MELODIC ATOMS FOR TRANSCRIBING CARNATIC MUSIC

Arvindh Krishnaswamy
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
Dept of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
arvindh@ccrma.stanford.edu
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/˜arvindh/

ABSTRACT R1 Suddha Rishabham

We had introduced a set of 2D melodic units to transcribe

S R1 ?? Swarasthanams
Carnatic music previously, and we now provide some il-
lustrative examples using real pitch tracks to further our
S+ R1− R1+
discussion on this topic. S*R1 R1
(?)^(?)

S/R1\S R1:R1

~R1~
1. INTRODUCTION Actual Melodic Entities

Twelve notes (or sixteen with four enharmonic equiva- Figure 1. Under the common title of “R1” or “Suddha
lents) are not sufficient for an accurate or faithful repre- Rishabham” there exist many distinct melodic entities,
sentation of Carnatic music; the seasoned musician can supported by two different swarasthanams. All of these
easily identify many more than 12 musical entities in an entities appear in most ragams that contain the minor sec-
octave. We have listed these various “melodic atoms” ond. (The entity denoted by the carat symbol and question
in previous works [1, 2, 3]. In this article, we continue marks is a fast, upward inflexion, examples of which are
to describe various aspects of these melodic entities and given in Figure 4.)
also provide some illustrative examples using actual, per-
formed audio segments. In this work, interval tuning or
intonation is not discussed. Rather, we simply talk about the anchor point for inflected notes.) Figures 2, 3 and 4
melodic units whose intonation, timing and rendering we show real pitch tracks of these different entities. Similar
have observed to be quite flexible overall. For definitions graphs and diagrams can be produced for all the notes in
of terms and symbols, the reader is referred to our previ- Carnatic music.
ous publications. Though these entities can be distinguished from each
Methods to automatically segment Carnatic music pitch other easily in slow speeds, with fast tempos and flexible
tracks and extract these entities from them will be pre- timing, they may morph or merge into each other. For ex-
sented in a future report. We will also defer to a future re- ample, the entities R1- and R1:R1 are very close to begin
port techniques to identify and classify ragams and pieces with, and may be very similar to other elements like S/R1
using these melodic units. or S*R1 in certain contexts. Conversely, given a certain
pitch contour segment, sometimes it may not be possible
2. SAME NOTE, MANY VERSIONS to classify it into a particular category with absolute cer-
tainty; a pitch segement might fit well into 2 or even 3 ad-
A note in Carnatic music can mean different things or ap- jacent categories, but fortunately in those cases, it usually
pear in different ways. For example, what does a Carnatic doesn’t really seem to matter which category is chosen.
musician mean when he refers to the note “R1” or “Sud- These categories or melodic entities should be thought
dha Rishabham?” “R1” could be a particular melodic en- of as “reference points” in a multi-dimensional feature
tity, a “swarasthanam” or it could refer to the entire set of space, and pitch contours would traverse continuous paths
entities associated with R1, as illustrated in Figure 1. (A in this space.
swarasthanam, simply put, is the location of the “ideal” These categories are not arbitrary. In some phrases,
constant-pitch variety of a note, that also supports or is only certain melodic entities are acceptable for certain notes.
For example, in the phrase from Gaulai shown in Fig-
ure 10, only S+ would work where it appears. This graph
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies
also shows this entity morphing slowly into another: S*R1,
are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that and also shows that in another context, a different entity
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. may appear: R1+.
c 2004 Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
But in other phrases, a wide variety of melodic entities
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Relative Pitch (cents)

~R1~
120

100

80
R1 R1+
60

40

20
S ~S~
0
S+ S*R1 R1−
−20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time (s)

Figure 2. Segments drawn from real melodic contours, illustrating some of the entities listed in Figure. Examples of S
and R1 played with a mild vibrato are also included. The meaning or interpretation of the symbols is given in [1].

120
D1 and D1+ are employed. Since P+ sounds the “lowest”
100
in perceived pitch and is missing, this leads people to state
Relative Pitch (cents)

80
that the D1 in Hindolam is “higher,” which is true to a
60
certain extent. Similarly, in Sunadhavinodhini, which is
40
again missing P, P- does not appear for M2, leading people
20
to opine that its M2 is lower than the M2 of Kalyani where
0

R1:R1 S/R1\S/R1\S
P- is allowed to used for M2. Again, there is a certain
−20
0 1 2 3 4
Time (s)
5 6 7 8 element of truth in this statement, but it would be more
accurate to describe each occurrence of a note in terms of
Figure 3. Additional entities listed in Figure. R1:R1 is the melodic entity category.
called a “jandai” (double) phrase and is practically very There are also ragams which use entities anchored on
close to R1-, sometimes even indistinguishable from or swarasthanams that are not part of the ragam. For ex-
replaceable with it. The contour on the right shows a slide ample, in Thodi, R2+ appears as a particular form of G2
(transitions) between the constant-pitch versions of S and sometimes. And in Madhyamavati, M1 is render via the
R1, which can be easily distinguished from the other enti- G3*P inflexion, while G3 does not figure in Madhyama-
ties at slow tempos. vati.
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Relative Pitch (cents)

