A PILOT STUDY OF HINDUSTANI MUSIC SENTIMENTS
Makarand R. Velankar · 2013
Music is a universal language to convey sentiments. Hindustani classical music (HCM) has a long tradition and people from various cultural backgrounds are fascinated by it. Each performance of a given raga in HCM is supposed to create a common mood among most listeners. We have selected solo instrumental clips of bamboo flute for pilot study. We have chosen one instrument in order to eliminate the effect of words in vocal and effect of different timbres. We selected 2 ragas and 3 clips of each raga to understand possible sentiments created. We had total 4 sessions with 20 novice listeners and played 2 clips per session. Listeners have given rating for 13 sentiments on a numeric scale. From the Listener’s feedback, we have stated our own observations about the sentiment creation. General sentiments felt by novice Indian listeners were found similar to the expected mood of specific raga.