AI & NLP involving musical linguistics
 

Application of ‘Physics of Music’ to ancient Tamil grammar text ‘tholkAppiam’ and other ancient Tamil texts led to the discovery of ‘Musical Linguistics’ (‘Musical Phonetics in Tholkappiam’ in the journal of the international institute of Tamil studies; December 2013  http://www.ulakaththamizh.in/journal)

From the above discovery, the sound of letters had dual aspects; one serving the semantic goal in prose and speech, and the other serving the non-semantic musical goal in musically rendered song.

While linguistics is the scientific study of language, musical linguistics is the scientific study of the musical language employed in the musically rendered poems.

A poem can be rendered as a prosody or musical. In a musically rendered poem, musical structure-based encoding & decoding conveys the musical meaning. while simultaneous speech structure-based encoding & decoding conveys the language meaning.

In Musical Linguistics, the rules of joining the letters for composing the poems are non-semantic and hence language-independent, but musical structure dependent.

1.   Text to speech applications are based on the linguistics of the language used.

 

2.  Musically rendered poem of a language followed a set of rules unique to that language.

 

3.  The rules may govern the employment of letters, words, line and form of the poem.

 

4.  Language-independent, but the musical structure dependent universal grammar for musically rendered poems was discovered from the ancient Tamil grammar text tholkAppiam.

 

5.   The above discovery will be related to the emerging field of ‘Musical Linguistics’.

 

6.  Using a musically rendered poetic text as input, text to music application could be developed using AI & NLP, involving musical linguistics

Note: ‘Is ‘Chomsky’s thinking since at least 2002 is not really compatible with the practice of mainstream generative grammar’?’; https://www.academia.edu/s/79ef3bc4a9

 

  

       Discussion on ‘Physics of Music’

   

How Sound becomes Music? will help understanding, performing and composing music.

With the training in anyone kind of music like Western, Chinese, Carnatic, Hindustani, Malay, etc,

one could extend the training to other kinds of music to explore performing with the artists of the other kind of music, 

or composing music using the music sources in the other kind of music.

Also one must be aware of the following differences.

Like Scales in Western music, Raga in Indian music, every music has its own classification, apart from its own tuning system, pitch standard and musical aesthetics.

‘We are living in a time when many music cultures are in a critical state of survival in terms of support, exposure, prestige, transmission processes, and infrastructure. This is the time for all of us who love, make, or work in music to collaborate with communities across the world to empower them to forge musical futures on their own terms. As we have seen in our research, both small and major gestures make a difference for music practices in transition and at risk, especially if the driving force behind this is not nostalgia or neo-colonialism, but appreciation of the idea that with a little effort and insight, it is possible to negotiate ecologies of musical diversity in a globalized, mediatized world.’ (https://folklife.si.edu/talkstory/sound-futures-understanding-musical-ecosystems-as-a-key-to-sustainability)

The weakening of the globalized, mediatized world is now imminent. Localized and de-mediatized world is emerging with more scope to sense the emerging new music tastes. Many music cultures, in a critical state of survival, will prove to be valuable music sources to create new music. 

Example: Title: Angkor 2020 - http://muxel.sg/ ; Cambodian style Xylophone music involving the music note structures from the South Indian Classical Music.

New music after Covid-19 is forcing new music ecosystem to collaborate to enhance the music skills to create and perform the new music, without sacrificing the musical aesthetic diversity in the world music  

We can discuss the problems encountered as well as clarify the doubts.  

Post your comments, problems, doubts & Questions below

Dr.Vee

http://drvee.in/

How to live to identify the Music and Dance from Nature? 

During my morning walks, I say ‘Good Morning’ to the birds & trees, all living beings I come across. Though they may not understand my verbal communication, they understand my emotion and respond.

To those who may doubt me, the following will clarify.

According to the scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, a plant treated with care and affection gives out a different vibration compared to a plant subjected to torture.”; 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_perception_%28paranormal%29  

‘Plants can see, hear and smell – and respond’; 

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170109-plants-can-see-hear-and-smell-and-respond

When you are extremely happy due to unforeseen positive development like winning a gold medal or birth of a child in normal delivery, etc, your face and body language will radiate so much happiness that even strangers (even if they were in dull mood) around you (who may not know you or the reason) can sensitize your happiness and feels energized, partly reflecting in their face and body language.

