the constant-pitch Ma0 that appears in 6egada is higher' (o others, the value of #D,#> has something to do !ith the moving Ma0 in 6egada, and not necessarily to the stationery versions' (here are yet others, !ho insist that A?? versions of Ri0 that appear in Saveri have something to do !ith #23,#45, !hether it is moving in pitch or not' (his last interpretation is fla!ed even in principle ecause the same authors and musicologists !ho have !ritten a out these

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

sruthi ratios have also ackno!ledged that multiple versions of the same note appear in a ragam' +or e'g', =anakiraman 7049 has !ritten that in Saveri, oth the "eka-sruthi$ and "dvi-sruthi$ versions appear' Kualitatively, he states that the eka-sruthi version appears in con;unction !ith Sa %through an infle/ion, !e suppose& and the dvi-sruthi version appears !hen the note is prolonged !ithout movement' 6ut the fact remains that he assigns oth these Ri0-s ratios' As !e stated efore, Sam amurthy also mentioned multiple versions of 1a5 and @i5 that appear in Saveri' Be have thus far touched upon the multiple interpretations of the ## sruthis that e/ists to sho! that there is indeed a lot of misunderstanding, confusion and disagreement a out the very nature of the term "sruthis'$ Be haven*t e/plicitly endorsed or commented any of the )uoted authors* or sources* vie!points either' Ierhaps it !ould e est to forget a out "sruthis,$ put our musicology ooks aside and investigate the music as it is eing practiced today'

MICROTONES
Do microtones really e/ist in Carnatic musicC Are they clearly audi leC Are they measura le or detecta le empiricallyC (o all three )uestions, our ans!er is "yes'$ Ao!ever, !e insist that the definition of the term "microtone$ needs to e specified clearly' Also, the conte/t or manner in !hich a microtone appears or its usage should e understood carefully' +inally, proper tools and representations should e used to characteri<e and categori<e them' Be !ill ela orate these points in the follo!ing discussion' (he term "microtone$ is generally loosely defined in !orld music, and different people have different ideas as to !hat constitutes a microtone' 6roadly speaking, a note that does not fit into the scheme of the 0# main chromatic intervals may e la eled as a microtone' Ao!ever, !e !ill e/plicitly state 5 types of microtones for our purposes hereH 0' (hose tones o tained y e/plicitly dividing the octave into more than 0# parts' +or e/ample, if one constructed a guitar or some other fretted instrument or a piano !ith say #4 frets or keys per octave, !hose pitches !ere e)ually spaced, !e !ould o tain semitones and )uartertones, and these instruments can e stated as eing a le to play constant-pitch microtonal intervals systematically and consistently' #' 6ut even in fretted instruments !ith 0# frets, !e may e a le to end the strings to the side, use an infle/ion or employ some other mechanism to reach for and hold an "in- et!een$ note, !here the e/act pitch that is reached is important' (his intermediate pitch may also e considered a microtonal pitch' 5' +inally, there are cases !here infle/ions and slides may e used in a musical instrument, !here the entire inflexion causes a microtonal effect, and !here the e/act endpoints of the infle/ions may not e as important as the overall pitch movement and timing' (his entire infle/ion may e called a microtonal %inflected& interval, ut it should e clear than this is, at minimum, a #-dimensional phenomenon %in time and pitch& and not entirely e)uivalent to the traditional idea of microtones as "in- et!een, constant-pitch intervals'$ Intensity and tim re modulation could also play roles in producing additional perceptual effects' Ao!ever, it is possi le that many people, especially those !ho haven*t investigated these infle/ions carefully, could imagine that a constant-pitch note is used !hen an infle/ion appears' Also, !hen discussing microtones, it is useful to consider oth chromatic and non-chromatic microtonality' If t!o ad;acent microtones appear in the same melody, or even in series, one after the other, this ;u/taposition !ould e much more significant than if a composer used microtones to vary the tunings of the 0# asic notes, ut if the variations appeared only in different melodies and never in the same song or scale'

