Computational approaches for the understanding of melody in carnatic music

Abstract

The classical music traditions of the Indian subcontinent,/nHindustani and Carnatic, offer an excellent ground on which/nto test the limitations of current music information research/napproaches. At the same time, studies based on these music/ntraditions can shed light on how to solve new and complex/nmusic modeling problems. Both traditions have very distinct/ncharacteristics, specially compared with western ones:/nthey have developed unique instruments, musical forms, performance/npractices, social uses and context. In this article,/nwe focus on the Carnatic music tradition of south India, especially/non its melodic characteristics. We overview the/ntheoretical aspects that are relevant for music information/nresearch and discuss the scarce computational approaches/ndeveloped so far. We put emphasis on the limitations of the/ncurrent methodologies and we present open issues that have/nnot yet been addressed and that we believe are important to/nbe worked on.