Application of set theory in combination with Karnatic techniques

1. Introduction
Karnatic music is the music practiced in the province of Karnataka in South India. The origins of this music date back to the time of the “Vedas” (4000-1000 B.C.) and there are even known writings from about two hundred years before the Christian era in which Karnatic techniques are described.1 Over the centuries, a very diverse set of rhythmic and melodic techniques were developed which were until recently virtually unknown to western musicians. Thanks to the work of amongst others, Rafael Reina at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, these karnatic techniques have been made available to western muscians in an understandable way. It is striking how many of these techniques join seamlessly with contemporary western compositional techniques.

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Set-theorie, Toonklok en de P-techniek voor componisten (1)

Dutch Journal for Music Theory, 7 number 1
February 2002

This article (in dutch) is about composing with pitch-class sets. Special attention is given to the "Positioning- technique" (P-technique) developped by the author to describe relations between sets. Also, there is an extensive description of the differences and similarities of set-theory and the "Tone-clock", developped by the dutch composer Peter Schat.

read (in Dutch) (pdf)