Generating Computer Music from Skeletal Notation for Carnatic Music Compositions

Although a high degree of improvisation is the hall mark of Carnatic music, it still revolves around compositions mostly written in the past 250 years. The music is carried down the generations by oral tradition. A composition may be preceded by or interspersed with improvisations. Carnatic music notation uses the sol-fa (sa ri ga ma pa da ni for the 7 notes) which is written on one line and the lyric on the next line. Books containing notation for Carnatic music compositions were printed in the 19 century and continue to be printed. The notation available in books is only skeletal and does not represent the music completely though many musicians can fill up the nuances intuitively. The objective of the present work is to generate acceptable music from the notation with the computer filling up for the gamakaṁs and other requirements. This paper describes the work done and under development. The notation player Gaayaka uses the traditional notation transliterated into English with slight modifications and can play acceptable music if the nuances are also notated but cannot automatically add nuances for which a separate program has been written.