During my walk both in the morning and evening, some times during winds, I used to witness the up and down rhythmic moving branches with leaves in matching rhythmic movements in the trees. It just reminded me the radiating happiness mentioned above.

I had come across references in the ancient Indian Tamil texts, explaining the keys to identify the Music and Dance from Nature.

For example,

“oru thiRam, pAdal nhal viRaliyar olkupu nhudangka.

´ ஒரு திறம், பாடல் நல் விறலியர் ஒல்குபு நுடங்க, ¸

(one side, movement arose from dancers matching the music)

oru thiRam, vAdai uLarvayin pUng kodi nudangka,

 ஒரு திறம்,வாடை உளர்வயின் பூங்கொடி நுடங்க, ¸

(one side, movement similar to the dancer arose from stem with flowers subjected to cold wind)”

-  From ancient Tamil text paripAtal; Pages 148-149, Ancient Music Treasures- Exploring for New Music Composing, Dr.Vee ,2019

The following dance just reminded the dance movements I could decipher from the dancing branches with more interesting movements of the leaves with the stems, synchronizing with the movements of the flowers in the nearby plants.

‘Thousand Hands Dance - Tarian Seribu Tangan’ 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk5eCbMzetU&feature=youtu.be&list=RDYk5eCbMzetU)

We may not know the ‘emotion’ (which science had begun to unravel) of the trees. Still we can sensitize the happiness like the strangers mentioned above.

When plants & trees can respond to my ‘Good Morning’, why not the birds?

Whenever I hear the birds’ sound, I enjoy deciphering the musical substructures from them and explore musically garlanding them to compose a music.

No wonder, I start the day with full of life steam that will last till I go to bed.

Start the Day with ‘Good Morning’ to Birds & Trees’; 

Minus the human intervention of the definition, the life in nature’s view has no death but only transformation in the role of gene related atoms and molecules; gene: a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.

Also both buried and burnt bodies, in the course of time, become the food for many living things like plants, birds and fishes.

“food influences our gene expression, and can modify it, sometimes dramatically, with significant consequences for our health, both positive and negative.” 

(https://www.barillacfn.com/en/magazine/food-and-health/diet-and-genetics-influence-each-other/#:~:text=But%20food%20does%20not%20only,more%20complex%20by%20the%20day.)

Only people in the state of good emotions can start the Day with ‘Good Morning’ to Birds & Trees’.

“scientists are discovering that positive emotions don’t just make you feel good — they have an impact on our social interactions and health outcomes that may become written in our genes.”; 

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/july-august-13/new-research-on-positive-emotions.html)

Hence say good morning to not only to birds and trees, also to the ‘inanimate’ live objects like rocks, clouds in sky with wonderful designs and colours during sunrise and sunset. We, a part of nature, say good morning to the other parts of nature, as we say to the other human beings.

Music after Covid-19? (2)

How music composing could become musical architecture building?

The weakening of the globalized, mediatized world is now imminent. Localized and de-mediatized world is emerging. To survive during the above transformation, the music composers will have to transform to ‘Musical Building Architects’. 

(‘Music after Covid-19? (1) From the globalized, mediatized world to localized and de-mediatized world, fostering the musical diversity’; 

https://musicdrvee.blogspot.com/2020/05/music-after-covid-19-from-globalized.html)

Post Covid-19, the localized and de-mediatized world will revive the musical ecosystem, fostering the musical diversity and creativity. Also, ‘many music cultures now in a critical state of survival’ as well as sounds from nature would prove to be valuable music sources for a wide variety of new music, catering to the diverse music tastes emerging in the digital music market.

Thanks to the developments in the Music Information Technology (MIT), both the music learning and music composing could adopt universal techniques without dethroning the traditional methods of specializing the different kinds of world music. 

