Documentation
of Indian music
An
example of keyboard encoding is the material contained "
-da.kathak
tihai
s".
When this data file is opened, it automatically calls the "-ho.kathak"
alphabet which in turn opens the "-kb.kathak.qwerty" encoding. (You may change
it to AZERTY if your keyboard is in French.) All tokens are
bols
used by (Lucknow style) Kathak danc
ers
in North India, in a comprehensive transliteration designed by Andréine
Bel. Numbers used as terminal symbols (in the so-called "number
tihais
"
are notated #1, #2, #3... (pronounce
ek,
do, tin
...
in Hindi, otherwise
one,
two, three
...)
because ordinary integers are reserved for indicating durations.
Indian
rhythmic material lends itself to descriptions by formal grammars, as
exemplified by grammars "-gr.dhat
i",
"-gr.dhin--", "
-gr.dhadhatit
e"
and their variants able to produce
qa'idas
(theme and variations pieces) in the Lucknow style of tabl
a
drumming. Most grammars supplied as examples have been commented in our
publications.
A
grammar producing a famous Kathak
number
tihai
composed by Pandit Birju Maharaj will be found in "-gr.1234567
8".
More
tihais
have been implemented in "-gr.ShapesInRhyth
m".
If you need to play
lahras
(cyclic melodic phrases) to practise Indian percussions, use "-da.lahra
s".
Indian
raga music is also a good candidate for composition/improvisation models based
on grammars and automata. The subtleties of
alankara
and
gamaka
may be rendered by performance parameters. Examples are still lacking since
performance contro
ls
have been introduced recently. When Kumar S. Subramanian spent a few days in
Delhi, he started composing items related to South Indian tunes. I have taken
the liberty to insert some of his work in the example folder ("-gr.trial.mohana
m"
and "-gr.kss
2").
We
recently came to know that a team located in Mumbai (= Bombay) had devised an
excellent method for the synthesis of tabl
a
sounds. We hope to make it accessible to BP2 users shortly.