I have a chapter in the Computer Assisted Music and Dramatics, Springer, 2023, Ed. Ambuja Salgaonkar and Makarand Velankar.
Abstract
This paper attempts to show how the insights generated by the contemporary disciplines of voice science and psychoacoustics can help us to further our understanding of traditional Indian voice training practices. Sophisticated computational tools have now become available that allow us to analyze the singing voice in very nuanced and specific ways. This paper presents a case study that uses these tools, together with the principles established by the aforementioned disciplines to develop a more concrete account of some aspects of the voice training practice of the master twentieth-century vocalist Pandit Kumar Gandharva. Beginning with a brief survey of the domain of computer-aided musicology, the paper goes on to present a spectral analysis of audio samples taken from an interview of Gandharva, wherein he demonstrates one of his voice training strategies. The goal of this analysis is to uncover possible aesthetic and stylistic reasons behind his use of this particular technique. In the process, some of the traditional terminology used to describe the timbre of the singing voice will be examined and made more concrete by establishing its underlying psychoacoustic basis. Finally, the paper discusses a number of important research possibilities that these ideas give rise to.
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