A research project on ragas in Carnatic music was carried out last December - January in Chennai, by Dr. Cleveland Johnson, Professor of Music, DePauw University, Greencastle, USA along with a team of his students and Indian assistants.
In an e-mail to KutcheriBuzz, Dr. Johnson writes, "The project took advantage of the concentrated 'Madras Season' to gather data on the current popularity of certain ragas, compositions, and other musical features. Using a statistically significant sample of concerts during the 2003/04 season – almost 15% of more than 2000 concerts, attended by a team of more than twenty assistants – this project provides ample raw data for observing the prevalence of certain ragas, the popularity of certain compositions, and the prominence of certain composers.
Providing an empirical look at a large sample of performances during a restricted timeframe, the resulting database provides an interesting snapshot of recent performance practice in the Carnatic music world".
And now, the research results (including a searchable database of over 2400 compositions from almost 300 concerts) is made available on the website: www.depauw.edu/library/musiclib/RagaDatabase/index.html
Dr. Johnson adds that the info may be useful to scholars, performers and rasikas.He says, "In the areas of concert structure and raga use, this information may prove instructive to performers for future repertoire selection".
The research was funded by the ASIANetwork, a consortium of over 150 colleges and universities in the United States.
Contact: Dr. Cleveland Johnson, (U.S.A) - Ph: (765) 658-4396, Fax: (765) 658-4042
E-mail: cjohnson@depauw.edu
