Statistical analysis of melody lengths, note probabilities and note transitions of a bandish in raga Bihag

Abstract

Melody refers to a succession of musical notes that can be regarded as complete in a musical sense. For example, a line of a song or a raga bandish is a melody as it is complete. The number of notes in a melody is called its length. Unfortunately, the analysis of melody lengths is a neglected area in music research. Given that the significance of a melody in monophonic music (single melody line), such as Indian classical music is quantified by the product of the length of the melody and its frequency (number of occurrences in the musical piece), the novelty of our research lies in analysing the statistical features of lengths of a well-known bandish in raga Bihag. Additionally, the probability distribution of the notes is presented and a count of rising and falling note transitions in the sthayi and antara of the bandish is also taken. The experimental results are encouraging.