(What now seems like a) Long time ago, I used to blog about my favorite ragas. In terms of effort taken to write one, it all started small, but soon got big, perhaps too big that I am unfortunately unable to get myself to do another one. However, creating such posts were enjoyable, and none more enjoyable than the one I did on rItigauLa. Per site-stats, it is one of my most popular posts, and that is not surprising because it is a wildly popular raga, be it in carnatic music, or in film music.
Now, if rItigauLa were a girl, she would no doubt be beauty personified. She would perhaps be one of those high-class ladies, the definition of grace, decked in the finest formal attire, glittering jewelry, and with a way about her that tugs, then squeezes your heart into an ache at her every dancing movement. Whenever and wherever she arrives, she would make every head turn and take notice, and she would takes their breath away.
Of course, then a certain (twisted, iconoclastic) mind starts wandering and wonders if she were instead decked in leather, or some bold, western attire, would she carry the same aura? Would she still weave that magic which easily entraps so many and makes them spell bound? Would, could rItigauLa “rock the house”?
Well what do you think?
(Now you know why I was trying to wax poetic in a completely looney way ๐ – It was all just stage-prep)
As with my earlier experiments, the whole thing is synthesized – i.e. not a single “live” note. The lead melody is “played” by a “synthesizer” that I am currently developing and still tinkering with. I can program gamakas into it (in a fairly precise but also painfully laborious way), and it can synthesize them in a way that does not sound “too artificial” (i.e. avoids the “mickey-mouse” effects). It still has ways to go, and it can probably never be the real deal, but for now, it fits some of my needs well.
( Clarification: Not a single “live” note is probably misleading. While the melody (including gamakas) is indeed generated by a computer program, the underlying sound samples are from a real instrument (guitar) rather than them also being synthesized from scratch. This is the reason why it sounds more like a real guitar in spite of it being synthesized. )
Let me know what you think. In any case, be at peace by savoring the real rItigauLa of tyAgarAja and other great composers. If you still like this one, it could be a guilty-pleasure ๐
July 9, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Very interesting and sounds more like an instrument than synthesizer in most places. We oldies are too quick to condemn but I think that experimenting with music opens up unusual opportunities. I play mt veena and I often end my practice sessions with Janani Ninnuvina and play the swara sahithyam and change it slightly to play ni ni sa ni sa ni sa ga ga ma ga ma ga ma (which irritates my teacher whi is 25 years younger than me. You are not an amatuer, you are an expert. I also enjoyed reading your vadam about vivadi swaras and learnt from it.
July 10, 2012 at 9:03 am
Thanks! I should mention that when I meant “synthesized” it does not necessarily mean that the sound was entirely recreated from scratch. Synthesizers nowadays are built upon from real world samples. So at the heart you do have real “flat” notes that were played on a guitar. These sound snippets are then used as a basis for further synthesis (in our case to introduce gamakas).
July 9, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Oh! my teacher gets irritatated because she did not teach it to me that way.
August 7, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Dude, this is epic! I’ve been searching for so long for a method to synthesize gamakas. I was desperately looking for anything from abc notation that could be used to notate them. Turns out I can’t use abc for gamakas. Then I searched for other notations that could support anything like a portamento. Finally, searched “Synthesizing Gamakas” and this came up! I found your program here – http://arunk.freepgs.com/gcreate/load.php
Awesome track, btw ๐
August 8, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Thanks! That is an old app ๐
August 8, 2012 at 8:50 am
I’m trying to write some code to synthesize gamakas too except I have no idea where to start. Like I mentioned before, I cannot use any existing notations to do this. I don’t know enough western music terminology to at least approximate gamakas. So looks like I have to do something similar to what you did. What tools did you use to manipulate the flat guitar samples into the contours? Or did you write the code yourself?
Maybe you could contact me via email?
August 8, 2012 at 12:27 pm
It isnt exactly easy. And yes you cannot capture gamakas with western notes. Basically you have pitch shift over time but also do it in such a way that doesnt sound artificial (i.e. mickey-mouse effect) – typical synthesizers would shift in a way that sounds artificial, but although not sure I think high-end ones would do it better.
The program I used/use for this not the same one as the one you found. That uses MIDI and asks MIDI to pitch shift (which would almost always sound artificial since the synthesizer on the computer would do it the “easy way”). So I wrote a synthesizer myself to do the pitch shifting. It is still at a primitive stage (works well only for guitar, also specifying gamakas is painful and laborious). It still has ways to go.
Arun
August 8, 2012 at 12:53 pm
I can see that the midi gamakas are a little artificial but I think they’re okay as a starting point. I guess I could search for any APIs to do Pitch shift (is it the same as pitch bend?)
And the synthesizer that you wrote yourself – it uses wav synthesis?
August 8, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Yes pitch bend for midi. Yes wav-table synthesis.
October 12, 2012 at 4:26 pm
ArunK, that bit was superb. I am an untrained/lay listener who is enthralled by carnatic music. I am constantly learning about it and enjoying it more and more. Thanks to the wealth of info on the web like your blog.
This raga has a very pleasant/joyous/anandam emotion/rasa to it while rock music in general, IMO, has an “industrial/rebel/lament/dark” element to it. I am curious to see how this emotional aspect can be reconciled. Pantuvarali can have a dark/rudra emotion to it and might be better suited to this kind of music. Just my opinion for whatever they are worth. ๐
January 7, 2013 at 8:39 am
Hi Arun,
This is Venkatesh from Bangalore. I have worked for Software Industry for 15 years both in software development and project management positions.
I am a learning carnatic musician from 7 years and very passionate about it. When I was searching for carnatic music scripting software I found a couple of them and your’s is one such. Kudos for your effort and trying something unique for this music field. I went thru’ your software.
As I am from Software field I know how a software engineer will attempt in writing such a software. I assume you have Carnatic Music knowledge also just like me. But the expectations of professional musicians and musicologists from these kind of softwares are something different and big.
In your software (Really sorry to say this) it falls short of a general minimum expectations of a musician / musicologist.
At the highest level the minimum requirement from musicians is:
1. Indicate Raga and Thala and provide corresponding swaras and lyrics with only minimum directives like sthayi and speed of swaras. The software should sense the laghu and drutha as per Thala structure and put bars automatically for the same, and after that avartha should repeat. And dots (sthayis) / underlines (indicating speed) should be drawn as per directive provided.
Unfortunately your software does not do this and also will take more time in providing input to get the desired output. It expects so much from the user. Most of the people feel that they can create the script faster in MS word than this software. I took 1 hour in MS word and 2-3 hours using your software with so many undo / redos and still not created complete script.
I am just sharing my opinion and It is only for the betterment of software and for the benefit of entire music community.
Can you please mention your e-mail Id to my Id (venkykode@yahoo.com) so that will send you my PDF file of the music script which I created using MS word.
Can you kindly create a Typesetting Input for the entire script of the krithi that I will be sending to you in PDF. If you can send screen shots of the entire script in Typesetting Window will help us a lot.
Cheers,
Venkatesh