(http://drvee.in/)

When I introduced ‘Music Information Technology’ as a common elective to all the disciplines of the engineering students of National Institute of Technology, Trichy & SASTRA University, Thanjavur, India, I never imagined that it would lead to the emerging of a new music learning method, without vocal or instrumental training, to understand world music with the option to specialize any kind of world music for music composing.

Most of my students had no previous music training, Indian music or Western music.

Starting from the basics of acoustics, I introduced the musical parameters and the general tuning system, followed by their role in Western major scales & minor scales. Also relating Western music notes to the Indian music notes, I explained the logic to identify the Raga system of both South Indian & North Indian Classical Music.

Encouraged by the students’ response, I demonstrated the method of transforming a Western melody from the Western Notation to the South Indian Classical Music Notation.

Next comes the most exciting development.

To test their understanding, the following assignment was given to them.

From the internet, download any simple melody of Western Music. Transform the melody from the Western Notation to the South Indian Classical Music Notation and submit the assignment.

To my pleasant surprise, all successfully submitted the assignment.

After my training to enter the music notes using the mouse in the free version of MIDI synthesiser software, they enjoyed their training towards becoming a music composer. With default velocity, the resulting melody sounded just skeleton. After listening to the corresponding melody in the album, they could understand the difference between the musical skeleton and the musical architecture.

Then I explained to them about the significance of the traditional method of music learning to grasp and implement the finer details of the musical architecture.

Also, I explained how to source the sound in nature to compose music.

Next, I became the project consultant to R & D project at NIT-T India.

The Logic of Defreezing the Music from the Building Architecture, started from Vitruvius (80 -15 BC), and pursued by Iannis Xenakis, among many others in the modern era, was finally discovered by me, as the Project Consultant of the on-going R & D project at National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India, with patent and published in SCI journal ‘Multimedia Tools and Applications – Springer‘ 

(http://drvee.in/)

The above project had revealed how music composing could become musical architecture building.

Without using any music instrument & by entering the music notes using the mouse, I had composed some experimental music, just to demonstrate how music composing could be like a musical building; constructing the musical skeleton first and to add the musical architecture next.

To add the musical architecture, I need to study the samples of great composers to identify the musical architecture details to add to the musical skeleton structure. Alternately to save time, I could coordinate online with a traditional music composer who may also be exposed to this new music composing technique.

The following musical skeleton samples in MP3 - free demo – 

1.   Title: Beat Again

Dr Vee developed DfD tech in music. It is leading to new music, differing from Mozart’s style of composing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman".

Few structures of Michael Jackson’s 'Beat It' with the musical notes structures of Indian music, were employed to develop a melody in instrumental (Xylophone) format. The tune is totally different from ‘Beat it’.

2.   Title: Angkor 2020

My experimental composing for the Cambodian style Xylophone music, using the musical notes structures of Indian music;

Without using any music instrument, I just composed using the mouse in my laptop, using the Xylophone & other instruments voices in the MIDI synthesiser software.

During 2018 July, the senior music teacher at Heritage Hub, Cambodian Living Arts, Siam Reap praised that the following music would prove to be innovative new addition to Cambodian style Xylophone music.

3.   Title: MOZARTHAMSA

Few musical note structures of Mozart (K545) were musically joined with the few musical note structures Carnatic Music Trinity Muthuswami Dikshitar’s Vatapi Ganapatim in Hamsadhvani raga, to musically generate a ‘pallavi’ and ‘charanam’ of Indian style melody. Few more instrumental tracks were added to complete the melody.

All notes entered using mouse – plain notes – no mixing.

visit : http://muxel.sg/

Design for Disassembly (DfD) is the new developing field in the building architecture. 

(https://archinect.com/features/article/150067785/recycled-buildings-how-to-design-for-disassembly). 

Great Music composers had already employed the different kinds of transformations of the music structures to compose music.  The above-mentioned project on ‘The Logic of Defreezing the Music from the Building Architecture’ had revealed the techniques involved in the music related DfD.

Musical architecture building involving the music related DfD may become the music composing trend during post Covid-19 world.