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

1iven the su ;ective definition and relatively loose use of the term microtone, an interesting )uestion to ask is ho! much variation in pitch is re)uired so that a note is considered a microtone and not simply a slight mis-tuning or re-tuning of another noteC In Bestern violin music for e/ample, the tunings of the 0# semitones are ad;usted y the performing musician, sharpened or flattened, ased on melodic conte/t and personal preferences or they may vary simply due to human error' In our opinion, !e do not consider these modifications as microtones' %@evertheless, it may e indeed interesting to determine !hat correlations there are et!een different performers, instruments and melodic conte/ts in such minor modifications of tunings'& Be !ould not consider a vi rato a microtone either' 6ut !e !ould agree that a microtone is used if an interval !as tuned "significantly differently$ from surrounding notes, if different accomplished performers intonated this interval consistently and !ithin tolerance limits that didnEt o scure the differences et!een ad;acent intervals, and if the particular ragam or melodic conte/t re)uired the use of this particular microtone to sound correct' Fther!ise, any variation in intonation that is o served should e categori<ed as an intonation error, one that falls !ithin the accepta le range of intonation for that note, su ;ect to personal preferences or an ornamentation' 1iven the 0# Bestern semitones, the "safest$ place to add additional categories of constant-pitch intervals might e right in et!een them - )uartertones' Even then, the notes in the octave are not all uniform or symmetric in their nature, and certain pitches are more important than others' (herefore, dividing the octave into #4 e)ual parts may not all yield distinctly usea le microtonal categories, each !ith the same effect' (his last point should e o vious since dividing the octave into 0# e)ual parts itself yields 0# very differently "flavored$ notes !ith varying importance' @o!, in Carnatic music, one can indeed notice or hear that the same constant-pitch intervals in the same ragams are rendered !ith slightly different tunings y different performers' 6ut are there any consistent correlations that !ould indicate systematic microtonal su divisions of the 0# notesC Research presented y =aira< hoy 70>9 on @orth Indian music sho!ed that even in the intonation of the ma;or 5rd, a consonant and important interval, there !as a variation of 34 cents across different performers' Fur o servations !ere also similar 75,49' Ao!ever, our research and musical e/perience has also sho!n that there are additional, systematic "musical atoms$ employed that do indeed yield a sense of microtonality . the 5 rd category of microtones discussed previously' Indeed, !e agree that the "famous$ Saveri Ri0 is lo!er in pitch as in the overall perceived sensation as !ell as the average pitch measured empirically' Be !ill ela orate on these microtonal infle/ions in the ne/t section'

MUSICAL ATOMS
Be shall start our discussion of musical atoms !ith a particular occurrence of Ri0 in 1aulai, in the phrase "pmgm RG$ !here the Ri0 is oscillated in pitch' (o some people, this sounds like a "flatter$ version of the normal Ri0' 6ut the curious thing is that this infle/ion spends most of its time closer to Sa and only occasionally inflects up!ards' In some sense, this Ri0 is produced through a modification of Sa rather than a modification of the constant-pitch Ri0L And o viously this infle/ion is not a mere ornamentation on the sthanam of Sa since Sa is not supposed to have any such ornamentations or variations and also ecause it is referred to y a completely different note name - !e call this oscillating note Ri0 and not Sa' ?et us take another e/ample of an inflected noteH the 1a5 in the phrase "mg RG$ in Ara hi ragam' @o! this 1a5 is produced as a do!n!ard inflection from the sthanam of Ma0' A useful !ay to think a out 1a5 in this phrase is to imagine playing "mgm$ very )uickly' Mery little time is spent in near the 1a5 sthanam and one often does not have to reach all the !ay do!n to the "normal$ 1a5 sthanam either' Again, this infle/ion, called 1a5, is not a modification of the 1a5 sthanam, ut more correctly thought of as a modification of the Ma0 sthanam' (his infle/ion produces an effect that is completely different from the constant-pitch 1a5, !hich is not at all used in this ragam' Since it is a modification of Ma0, it also sounds higher than the constant-pitch 1a5'

