Some Observations on Naradiya Siksa : An Ancient Indian Text on Music - Didhiti Biswas

"This is one of the most important text for the appraisal of early Indian (Hindu) music. It belongs to the significant Siksa branch of literature among the Vedangas. Siksa or instruction gives the correct pronunciation, accentuation and singing of the Vedic Chants. The most noteworthy observation according to the author is that Naradiya Siksa is not written by a single author in a particular period as it is evident that the text contains information of some earlier and some later periods."

Concept of Atodya - Indrani Chakravarti

"The term "Atodya" is referred for the first time by Bharata Muni in his text the "Natyashastra" (2nd Century A. D.). Atodya deals with the aspects of instrumental music, which was later replaced with the term "Vadya". Bharata is again the first person to attempt at a scientific classification of musical instruments prevalent in his time into four categories : viz Tata (chordophones), Avanaddha (membranophone), Sushira (Aerophone) and Ghana (Idiophone)."

The Essence of Indian Music : Rabindranath, Schopenhauer and Popper - Pradip Kumar Sengupta

"This paper is a comparative study on Indian music and philosophy. The author, a philosopher himself, culls information from various sources, to provide a perspective on the versatility of three universal geniuses. The author quotes from Rabindranath and dips into Schopenhauer and Popper to substantiate some points about the relation between music (Indian and Western) and philosophy. The striking similarities of approach are too obvious to be expressed in detail. Music is the spiritual man's creativity and it is this that keeps man free and perpetually creative.".

Violin in Karnatic Concert - Radha Bhaskar

"Violin as a bowing instrument in suitable for vocal music accompaniment. As a solo instrument, violin has a significant role in Karnatic music. The study focuses on the advent of the violin in Karnatic music during the British rule in India. It is believed that in the royal court of Tanjore, the violin was a part of the orchestra and western music was imparted to all the court musicians present there by an Irish musician, Agnis Brus."

Shruti - Harmonium and its Usefulness - Ram Jeevan Bhattacharya

"The widely used box - harmonium does not satisfy the condition of consonance (Swara-Samvada) in Indian music. This harmonium, like any other keyboard instrument, contains twelve equidistant notes in an octave called "equal tempered scale' which is mistuned consonance. A discerning listener finds the music produced on it inspid, colourless and unpleasant. With a Shruti-Harmonium in hand, a traditional teacher of north Indian classical music will have a chance to compare his production of shrutis with those produced by this harmonium."

Scientific Research

Application of New Scientific Method of Creation of Hindustani Ragas (II) - Subrata Chakrabarty

"The purpose of the present work is to give a systematic method of producing two-raga composites as maximal and minimal combinations. Considering several possible subtractions of notes, we give ragas belonging to mixed classes (unequal number of notes in the ascending and descending too.) The ragas so produced include many common and uncommon ragas."

Gamaka in Hindustani Classical Vocal Music - Solveig McIntosh

"The term gamaka which includes all forms of tonal movement between substantive tones, is an essential part of performance practice in North Indian Classical vocal music. 'Ornamentation' proves to be inadequate as a term to describe the complexity of musical language used in the expression and communication of musical ideas as an ornament is often conceptually interwoven with the concept of tone. Consequently, this term has to be redefined. In order to illustrate how vocal gamaka, with its many inflectional varieties, contributes to the process of creative improvisation a three level study has been conducted. This study shows how gamaka and ornamentation, during rendition, are accumulative and work at different levels, both to expand and to enhance structural ideas."

Representing the Sound Field : An Extension of Modal Analysis - Uwe J Hansen

"The modal analytic technique of computer animated representation of structural normal modes is extended to sound fields associated with standing waves in air columns, as well as to radiated sound fields. In both cases, phase information relating the excited structure to the observed sound field, is recorded by using the excitation source as a reference signal, and monitoring the sound field with a microphone. Examples are given, showing animations for resonances in a flute, and the sound field radiated by a piano sound board at several frequencies."

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