My journey started from the application of ‘Physics of Music’ to the ancient Indian Tamil texts. Just following my passions in accordance with my nature, I had become a Music Information Technologist, pioneering in Musical Architecture and Musical Linguistics; waiting for the right team to develop and introduce Musical architecture building to the world of music.

Music after Covid-19? (1)

From the globalized, mediatized world to localized and de-mediatized world, fostering the musical diversity

One of the 100 Future Predictions for A Post Covid-19 World:

“Do you want to be in a room full of 300+ people six inches away from each other, and the answer is most likely, hell no. That’s Hollywood’s dilemma in a nutshell.” 

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2020/04/27/grading-100-future-predictions-for-a-post-covid-19-worldpart-1/#443f9db72619)

‘Covid-19 has left an estimated multibillion-dollar hole in the ticket sales that account for most of performers’ income.’ (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-20/musicians-turn-to-streaming-concerts-amid-coronavirus)

‘Movie theatres, on the other hand, are looking more like an endangered species thanks to COVID-19.’  

(https://blooloop.com/covid-19-movie-theatre-disappear/)

Concerts style entertainment also faces the same danger.

‘Even as other businesses like restaurants or retail slowly re-emerge, and workers begin to restart the economy, the concert industry could take well over a year or more to look anything like what we’re used to. When shows hopefully resume in 2021, promoters will likely treat the disease like another security measure at the gates: temperature checks, mandatory face masks or even on-site COVID-19 testing are all potential measures in the future.’ 

(https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-04-17/coronavirus-concerts-live-music-return-202)

No More concerts; no more movie theatres; still music entertainment will go on.

‘Kantar – VTION’s passive OTT Audio Audience Measurement service data revealed that there was a 42% increase in time spent on listening to OTT/ Streaming Audio apps. Over 50% growth in the time spent on listening amongst the age group of 18-24 and consumers in the age group of 25-34 have shown a 30% growth in usage.

Hungama Artist Aloud, a platform that supports and promotes independent content, is launching a series of multilingual, multi-genre and multi-talent digital concerts called #StayAtHome #StayEntertained. The series will run for a period of 14 days starting 1st April 2020 and feature several artists like Shibani Kashyap, Mame Khan, Suneeta Rao, Manasi Scott, Sherrin Varghese etc. going live on Hungama Music’s Facebook page to deliver acoustic performances from their own homes.’ 

(https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/digital/coronavirus-impact-music-streaming-players-build-strategies-to-move-forward/74905106)

The transformation from passive enjoyment of listening to pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting, had started.

‘Due to a HUGE increase in online orders however, processing ordnowers is taking 3 business days. We endeavour to dispatch them as quickly and safely as possible. 
(https://www.bettermusic.com.au/covid19)

‘With time to spare, musical beginners are diving in by purchasing instruments for the first time and signing up for lessons. Tuerk says Reverb is currently welcoming an influx of new buyers. “We’re seeing an increase in acoustic guitar, synthesizer, keyboard, and pro audio orders,” he says. “Based on the types of gear they’re purchasing, many of these new buyers appear to be beginners.”

Defying the economic downturn, online business is booming for Apple’s GarageBand music software, as well as Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Reverb, and other retailers.’ 

(https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/lists/coronavirus-music-business-latest-974262/sales-of-instruments-and-music-gear-are-soaring-will-quarantine-spark-a-renaissance-991259/)

With derailed globalization restricting physical movements, the transformation of the musical ecosystem had started with the transformation towards pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting. Self-learning music students, depending on their interest and progress, may approach music experts and performers for more learning and experimenting. It may lead to a new kind of synergic relationship exploring new music.  

Till now, the musical ecosystem was unfavourable to fostering creativity, as shown below.

‘I think the music industry is structured in a way that music output is restricted within it's 'creativity.' Producers have a massive influence on sound, appearance and who the target audience should be.’ 

(https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1808713/is-there-a-lack-of-creativity-in-music-today)

Dethroning the above structure of the music industry, the pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting will lead to the development of the diversity in the structure of the music industry, demonopolizing the profits and shares ; also fostering creativity.

