About Indic Music Workshops

Dataset: http://doi.org/10.17639/nott.7554

The workshop led by Sandeep Bhagwati and his technical team centered around two digital scores designed to bridge traditional Indian classical music with contemporary technology. The workshop examined two digital scores—Smruti Ranga, composed by Sandeep Bhagwati, and DigiTabla, created by tabla performer and composer Shawn Mativetsky—which merge Indian classical music with interactive technology. Through collaborative experimentation, musicians engaged with the digital scores to rethink improvisation, notation, and ensemble dynamics. Designed for trained Indian musicians, these scores utilised North Indian Sargam notation while incorporating generative algorithms and colour-coded visual elements to guide the performance. The system presents short raga-derived phrases (yellow) and directives (green) that musicians interpret in real-time, creating a dynamic interplay between fixed structures and open improvisation. Unlike traditional performances that typically follow set forms or teacher-student dynamics, these digital scores encourage collaborative experimentation among multiple musicians, including both vocalists and instrumentalists, while maintaining connections to classical frameworks.

Connectivity

• Musicians described a three-way connectivity—between themselves, their co-performers, and the digital score. This triangle altered traditional binaries of solo vs. accompaniment and performer vs. composition.

• Cross-traditional engagement: Participants from Carnatic and Hindustani traditions navigated and adapted their playing to each other’s idioms using the shared visual framework of the digital score, creating real-time negotiation and musical dialogue.

• Visual coordination: Despite the challenge of maintaining eye contact and traditional gestural cues, the shared score became a “common language,” allowing spontaneous alignment of phrases, motifs, and ragas.

• Merging of roles: Instruments traditionally confined to solo or accompaniment roles (e.g., tabla, violin, sitar) found new ways to share or alternate prominence, emphasising a more egalitarian and responsive connectivity.

Flow

• Disruption and recovery: Participants highlighted how the flow was at times disrupted due to the need to “follow” the score visually—leading to loss of musical eye contact. However, over time, they adapted, integrating visual following into their performance flow.

• Emergent structure: While initial sessions resembled “chaotic polyphony,” musicians naturally moved toward emergent structural forms—e.g., jugalbandi (call and response), implied cadences, and climaxing narratives.

• Score as improvisational partner: The digital score’s dynamic visual cues (e.g., phrases growing/shrinking or changing color) influenced performance density and direction. This behavior shaped the unfolding of time and energy in music—acting as a co-creator rather than a static script.

• Adaptive form building: Because traditional arc-like narrative structures (slow to fast, low to high) weren’t built-in, musicians had to retroactively “impose” such forms by interpreting the score flexibly. This fostered a heightened awareness of structure.

Digital Musicianship

• Responsive interpretation: Musicians learned to respond to dynamic and suggestive notations—such as directional arrows, colour-coded phrases, and density-based triggers—which pushed them to engage in fast, on-the-spot decisions.

• Improvisational conditioning: The score provoked “seed ideas” for improvisation, guiding musicians toward motifs, rhythmic structures (e.g., triplets, tihai), or improvisation strategies like permutation or silence.

• Real-time listening: The tabla score had basic listening capabilities (e.g., detecting loudness and timbral density), adjusting the score’s behavior in response—shifting the power dynamic between human and machine.

• Cross-system literacy: Carnatic and Hindustani players adapted phrases that didn’t strictly conform to their stylistic grammars—translating scales, altering note sequences, or blending ragas—requiring quick adaptability and cultural fluency.

• Sight-improvisation hybrid: Especially for musicians trained by ear or memory (e.g., Carnatic players), the experience developed a hybrid mode of working—combining rapid visual interpretation with stylistic improvisation.

Transformations

• Cognitive shift: Participants described changes in how they think musically—e.g., developing faster recognition of patterns, adapting unfamiliar material, or reflecting more deeply on the nature of performance flow.

• Expanded performance roles: Traditional roles were reimagined—tabla moved beyond timekeeping into melodic dialogue; melodic instruments supported percussive solos; and all players navigated between leader and responder roles.

• Pedagogical implications: Multiple participants saw potential for the digital score as a teaching tool—to train improvisation, develop fast response skills, and introduce structured freedom across cultural musical systems.

• Creative empowerment: Despite challenges, the experience was described as “fun,” “enriching,” and “rewarding.” Many expressed intentions to take ideas from the project into their own creative and collaborative practices.

• New artistic modalities: The intersection of digital visuals, interactivity, and traditional improvisation catalysed a new musical modality—blending score-following, audiovisual feedback, and co-performance into an emergent artistic practice.

Summary

Indic Music workshop explored two digital scores, Smruti Ranga and DigiTabla, which blend Indian classical music with interactive technology, using colour-coded notation, generative algorithms, and real-time responses to guide improvisation. Designed for trained musicians, these scores facilitated collaborative experimentation, breaking traditional solo-accompaniment hierarchies and enabling cross-traditional dialogue between Carnatic and Hindustani performers. Musicians navigated a triangular interaction—between themselves, co-performers, and the digital score—adapting to dynamic visual cues that influenced tempo, density, and phrasing while maintaining classical frameworks. The experience led to emergent structures, expanded improvisational roles, and new pedagogical possibilities, ultimately creating a hybrid performance modality that merges technology with tradition in innovative ways. Participants reported heightened adaptability, creative empowerment, and a shift in musical thinking, highlighting the potential of digital scores to redefine classical music practice. The project reconfigured the relationship between tradition and technology, not by replacing musical heritage but by provoking new interpretations of it. The participants’ willingness to experiment, negotiate, and adapt suggests possibilities of collaborative future for Indian classical and digital musical expression.

Personnel

Sandeep Bhagwati, composition

Shawn Mativetsky, composition, tabla

Mathias Nybo, sitar

Anjana Srinivisan, violin

Saulo Evans, tabla