Application of pitch tracking to South Indian classical music

We present results of applying pitch trackers to samples of South Indian classical (Carnatic) music. In particular, we investigate the various musical notes used and their intonation. We try different pitch tracking methods and observe their performance in Carnatic music analysis. Examining our data, we find only 12 distinct intervals per octave among the notes that are played with constant pitch. However, there are pitch inflexions used sometimes that are not mere ornamentations - they are essential to the correct rendition of certain notes. Though these inflexions can be viewed as different versions of a particular note, they are certainly not equivalent to constant-pitch intervals like just intonation intervals, semitones or quartertones.