Post Covid-19, I will spend more time in the place where I opted to live, developing more connections to the surrounding nature and society. When people living in a village or town or city undergo transformation, that place will also undergo simultaneous transformation. 

The growth of a city like Chennai starting from a cluster of villages to become a metro city can be studied using the music that prevailed in those villages and the changes in the music accompanying the growth to the present Chennai. More interesting will be to study all current music in Chennai to segregate the weakening music from the new growing music to predict the future Chennai. This interesting link between the history of a city and the history of music of the city was found in ancient Indian texts.

“paNivuil chIr

mAththirai inRi  nhatakkumEl, vAzhum Ur

kOththiram kURappatum”.-  nhAlatiyAr 25:2

  பணிவு இல் சீர்

 மாத்திரை இன்றி நடக்குமேல், வாழும் ஊர்

 கோத்திரம் கூறப்படும். "- நாலடியார் 25:2

The sound of letters in a song and music are related by an objective grammar discovered in ancient Indian texts. The sound of the syllables – ‘acai’ அசை - arises out of the musical sounding of the letters of the syllable. Musically defined monosyllable – ‘nhEr acai’ நேர் அசை -and disyllable – ‘nhirai acai’ நிரை அசை - lead to a phrase like significant musical substructure called ‘chIr’ which will possess the details of the musical scale, unique aesthetic aspects including the percussion structure. This discovery was reported in

http://musicresearchlibrary.net/omeka/items/show/2445

Hence chIr is not just the joining of acai as now taught in Tamil studies. It is a significant music substructure.

paNivu means obedience. paNivuil is the absence of obedience. mAththirai is the musical time and musical note measure. mAththirai inRi means not conforming to the musical time measure. vAzhum Ur means the city of living. kOththiram means the characteristic nature. kURappatum means revealed.

The characteristic nature of a city can be inferred from the music in that city. 

(https://musicdrvee.blogspot.com/2012/08/history-of-city-and-history-ofmusic.html)

To unravel the music ecosystem after Covid-19, the above socio-musical key may prove to be very valuable. 

Thanks to Covid-19, the pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting will revive ‘many music cultures now in a critical state of survival’.

‘We are living in a time when many music cultures are in a critical state of survival in terms of support, exposure, prestige, transmission processes, and infrastructure. This is the time for all of us who love, make, or work in music to collaborate with communities across the world to empower them to forge musical futures on their own terms. As we have seen in our research, both small and major gestures make a difference for music practices in transition and at risk, especially if the driving force behind this is not nostalgia or neo-colonialism, but appreciation of the idea that with a little effort and insight, it is possible to negotiate ecologies of musical diversity in a globalized, mediatized world.’ 

(https://folklife.si.edu/talkstory/sound-futures-understanding-musical-ecosystems-as-a-key-to-sustainability)

The weakening of the globalized, mediatized world is now imminent. Localized and de-mediatized world is emerging. The individual centric western style living, to safeguard from virus infection, is now adopting Asian style social distancing and social-centric living.  Hence localized and de-mediatized world will revive the musical ecosystem, fostering the musical diversity and creativity.

To survive during the above transformation, the music composers will have to transform to ‘Musical Building Architects’. Thanks to the developments in the Music Information Technology (MIT), it is now viable.

(To continue)

Workshops   to decolonize the Asian Music;

To regain the due share in the world music education & entertainment market for Asian Music

On reading the previous post (‘HOW MIT & Raga Sputa Method can rescue the traditional Asian Music, & the ‘modernization without westernization’ in the Asian music domain?’; http://musicdrvee.blogspot.sg/2017/05/how-mit-raga-sputa-method-can-rescue.html );

my friend M. Arjunamani from Sydney (Australia) mailed the following questions.

1.    Is it possible to use your MIT to recover or re-invent the Tamil PaNNs many of which we have lost?

2.    Will your MIT benefit our Othuvars and people who are interested in rediscovering the ancient PaNNisai?

3.    If so, could you please think of organising a Winter School on MIT for Othuvars and PaNNisai enthusiasts?

Before attending to the above questions, I need to brief on the ‘Colonization of the Asian Music’, which was responsible for the relevance of the above questions w.r.t the rescuing of the Tamil Music, one of the ancient Music.

