Investigation of acoustical parameters in the South Indian musical intervals Free

The South Indian musical style is one of the two prominent styles of classical music styles in India whose roots can be traced back to hundreds of years in the past. The South Indian musical scale is said to have evolved from a set of seven primary notes on the basis of 22 intervals. Present day practice is to use 12 intervals in an octave. A scale is divided in to 12 intervals with fixed values that constitute the basis of musical notes. South Indian classical musical intervals are melodic and are therefore flexible. Compared to the twenty two-interval scheme, the 12 interval scheme allows the freedom to perturb the fixed frequency values around their defined positions. In this study, pitch analysis of audio samples is carried out to investigate the deviations from fixed frequency values of musical intervals. Departures from theoretically calculated acoustical values will be demonstrated and discussed. The intervals vary dynamically depending on the artistic individuality and the musical context.