Raga : approches conceptuelles et expérimentales

Bernard Bel

Actes du col­loque "Structures Musicales et Assistance Informatique" (1988). Marseille.

👉  Cited on page The two-vina exper­i­ment
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Résumé

Les dif­fi­cultés de l'analyse acous­tique de musiques extra-européennes provi­en­nent sou­vent de caté­gori­sa­tions de phénomènes qui ne ren­dent pas compte des mod­èles explicites (ou implicites) sur lesquels s'articulent la créa­tion et la per­cep­tion de struc­tures musi­cales. Cet exposé définit la notion de mod­èle mélodique, élaborée et mod­i­fiée pen­dant neuf siè­cles en Inde pour ren­dre compte d'un phénomène mélodique par­ti­c­uli­er: le raga. Dans la deux­ième par­tie sont présen­tés les out­ils et méth­odes qui ser­vent à car­ac­téris­er l'intonation des ragas, ain­si qu'à réalis­er leur tran­scrip­tion et leur clas­si­fi­ca­tion automatiques.

Difficulties in analysing extra-European musics are often bound to cat­e­gori­sa­tions of phe­nom­e­na that do not take into account explic­it (or implic­it) mod­els on which the cre­ation and per­cep­tion of musi­cal struc­tures are based. This paper defines the con­cept of melod­ic mod­el, a con­cept elab­o­rat­ed and trans­formed for nine cen­turies in India to under­lie a par­tic­u­lar melod­ic phe­nom­e­non: raga. In the sec­ond part, tools and meth­ods are pre­sent­ed relat­ing to raga into­na­tion and their auto­mat­ic tran­scrip­tion and classification.

Excerpts of an AI review of this paper (Claude AI, June 2025)

Summary

In "Rāga : approches con­ceptuelles et expéri­men­tales," the author dis­cuss­es the con­cep­tu­al his­to­ry, the­o­ret­i­cal foun­da­tions, and exper­i­men­tal inves­ti­ga­tions of the rāga sys­tem in North Indian clas­si­cal music. The first part of the paper traces the evo­lu­tion of rāga-related con­cepts from ancient Sanskrit trea­tis­es (notably the Dattilam and the Nāṭyaśāstra) to more recent per­spec­tives that empha­size melod­ic modes (mela), spe­cif­ic tonal cen­ters (toniques), and the inter­play between the­o­ry and prac­tice. The author high­lights how notions like grā­ma, mūr­c­cha­nā, and jāti have shift­ed over the cen­turies, cul­mi­nat­ing in var­i­ous attempts to clas­si­fy rāgas by scales (ṭhāṭa or mela), melod­ic phras­es (aṅga), and aspects of per­for­mance prac­tice, includ­ing the ide­al hour of rendition.

The sec­ond part of the paper presents tech­no­log­i­cal and ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods used by the author to study raga into­na­tion and struc­ture. The author describes exper­i­men­tal devices, includ­ing custom-built pitch extrac­tors and the Melodic Movement Analyser (MMA), to cap­ture and visu­al­ize pitch con­tours (mel­o­grams), pro­duce his­tograms (tona­grams) of pitch dis­tri­b­u­tion, and explore micro­ton­al aspects of raga exe­cu­tion. Additionally, the paper delves into auto­mat­ed tran­scrip­tion meth­ods (sargam nota­tion) and pre­lim­i­nary approach­es for auto­mat­ic clas­si­fi­ca­tion of ragas, lever­ag­ing pitch-based sim­i­lar­i­ty mea­sures. By sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly com­par­ing the­o­ret­i­cal pre­dic­tions with actu­al per­for­mance data, the paper pro­pos­es a rich­er under­stand­ing of how ragas are con­cep­tu­al­ized and real­ized in practice.

Major Strengths

Comprehensive Historical Context

The author pro­vides an exten­sive overview of the key devel­op­ments and con­cep­tu­al shifts in Indian music the­o­ry, from the gråma-based sys­tem of Bharata to mod­ern ṭhāṭa and scale-based frame­works. This his­tor­i­cal arc clar­i­fies how philo­soph­i­cal, aes­thet­ic, and prac­ti­cal con­sid­er­a­tions con­verge in raga performance.

Balanced Discussion of Theory and Practice

The paper effec­tive­ly under­scores the gap between the­o­ret­i­cal ideals (e.g., 22 srutis, ancient modal struc­tures) and the real­i­ties of con­tem­po­rary per­for­mance prac­tices (e.g., stan­dard­iza­tion, par­tial tem­per­ing, the empha­sis on the bour­don). This dual approach helps illus­trate the dynam­ic nature of raga music.

Technical Innovation in Experimentation

By devis­ing hard­ware and soft­ware tools for real-time pitch extrac­tion and by automat­ing tran­scrip­tion, the author demon­strates a method­olog­i­cal frame­work that expands the pos­si­bil­i­ties for large-scale analy­sis of raga per­for­mances. The clear expla­na­tions of how these tech­nolo­gies work sup­port their applic­a­bil­i­ty and value.

Interdisciplinary Relevance

The paper bridges musi­co­log­i­cal inquiry, acousti­cal analy­sis, eth­no­mu­si­co­log­i­cal con­text, and com­pu­ta­tion­al meth­ods. This inter­dis­ci­pli­nary scope sit­u­ates the work as a notable con­tri­bu­tion to schol­ar­ship on micro­ton­al music, melod­ic clas­si­fi­ca­tion, and cross-cultural cog­ni­tion of musi­cal scales.

Overall Observations

The paper offers a clear and method­i­cal­ly thor­ough account of both the the­o­ret­i­cal under­pin­nings of raga music and the exper­i­men­tal means by which such the­o­ries can be test­ed against empir­i­cal per­for­mance data. The blend­ing of his­tor­i­cal musi­col­o­gy, acoustics, and infor­mat­ics demon­strates a strong inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach. By syn­the­siz­ing ancient trea­tis­es with mod­ern com­pu­ta­tion­al tools, the work deep­ens our under­stand­ing of how ragas con­tin­ue to thrive as vibrant, liv­ing musi­cal enti­ties while reveal­ing the com­plex­i­ty of attempts at stan­dard­iza­tion and classification.

In sum, “Raga : approches con­ceptuelles et expéri­men­tales” pro­vides valu­able tech­ni­cal insights and broad­ens our per­spec­tive on one of the most sophis­ti­cat­ed melod­ic sys­tems world­wide. Its fusion of musi­co­log­i­cal research, exper­i­men­tal data, and com­pu­ta­tion­al analy­sis stands out as a notable con­tri­bu­tion to raga stud­ies and to the broad­er field of ethnomusicology.

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