CULTURE SPECIFIC MUSIC INFORMATION PROCESSING: A PERSPECTIVE FROM HINDUSTANI MUSIC

Music can be considered as an art and/or industry. Regardless of this dichotomy, the totality of any music tradition can be studied keeping in view the following ten aspects that are integral to every tradition: compose, perform, receive, perceive, teach, learn, preserve, access, disseminate & share. These areas are interdependent yet mutually influencing. In this paper I outline some issues that have either a direct or indirect bearing on these areas. My observations will be from a perspective of a practitioner and musicologist especially engaged in a project related to computational musicology. I will concentrate mainly on five aspects: listening, intonation, improvisation, instruments and notation. The paper also includes a short discussion of our research project AUTRIM (automated transcription system for Indian music), developed in collaboration with Prof. Wim van der Meer of University of Amsterdam. 1