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

@o! !e could ask ho! many instances are there in Carnatic music !here a s!arasthanam is modified y a "local$ infle/ion a ove or elo! it so that its name changes to the ad;acent note rather than retain the name of the original sthanam' %6y "local$ !e mean that the infle/ion does not span several semitones ut, rather, stays "close$ to the original note as perceived y a human listener'& Also, !hen do such infle/ions function as ornamentationsC In (a les 5, 4 and 2, !e have addressed these )uestions' (a le 0 introduces the sym ols !e !ill use to descri e the various infle/ions in this paper as !ell as future reports, and (a le # portrays ho! a certain set of local infle/ions might rank if ordered in terms of measured pitch value averaged over time in the cents domain' Due to perceptual effects and audio illusions it is certainly possi le that a human listener, especially one untrained in music, might rank these entities differently' Also, one should remem er that in these ta les, !e discuss locali<ed infle/ions only' Infle/ions that span a !ider range !ill e considered in a different report' As can e seen in (a les 5 and 4, !e found 8N0N# O 00 instances !hen a note name could change to an ad;acent sthanam after modification through an infle/ion' 6ut it should e clear that certain infle/ions serve dual purposes' +or e/ample, the R#N infle/ion serves as an ornament on R# in ragams like Madhyamavati, ut in ragams like Chintamani that use a "lo!$ 1#, the same infle/ion category is used to produce this different note' ?ooking at a pitch track segment of R#N alone, it !ould most likely e impossi le to determine !hich ragam or conte/t it came from' It is also possi le to render the R#N infle/ion in different !ays' +or e/ample, in (hodi, this infle/ion is "approached from a ove,$ !hile in Chintamani, this infle/ion starts off directly from the sthanam of R# and this ase note can e heard throughout 759' (he important point to note in our categori<ation is that !e used the ase note and location of the pitch modification !ith respect to the ase note to classify the various infle/ions' Ff course, one can further su divide these infle/ions ased on their shapes, phrasing, rendering or timing like !e have ;ust discussed' Sometimes there are infle/ions that seem to e/ist "in- et!een$ t!o sthanams' +or e/ample, symmetric oscillations of pitch et!een S and R0 may not have a definite anchor point and sound a little different from SN and R0-' Bhile it is al!ays possi le to classify or lump these infle/ions into either SN or R0- using some numerical metric, !e have introduced an additional category, SPR0, for certain cases !here it is not clear !hich one is the ase note, !hich may e true especially in fast passages, !here the oundaries et!een the various categories are usually not distinct' +urthermore, in Carnatic music, musical entities are continuous and constantly morphing into each other, further lurring the oundaries et!een ad;acent categories sometimes' In these cases, it usually doesn*t make too much of a difference !here the oundary is dra!n e/actly' Fne should also note that significantly different infle/ions are used to produce the same s!aram in different conte/ts' +or e/ample, the difference et!een SN and R0N is roughly around 0>> cents, and oth are used in ragams like Saveri to produce Ri0' (he difference et!een M0N and I- is even greater, and one can indeed notice the huge difference in pitch sensations !hen listening to these different !ays of rendering the same s!aram'

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODELING
(he most important thing to note a out these pitch infle/ions is that they are multi-dimensional phenomena' At the very least, # dimensions are re)uired to characteri<e them appropriatelyH pitch and time' Bhile the mean pitch value or other similar metrics are useful for classification or computing certain perceptual effects, the most appropriate thing to do !ould e to model these infle/ions parametrically and state the values of the varia les of the model to e a le to accurately reproduce these notes' Be have also pointed out that the peak or e/treme values of such infle/ions are not as relevant perceptually and that these "tips$ may not even e heard y human listeners due to temporal pitch smoothing done y the ear' Be also sho!ed that ratios or single numerical values that have een

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

proposed in theory have no correlation !ith such infle/ions 749' (iming is a very crucial aspect of these infle/ions, and this fact should e o vious since time is one of the # main dimensions' 6y ad;usting timing and peak height, it is possi le to produce infle/ions that have the same average pitch' In some cases, even !hen the peak of the infle/ion is far a ove 0>> cents, the perceived pitch sensation might end up !ell elo! 0>> cents, perhaps closer to 2> cents due to averaging alone 70,#,5,49' Be found that a !hole range of pitch-time com inations is accepta le for such infle/ions, and these ranges vary according to artistsE preferences, melodic conte/ts and musical instruments among other things'

CONCLUDING REMARKS
It is tempting to call the previously discussed inflected interval categories "sruthis,$ ut !e personally dislike the term "sruthi$ since it has een misused y many authors in the past and has many unnecessary or incorrect connotations' Calling these infle/ions "gamakams$ !hile traditionally correct also has a couple of pro lems' Usually people associate gamakams !ith optional em ellishments only' +urthermore, the term "gamakam$ as used in medieval te/ts includes a !hole set of melodic graces, only a su set of !hich correspond to pitch infle/ions' Ao!ever, today, the term "gamakam$ is indeed most commonly used in con;unction !ith pitch infle/ions, and perhaps should e redefined to accommodate this ne! and specific use' In the past !riters have felt free to redefine musical terms and introduce ne! ideas to suit the music system they !ere descri ing, and today, !e should e e)ually free to ad;ust or invent musical terms to suit music as it is eing practiced today, and not e ound y archaic ideas' Be have only scratched the surface, so to speak, in terms of descri ing the pitch infle/ions presented in this paper, and !e !ill reserve further details for future reports' Even then, a lot more !ork needs to e done in e/ploring the perceptual effects of such infle/ions, and computer- ased synthesis and psychoacoustic e/periments !ill help us e/tract and understand the most significant aspects of such infle/ions' In actual practice, these musical entities are used almost seamlessly in con;unction !ith other musical elements, and !hat !e have e/amined so far represents only a small piece of the music system that is en;oyed y listeners !orld!ide' Be !ould also like to point out that ragams derive their havam and character from much more than simple interval tunings or infle/ions' It is the com ination of characteristic phrases, musical ideas and timing, using these musical atoms, that differentiates the various ragams and rings them to life' Each ragam uses a !ide variety of variations for each of its notes, though in some ragams certain elements appear more often or prominently' +or e/ample, the famous "eka-sruthi risha ham$ Ri0 is not the only Ri0 used in Saveri, and in addition, many ragams !ith Ri0 use this kind of infle/ion also 749' +inally, calling SN as R0 or I- as M# could e construed as mere nomenclature or definition' Ao!ever, the psychological impact of associating the same note names !ith different musical entities should not e underestimated - it has led to some serious misconceptions' Some perceptual aspects of intervals, tuning and intonation are discussed in a different report 7D9'

