Hindustani Classical Ragas and Emotions

Abstract

This chapter presents a historiometric study of the composers and compositions that define the classical repertoire. Historiometrics means the adaptation of psychometric methods to examine data about historic individuals. In the case of classical composers, these data can include both (a) biographical information about their lives and (b) content-analytical information about their works. The chapter begins by describing an objective and quantitative measure of a composition's melodic originality. It then shows that scores on this computerized measure have certain aesthetic consequences, consequences apparently consistent with the assumption that the measure gauges something of a composition's ‘arousal potential’. These content-analytical scores are next shown to relate to the composer's biography in a manner seemingly compatible with the same assumption. It concludes with a general evaluation about what this research programme may possibly suggest about music and emotion.