Causal Analysis of Carnatic Music Compositions

Analysis of Carnatic music is challenging owing to its rich structure and complexity. Automated raga classification, pitch detection, tonal analysis, modeling and information retrieval of Carnatic music have seen significant progress in recent times. However, causal analysis to investigate the musicological structure of Carnatic compositions and identifying the relationships embedded in them have not been previously explored. In this study, we propose a novel framework for causal discovery using a compression-complexity measure. Our initial analysis indicates that the context-free grammar, inferred from more complex compositions, such as certain Melakarta raga, are a structural cause to those inferred from simpler compositions, such as the Janya raga. Causal analyses of Nottusvára (Western music-inspired Carnatic compositions) and their potential Celtic/Baroque origins also show similar trends.