Konnakol, in South Indian Carnatic music, is the art of performing percussion syllables vocally. It is the recitation of Solkattu – the vocal syllables related to the sounds of the Mridangam, a major percussion instrument in Carnatic Music. Recognized as an art form of principle study, Konnakol is also a medium used by Carnatic musicians to convey rhythmic ideas to each other.
However, notwithstanding its importance in Carnatic music, there have not been any successful attempts in creating a system which could formalise the conventional rules of Konnakol and check whether a given rhythmic pattern fits into a fixed set of rhythmic cycles or not. Such a pattern forms a partition of the total length of the rhythmic cycles.
This project aims to formalize Korvai (cadence) and Koraippu (starting with a longer pattern and progressively performing shorter patterns) and Mohra, three main aspects of Konnakol. The system developed will be able to formalize pre-existing compositions, as well as check whether a given composition follows the conventional rules of Konnakol. This system can then be used to generate new patterns, which could, further on, be compared to one another to find the most complex ones.
The project also aims to display valid compositions using the Jathi notation, as well as use a grid design to visualize the patterns generated, where syllables of different lengths and the gaps between syllables will be displayed using different colors. This will facilitate understanding of the patterns among the partition that this composition has formed. The system developed will be integrated with the
"Tidal Cycles” software, so that users may include Konnakol in their compositions as well. The documentation and the visualization tools provided will help TidalCyclists with no prior knowledge to develop a basic understanding about Konnakol.
To read more about the project and to follow progress, you can visit the Google Summer of Code Project Page
Google Summer of Code
summerofcode.withgoogle.com
Top comments (0)