Grammar of South Indian Music

I picked up a copy of Ayyar's book when in Madra (Chennai) end of last year.

The ratios of the 22 srutis he gives as:

1/1 256/243 16/15 10/9 9/8 32/27 6/5 5/4 81/64
4/3 27/20

45/32 64/45 3/2 128/81 8/5 5/3 27/16 16/9 9/5
15/8 243/128 (pg.32)

No surprises here, but what I found interesting is that he refers to the use
of intervals by singers and violinists (he was a violinist) such as 7:6,
7:4, 7:5 (pg. 68) giving examples of songs in which they are used and
suggests the use of 11:8. a few pages later he suggest the 13:8 as a
possibility for the sixth note of the scale (Dha) in the 8th Melakarta. With
C as tonic the notes would be:

C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C
1/1 21/20 7/6 4/3 3/2 14/9 16/9
or 16/15 6/5 8/5 9/5
32/27 13/8 7/4

I find the book difficult to read, suffice to say that Ayyar considered that
much more research should be done to work out what ratios are being used.

The artists I have heard in Chennai weren't that careful about intonation
and didn't consider such questions about specific ratios and srutis to be
important, but then their use of ears certainly didn't always place the
pitch in the same place during each raga.

I guess there must be a few that take exact pitch relations in ragas very
seriously.

michael Dixon
MandLDixon@bigpond.com

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End of TUNING Digest 1561
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