I recently got this great opportunity to learn lots of good information about South Indian Classical Music. Being an ardent lover of this form of music, i felt great about learning these facts. Though its not at all very new , i am just happy to share these.
Music in any form, being very much associated with our daily routine, the human mind is conditioned to developing its own natural melodic and rhythmic patterns based on the different behavioral, emotional and intellectual abilities. And this is the main reason why different forms of music have a lot of similarity though they all came up at different places at the same time. Being a great source of recreation and entertainment, the different forms of music basically concentrated on the "feel" of the individual listening to it and ancient classical indian music concentrates mainly on what is called "raaga" which is closely similar to the western chords in english music.
There is a lot of similarity between the mathematics involved in the creation of different raagas and the modern hashing technique! Sounds Interesting Indeed!! I was left wondering if most of the stuff we claim to have discovered recently have already been thought about by our ancestors!
The formula used to differentiate the different raagas is called the "katapayadi sutra", an old sanskrit alphabet based system of classifying the different raagas.This method helped to arrive at a number after several considerations and for each of those numbers, a significant name too. Hence we actually have 72 basic raagas which have been classified in groups of 6 each leaving us 12 different groups. Amongst these 12 again, there are two different groups of six each. Its extremely interesting to find out that a lot of premutation and combinations goes into making each of the group of 6 raagas. One can't help but get amazed at the power of mathematics in the development of ancient musicology! The "katapayadi sutra" was thus used to derive specific names from specific numbers where as the Modern Hashing method aims at deriving numbers for specific names.
Music in any form, being very much associated with our daily routine, the human mind is conditioned to developing its own natural melodic and rhythmic patterns based on the different behavioral, emotional and intellectual abilities. And this is the main reason why different forms of music have a lot of similarity though they all came up at different places at the same time. Being a great source of recreation and entertainment, the different forms of music basically concentrated on the "feel" of the individual listening to it and ancient classical indian music concentrates mainly on what is called "raaga" which is closely similar to the western chords in english music.
There is a lot of similarity between the mathematics involved in the creation of different raagas and the modern hashing technique! Sounds Interesting Indeed!! I was left wondering if most of the stuff we claim to have discovered recently have already been thought about by our ancestors!
The formula used to differentiate the different raagas is called the "katapayadi sutra", an old sanskrit alphabet based system of classifying the different raagas.This method helped to arrive at a number after several considerations and for each of those numbers, a significant name too. Hence we actually have 72 basic raagas which have been classified in groups of 6 each leaving us 12 different groups. Amongst these 12 again, there are two different groups of six each. Its extremely interesting to find out that a lot of premutation and combinations goes into making each of the group of 6 raagas. One can't help but get amazed at the power of mathematics in the development of ancient musicology! The "katapayadi sutra" was thus used to derive specific names from specific numbers where as the Modern Hashing method aims at deriving numbers for specific names.
The idea of giving specific names must have been done to aid the memory of the teachers and the learners, since early India took to the oral culture of education. It would be absurd to claim that the first thinkers of the modern hashing methods had no original thoughts. Nevertheless, it is indeed very refreshing to learn that there is in actuality some arguable similarities between the old techniques and the new ones.
4 comments:
Mathematics is language of science and music is also a science so music needs to have maths na :)
-Vinay
uff, that was heavy stuff. All this biz of science & math & music......Complicated!I am hardly trained enough in any form of music,but I dont suppose the makers of all those raagas really went into the mathematics of it when they created them,did they? Maybe you can throw some light on this with your experience.
Or
Is it that, the raagas were mathmatically formulated and the songs, I mean the lyrics were created instinctively out of creative thoughts and made to fit those raagas depending on the mood of the singer, so that he chooses to sing one particular song in different raagas at different times.-- Maybe this explains why I have heard the same song sung by different singers differently and asolutely liked one, but was totally unimpressed with others.
While it might be all complicated stuff for music makers, it is simple enough for plain 'ol listeners like me.
My definition - If your brain can find patterns/rhythm/peace and can get hooked onto a certain sound - thats music! - rest is noise
@Vinay - I am jus trying to say music became a science because of all the hardwork different people put in it to bring in mathematics into it and that it is a feat which commands admiration!
@steelysouthpaw- ya i do agree with u.
Music : a means of relaxation developed inorder to suit different moods and at different times, and then because different ppl might have wished to sing it at different places, a schema to remember it could have come up. Ancient Indians being good at knowledge of mathematics might have used that for remembering the different tunes and hence the origin of different raagas could be traced.I also feel that this methodology for remembering different raagas supported the stage-drama culture we had in ancient india.
Well, its very difficult to pass a comment without verifying the authenticity of the same, nevertheless with the little knowledge that i possess i feel that raagas indeed were mathematically formulated and any lyrics were made to fit those raagas, which is the tradition followed even today.
Post a Comment