In the following article, I had explained how Carnatic Music had suffered more due to the colonization of the Asian Music, and Tamil Music had become the worst victim in the process. (http://musicresearchlibrary.net/omeka/items/show/2446  )

The social mechanism of the colonization of the Asian mind, was the imbibing the western style sickness of the social comparison, after successfully implanting social comparison based hierarchy, replacing the social comparison free, social functioning based hierarchy in the Asian societies. For example, the current meaning of the word ‘caste’ as well as the present caste system in India, were mischievously implanted during the colony rule, as I had explained in the following article . (http://tamilsdirection.blogspot.sg/2016/01/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_31.html   )

The social history of the colonization of the Asian Mind and the Socio-Musical history of the colonization of the Asian music were interlinked, as explained below.

The following from the ancient Tamil text may provide the key to decipher the above mentioned interlink.

“ paNivuil chIr

mAththirai inRi  nhatakkumEl, vAzhum Ur

kOththiram kURappatum”.-  nhAlatiyAr 25:2

 பணிவு இல் சீர்

 மாத்திரை இன்றி நடக்குமேல், வாழும் ஊர்

 கோத்திரம் கூறப்படும். "

‍  நாலடியார் 25:2

“ the history of a city and the history of music of the city are intertwined. The growth and decay of a city will be reflected in the music of that city. Also the emerging trends in music may reveal the emerging history of that city. Hence the study of music history includes the musicological details which are related to the changes in the history of the place. Probably this could be extended to study an individual. The music skills, likes and dislikes in music taste of a person may reveal the characteristic of the person. The history of a city is not only the history of the people in the city, but also the history of the music of the people in the city.” (http://musicdrvee.blogspot.sg/2012/08/history-of-city-and-history-ofmusic.html )

From the above discussion, it is clear that the decolonization of the Asian mind and decolonization of the Asian music were interlinked.

To undertake the above exercise, we need to be open minded and detach ourselves from the emotional bond with the implanted concepts.

In spite of the irrefutable evidences in my book ‘Ancient Music Treasures – Exploration for the New Music’, I had come across emotion based opposition to the fact that the Harmonium and Sruthi box were introduced into the Indian music, after the entry of the Christian missionaries from the Western countries, followed by the colony rule.

I had come across such emotion based oppositions, from both among the pro-Carnatic music & pro-Tamil music circles, most of them unfortunately entangled in the baseless superior/inferior battles.

People like my friends M Arjunamani and Prof.Dr.N.Ramanathan, former Dean of Music, University of Madras, as exception to the above trend, were supporting my open minded research to decolonize the Asian Music & to regain the due share in the world music education & entertainment market.

As part of the above efforts, I mailed the following, in response to the questions in the beginning of this post.

Regarding the prospects of MIT benefit to our Othuvars (experts in the traditional rendering of the thevAram texts of Saivam), and to recover or re-invent the Tamil PaNNs, the following problems needed to be addressed first.

When & how did different styles of rendering the same thevAram text (well recorded in Pondy French Institute) originate?

What are the differences between theory and performances in Carnatic music? 

What was the role of colonization, in causing the above differences?

What were the influences of Carnatic Performance music, a post-colonial development (unlike Hindustani Music) mixing Tamil temple music, folk music, Hindustani music & western music, in the above different styles of rendering the same thevAram text? 

To rescue not only the ancient Tamil music, but also to decolonize all kinds of Asian music;

I had expressed my willingness to my friend M.Arjunamani, to conduct a workshop on the above problems & the required skills one could acquire to undertake the above joint probe.

The above probe, may lead to identify the ways & means ‘to recover or re-invent the Tamil PaNNs many of which we have lost’.

The above workshop may prove to be a good beginning to plan similar workshops to decolonize all the kinds of the Asian Music & to regain the due share in the world music education & entertainment market, for the Asian Music.