250

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3. CONCLUDING REMARKS
150

100

50 We believe that the various entities we have published thus

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
far are a necessary and sufficient set to be able to represent
Time (s)
or synthesize any phrase in Carnatic music. We believe
that all our entities are necessary because for each one,
Figure 4. In certain phrases, a fast upward spike, toward we can find a phrase where it is required. And thus far, we
a “flexible” upper end is used for a short-duration or tran- have not encountered a phrase in Carnatic music which
sient note. Called “viraladi-s” in violin playing, above are can’t be modeled or transcribed using only the entities we
examples of R1 “hit” from S. have published. Whether this would hold forever or if our
lists need updating needs to be seen.
are acceptable to be used as shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7. Mapping a pitch contour onto our entities will remove
In ragams that do not have certain notes, entities which any artistic or expressive content in the music and yield a
are normally anchored on those missing notes will also skeletal contour that nevertheless sounds musically cor-
usually be absent. For example, in Hindolam, the lack of rect. For many applications, such as transcription and
P means that P+ doesn’t appear in favor of D1, while D1-, classification this is exactly what is required.
 500

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500
400
Relative Pitch (cents)

350 450

Relative Pitch (cents)

300
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350
150
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100

50
250
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 200
Time (s)
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time (s)
Figure 5. The “r1” in the phrase “m1g3r1g3m1” in
ragams like Maayaamaalavagaulai can be rendered using Figure 7. Different ways of playing the phrase “R2 G2
different melodic entities. In fact, due to flexibilities in in- M1” by using distinct melodic entities in place of G2: (i)
tonation, and different artists’ preferences, a whole contin- a constant-pitch G2, (ii) a sliding transition, (iii) half an
uum of contours can arise, “in-between” the ones shown upward or a “truncated” upward inflexion, (iv) R2+ (v)
above. G2-, (vi) R2+M1 (vii) M1-G2. This is not an exhaustive
list.
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Relative Pitch (cents)

700
460
600
Relative Pitch (cents)

500
440
400
M M
420 300

200

400 100

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
380 Time (s)
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8
Time (s)
Figure 8. An example of the famous Begada M1. This
Figure 6. The phrase “m1g3m1” can be rendered in contour involves larger-sized (much more than 100 cents)
many ways. Shown above are: (i) plain version, (ii) inflexions and illustrates two kinds of M1: “P-G3” and
“m1:m1:m1” (jandai), (iii) “m1-,” (iv) “m1 g3+ m1” or “P-M1”
“m1 g3*m1 g3 m1.” There exist a whole continuum of
contours in between (ii), (iii) and (iv), and the differences
between these different entities sometimes become fuzzy
or even non-existent especially at fast tempos.
1 2 3

4. REFERENCES
*
[1] A. Krishnaswamy, “Inflexions and microtonality in
south indian classical music,” in Proc of Frontiers
of Research on Speech and Music (FRSM), Anna- 4 5
malainagar, India, 2004.

[2] A. Krishnaswamy, “Towards modeling, computer Figure 9. Different occurrences of an inflexion like R2+
analysis and synthesis of indian ragams,” in Proc of can be thought of as coming from or being cut from a
FRSM, 2004. larger stable entity denoted by the “*”. (1) A “transient
inflexion,” (2) Half of an inflexion or a “truncated inflex-
[3] A. Krishnaswamy, “Multi-dimensional musical atoms
ion,” (3) Two periods of an inflexion, (4) Used in Thodi in
in south indian classical music,” in Proc of ICMPC,
place of G2, (5) Used in Sankarabaranam in phrases like
2004.
“s R; s”.
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Relative Pitch (cents)

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0
−100
−200 M1− R1+ M1− S+ S*R1 ^ S^S S−
−300
−400 P M G M R G M − − − − − − R − − − − − − SR S N P
−500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Time (s)

Figure 10. A phrase from the ragam Gaulai, illustrating different kinds of R1 used, some of them even morphing from
one into another. The bottom line of notes is the standard notation given in most music books. The top line uses our more
refined categories. In Gaulai, G3 appears most often as M1-. But the most famous note in this ragam is R1 which appears
as S+. This phrase is a “re-rendition” of a similar phrase presented in [3] (which does not use R1+, but is also equally
acceptable).

300

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Relative Pitch (cents)

100
S R2+ R2 S R2+ S
0

−100 S RG R S − − − − D − − − − N R S

−200
N2 D1 D1+ N2
−300

−400
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Time (s)

Figure 11. A phrase from the ragam Darbari Kaanada, segmented into melodic atoms and transitions. The middle line of
notes is what one would find in standard music books. The top and bottom lines employ our more sophisticated categories
of melodic atoms. Note that the R2+ inflexion appears once as G2 and then again as an ornament on R2! The transition
from N2 to D1 could also be interpreted as N2*D1.