Tagore and neuroscience: A non-linear multifractal study to encapsulate the evolution of Tagore songs over a century

Abstract

The verses of Rabindranath Tagore have been sung by various artistes over generations spanning over almost 100 years. There are few songs which were popular in the early years and have been able to retain their popularity over the years while some others have faded away in the course of time. In this study we tried to find cues in the singing style of these songs, sung by different singers spanning over almost five generations, which have kept them alive for all these years. For this, we took 3 min clips of four Tagore songs which are being sung by atleast five generations of artistes over 100 years and analyzed the acoustic signals with the help of latest nonlinear technique Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA). Next EEG data was collected from 5 persons who listened to 30 sec clips of two Tagore songs sung over five generations of artistes in chronological order. The EEG response from the participants were analyzed with the help of the same MFDFA technique and the multifractal spectral width was considered as the parameter which can help in the identification of cognitive evolution of the Tagore songs. The multifractal spectral width is a manifestation of the inherent complexity of the signal and in future, may prove to be an important parameter to identify the singing style of a particular generation of singers and how this style varies over different generations. The EEG responses from the participants reflect how the perception and cognition of the same Tagore songs evolve over generations. The results and implications are discussed in detail.