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SIR CV RAMAN CENTRE FOR PHYSICS AND MUSIC

Coordinator :: Prof Dipak Ghosh

Objective

A systematic of scientific investigations into the perception and production of music, requires multidisciplinary approach, involving Physics ,Music therapy, Computer Science, Phonetics, Physiology, Psychology, Musicology, to name a few. Even if one puts aside aesthetic appreciation, the task is formidable. Each of these four aspects, viz., the purity of pitch, the purity of vowel articulation, the beauty of voice and that of rhythm, opens up a vast area of study. Technological developments have enabled us to analyse these areas precisely. Though, in the west, a lot of works on the production, analysis, synthesis, composition and perception of western music has been reported, systematic investigation in these directions is yet to make its mark in the area of Indian Music. Unfortunately, in India this is yet to happen. While some excellent but sporadic work is being done in the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Indian Statistical Institute, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Bombay), IISc (Bangalore), Department of Physics (University of Pune), Department of Physics (Visva-Bharati University) etc. and some individuals in various research organisations, there is no cohesive, broad-based and planned effort in this direction. Therefore Jadavpur University has set up Sir C V Raman Centre for Physics and Music for dedicated research in the area of Physics of Music.

• The centre is filling up the existing vacuum in the country for comprehensive fundamental research in the area of music acoustics that was pioneered in the country by Sir C V Raman. The centre will provide necessary platform to individual researchers in other organization for infrastructural as well as knowledge resources.

·         This also fills up the existing void in the important domain of societal behaviour in scientific approach towards objectively analysing traditional musical culture of the country and creating knowledge bases for these. This also provides technology bases for enumeration, analysis and study of various kinds of indigenous, folk and tribal musical instruments used in different communities.

• The creation of acoustic databases for music including tribal ones and the understanding of its course of development will be another area of interest.      

• The centre will provide basic knowledge as an input to information and media technology in music and act as a resource centre for necessary data bases for the indigenous development and bench-marking all kinds of technology in the area of music, viz. synthesizers for Indian Musical  Instruments.

• The centre provides facilities for pursuing doctoral and post doctoral research and assistance to the development of human resource through lecture courses, seminars, seminars and workshop.

• The centre has started studying the effect on human system Which consists of both psychiatry ans physiology

• All these require multidisciplinary input from various disciplines of science technology and even some disciplines of humanities. Such a centre can be effective only in the environment of a dynamic and large university like Jadavpur University. 

Activities of the Centre at present

 Research activities at move on the following areas:

• Feature extraction and study on the Timbre and prosodic characteristics of vocal and instrumental music.
• Study on the nonlinearity of musical instruments.
• Algorithm development to find out interactive methodologies for distant learning of music.
• Study on the effect of music on human autonomic nervous system.
• Study on the effect of music on human hormones and other biochemical parameters
• Distance Education Programme in Indian Classical Music.

Papers Published

1. Assessment of musical quality of tanpura by fractal dimensional analysis, Fractals,

                                                 Vol. 13, pp. 245-252, 2005

2.    Study on the Effect of Melody and Noise in Autonomic Nervous System
        ----------A Preliminary Report                                                

                   Frontiers of Research in Speech and Music (FRSM-     2007),  06.01, 2006, Lucknow

3   Study on the Effect of Melody and Noise in Cardiac Rate and Rhythm

        ----------- A Preliminary Report  27^th ISME World Conference,

            16-21 JULY 2006,KUALALUMPUR, MALAYSIA

4. Indian Classical Music Input and the fluctuation of HRV and Pulse pressure, Proc.

              Frontiers of Research in Speech and Music (FRSM- 2007),

January 8-9, 2007, AIISH, Mysore

5. Study on the Acoustic characteristics of tanpura sound signals, J. Acoustical Soc. India

                                                 (accepted), 2007

6. Study on the Timbre Characteristics of Harmonium single reed, Clarinet and

    Saxophone sound Signals ;  Proc. National Symposium on  Acoustics, NSA-2007, December 5-7, 2007, K S Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, Tamilnadu