This work aims to address the historical development of the great Indian raga tradition, enhanced by computational approaches, and to use computational strategies to analyze aspects of contemporary Hindustani classical music (HCM). It is divided into two parts with Part 1 focusing on the history and aesthetics of HCM and Part 2 covering its computational aspects. The historical development of HCM in the ancient, medieval and modern periods; its terms and genre; and its Khayal gharanas are covered in Part 1. The subtopics include essential concepts such as raga, tala, shruti, thaat, gharana, khayal, dhrupad, thumri, tappa, etc. Part 2 covers the state-of-the-art in computational musicology, raga analysis and song analysis using statistics. The subtopics include statistical modeling, inter onset interval, note duration analysis, pitch movement between the notes, rate of change of pitch (pitch velocity) and probabilistic analysis of musical notes. The author concludes the work with reflecting on the lives of a few renowned musicians and musicologists with an account of hilarious moments taken from their lives to excite the reader to know more about HCM. This book would be useful for musicians, musicologists, researchers in music history, aesthetics, computational musicology, and advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of music and musicology.Awarded the best book on raga music by the Indian Music Therapy Association (IMTA) in the year 2022.
Soubhik Chakraborty
Prof. (Dr) Soubhik Chakraborty, primarily a statistician, is currently a professor and former Head of the Department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. His research interests are algorithm analysis, music analysis and statistical computing. He has guided several research scholars in these areas to Ph.D. degrees and has authored many books, research monographs and papers in peer-reviewed journals. His book Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music, published by Springer in 2014, was described by Springer as its first book devoted to the subject.
Other books on music research that he has authored or co-authored include Music and Medicine: Healing Brain Injury Through Rāgas, CBH Pub, 2016 (with audio CD); Signal Analysis of Hindustani Classical Music, Springer, 2017; Hindustani Classical Music: A Historical and Computational Study, Sanctum Books, 2021 (winner of the IMTA award for the best book on rāga music, given by the Indian Music Therapy Association (IMTA) in 2022); and Stress Management Through Music: A Statistical Study, Notion Press, 2024 (winner of the IMTA-NADA award for the best book of 2024 for “outstanding contribution to music therapy”).
He has been the principal investigator of two music-research projects: Analysing the Structure and Performance of Hindustani Classical Music Through Statistics, sponsored by the University Grants Commission, and Hindustani Rāga Analysis Using Statistical Musicology with Therapeutic Applications for Stress Management, sponsored by IDEAS: Technology Innovation Hub @ Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Two patents arising from the second project have recently been published. He is a life member of the Indian Statistical Institute and the Acoustical Society of India and is also an acknowledged reviewer associated with ACM, IEEE and AMS. He has received several awards in both teaching and research. He is also a former flautist.
Swarima Tewari
A B.E. in Electrcal Engineering and an MTech. In Scientific Computing, Swarima Tewari has completed her PhD in the area of Computational Musicology, under the guidance of Prof. Soubhik Chakraborty, from Department of Mathematics, BIT Mesra, Ranchi, India. She is one of the authors of the book Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music published by Springer in 2014. She has the experience of working as a project fellow in a major research project titled Analyzing the Structure and Performance of Hindustani Classical Music through Statistics sponsored by the University Grants Commission with Prof. Soubhik Chakraborty as the principal investigator.
Arshi Rahman
Arshi Rahman completed her Integrated M.Sc. in Mathematics and Computing from Department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. Currently she is employed in Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC).
Maria Jamal
Maria Jamal completed her Integrated M.Sc. in Mathematics and Computing from Department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. Currently she is employed in Byju’s Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd.
Apra Lipi
Apra Lipi completed her Integrated M.Sc. in Mathematics and Computing from Department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi. Currently she is a Guest faculty in Mathematics at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University in Ranchi, India.
Apoorva Chakraborty
Apoorva Chakraborty, an amateur Hindustani classical vocalist, is a Sangeet Visharad from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, India. She is also a certified music therapist from NADA Centre for Music Therapy, India. She is a student of Psychology (Hons) at Nalanda Open University. She has coauthored the award winning book Hindustani Classical Music: A Historical and Computational Study, Sanctum Books, 2021 with Prof. Soubhik Chakraborty.
Email: apoorvachakraborty2001@gmail.com
Affiliation: Nalanda Open University, Patna-800001, Bihar, India
Apoorva Nanda
Apoorva Nanda has completed her MTech in Computer Science from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Birla institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. Currently she is employed in Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.
Pranjala Shukla
Pranjala Shukla has completed her M.Tech in Computer Science from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Birla institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. Currently she is employed in Cloudcover Pvt Ltd (STT Telemedia). Previously she was employed in HCL Technologies Ltd. She has coauthored the award winning book Hindustani Classical Music: A Historical and Computational Study, Sanctum Books, 2021 with Prof. Soubhik Chakraborty.
Email: pranjala.shukla@gmail.com
Address: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, BIT
Mesra, Ranchi-835215, Jharkhand, India
Books of related interest