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Be !ould like to thank Mr' Srinivasan "Srini$ Iichumani for providing us !ith many useful references from the plethora of !ritings on Indian music'

REFERENCES
709 Su ramanium, M', "Synthesi<ing Carnatic Music !ith a Computer,$ Sangeet @atak, =ournal of the Sangeet @atak Akademi %Academy&, @e! Delhi, India, @os' 055,054, pp' 03-#4, 0:::'

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

7#9 Su ramanium, M', QAn Analysis of 1amakams using the computer,Q Sangeet @atak, =ournal of the Sangeet @atak Akademi %Academy&, vol' RRRMII, no' 0' pp' #3-4D, #>>#' 759 Srishnas!amy, A', QApplication of Iitch (racking to South Indian Classical Music,Q Iroceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Irocessing, Aong Song, China, Apr #>>5' 749 Srishnas!amy, A', QIitch Measurements versus Ierception of South Indian Classical Music,Q Iroceedings of the Stockholm Music Acoustics Conference, Stockholm, S!eden, Aug #>>5' 729 Srishnas!amy, A', QFn the 0# 6asic Intervals in South Indian Classical Music,Q presented at the Audio Engineering Society 002th Convention, @e! Tork, Fct #>>5' 739 Srishnas!amy, A', "(o!ards Modeling, Computer Analysis and Synthesis of Indian Ragas,$ proceedings of +RSM, Chidam aram, India, =an #>>4' 7D9 Srishnas!amy, A', "Results in Music Cognition and Ierception and their Application to Indian Classical Music,$ proceedings of +RSM, Chidam aram, India, =an #>>4' 789 Ayyar, C' S', (he 1rammar of South Indian %Sarnatic& Music, 5rd ed' Madras, IndiaH Midya Shankar, 0:D3' 7:9 Deva, 6' C', (he Music of IndiaH A Scientific Study, @e! Delhi, IndiaH Munshiram Manoharlal Iu lishers, 0:80' 70>9 =aira< hoy, @' A' and Stone, A' B', QIntonation in present-day @orth Indian Classical Music,Q 6ulletin of the School of Friental and African Studies, vol' #3' pp' 00:-05#, 0:35' 7009 Callo!, S' and Shepherd, +', "Intonation in the Ierformance of @orth Indian Classical Music,$ in the 0Dth Annual Meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology, 0:D#' 70#9 ?evy, M', Intonation in @orth Indian Music . A Select Comparison of (heories !ith Contemporary Iractice' @e! DelhiH 6i lia Impe/ Ivt ?td, 0:8#' 7059 Sam amurthy, I', South Indian Music, Madras, IndiaH (he Indian Music Iu lishing Aouse, 0:8#, vol' 4' 7049 =anakiraman, S' R', Raga ?akshanangal %(amil&, Chennai, IndiaH Music Academy, 0::2, vol' 0'

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

% %0 %-

%1,!

