We are excited to be mentoring mathematics masters student Aravind Mohandas, for a project formalising aspects of the South Indian Carnatic tradition of Konnakol vocal patterns, funded by the Google Summer of Code programme. Aravind's summary of his project is as follows:
"Konnakol, in South Indian Carnatic music, is the art of performing percussion syllables vocally. However, notwithstanding its importance in Carnatic music, there have not been any successful attempts in creating a system which could formalise the rules of Konnakol. This project aims to develop a system to formalise as well as validate pre-existing compositions. This system can then be used to generate new patterns. The project also aims to display valid compositions using the Jathi notation, as well as use a grid design to visualize the patterns generated. The system developed will be integrated with the “TidalCycles” software, so that users may include Konnakol in their compositions as well."
We're looking forward to seeing (and hearing) what Aravind comes up with! We will also be hosting a talk on Konnakol by renowned musician Manjunath B C, as part of our algorithmic pattern online event series.