%2% %3 %3% 3%

A constant-pitch note' A locali<ed infle/ion anchored on S, !hose average pitch is slightly a ove the sthanam of S, !hich is called R0' A locali<ed infle/ion !hose pitch is slightly elo! the sthanam of S, !hich is called @5' A typically fast oscillation et!een the sthanams of S and R0, !hich is conceived as a gamakam on a single note rather than a slide et!een t!o notes' "S S$ played as a ;andai phrase !here the dip in pitch et!een the t!o notes is local %i'e', not more than a semitone&' A fast spike up!ard from S, after !hich the sound is terminated' A fast spike up!ards from S and ack do!n' %"Miraladi$ in violin playing'& A do!n!ard spike to S, !ith very little time spent at the eginning

,"-.!/," ,"0.! .!-,"

A glide from R# to M0 to R#' An infle/ion anchored on the sthanam of R#, up!ards to!ards the sthanam of M0, !hich is sometimes considered a ne! note, 1#' An infle/ion anchored on the sthanam of M0, do!n!ard to!ards the sthanam of R#, !hich ecomes 1# sometimes' A fast infle/ion et!een the sthanams of R# and M0 !ith no definite anchor point' "M0 M0$ played !ith a ;andai phrasing, !here the note that is heard or intended in the intermediate stage is R#' A fast up!ard spike from R# intended to hit M0 after !hich the sound is terminated' A fast spike up!ards from S intending to hit M0 and ack do!n to R#' A do!n!ard spike from M0 to!ards R#, !ith very little time spent at M0'

,"1.! .!2 ),"*2.! ,"3).!* ,"3).!*3, " ).!*3,"

Table 1: 4efinitions and explanations of various sym ols used to represent different 'inds of inflexions$

M1
.!561.! 560

S
%761% 760

G3
565"156 5"0

N3
767"176 7"0

G2
5","15" ,"0

N2
7"4"17" 4"0

R2
,",!1," ,!0

P
8."18 ."0

D2
4"4!14" 4!0

R1
,!%1,! %0

M2
.".!1." .!0

D1
4!814! 80

M1

Table 2: 9arious localized inflexions in an octave, arranged in terms of average measured pitch value, starting from the ottom left and going up$

Proceedings of FRSM-2004, Chidambaram, India, 2004.

1 2 3 ! " # $ % 1& 11

% ." %0 ,"0 .!0 ."0 ,!0 ,!,"%1,! ,"15" ,!1,"

,! 8 8560 760 5"0 5"56."18 561.! 5"156

," 4! 80 .!-

5" 4" %4"0

56 7"

.! 76

4!0 4!."814! 4"17" .!1."

7"0 7"4"761% 4!14"

76-

7"176

Table 3: 7otes and inflexions from +a le " organized roughly in order of importance$

1 2 3

(he (!elve S!arasthanams or Constant-Iitch @otes' (hese infle/ions never serve as ornamentations and are al!ays assigned ne! note namesH R1, M2, D1 and N3 respectively' (hese infle/ions can e used as ornamentations on the ase note ut also appear in many conte/ts as ne! notesH G2, M1, G3 and N2 respectively' (his infle/ion appears most often as an ornamentation, ut in ragams like Sindhu hairavi, yields a ne! noteH M2' (hese t!o infle/ions function most often as ornamentations, especially in slo! passages' Ao!ever, at certain times, these infle/ions can e used to "hint at$ S and P' (hese infle/ions are purely ornamentations and occur especially !hen the ase note is "approached from a ove'$ (hese infle/ions are also ornamentations, and are often very similar in nature to their ";andai$ counterparts' If they are even used at all, these infle/ions are e/tremely rare' (heir ;andai counterparts, !hich look very similar, are more common' In ragams !hich use vivadhi s!arams, ashanga ragams like Maand or "ne!er ragams$ that employ t!o Ma-s consecutively, glides or slides et!een ad;acent notes may e used, !hich also look and sound similar to these infle/ions (hese are fast locali<ed infle/ions et!een t!o ad;acent notes that may not have a clear anchor point or ase note ut are vocali<ed or thought of as a kampitha gamakam on a single note' +or e/ample, SPR0 !ould e called "R0$ and !ould fit in- et!een SN and R0-, and could also easily morph into either' %See Ro!s #,2 J D&' %See notes for Ro!s : J 5&' %See notes for Ro!s : J 8&'

! " # $

% 1 & 1 1

Table : :xplanation for the groupings of notes and inflexions given in +a le 6$

% ,! ," ,6 5! 5" 56 .!

%, ;760< %0, ,!-, ,!, ,!0 ,", ,"0 5"-, 5", 5"0 ,", ,"0 ,"0, 5"-, 5", 5"0 56, 560, .!560, .!-, .!, .!0

." 8 4! 4" 46 7! 7" 76

.!0, .", ."0, 8;."0<, 8 80, 4!-, 4!, 4!0 4", 4"0 7"-, 7", 7"0 4", 4"0 4"0, 7"-, 7", 7"0 76, 760, %-

Table !: 9arious localized inflexions and notes that can appear on ehalf of each of the != swarams$ >nly the more important categories of localized inflexions are listed here )rows !-? in +a le 6*$

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