Mridangam Tani-avarthanam dataset

The Mridangam Tani-avarthanam dataset is a transcribed collection of two tani-avarthanams played by the renowned Mridangam maestro Padmavibhushan Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. The audio was recorded at IIT Madras, India and annotated by professional Carnatic percussionists. If you use the dataset in your work, please cite the following publication:

Jom Kuriakose, Chaitanya Kumar, Padi Sarala, Hema A Murthy, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Akshara Transcription of Mrudangam Strokes in Carnatic Music, in Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Communication, Feb. 2015, Mumbai, India

Introduction

In Carnatic music, Tani-avarthanam is the solo performance by the percussion ensemble following the main piece of the concert. The solo is performed within the framework of the tala, but with much improvisation on the percussion patterns. The tani strives to present a showcase of the tala with a variety of percussion and rhythmic patterns that can be played in the tala. The percussion instruments complement each other in a solo of each instrument, with all instruments coming together to a cadential end. Tani avarthanam is a showcase of the skill and talent of the percussion artists. It is replete with a variety of percussion patterns and hence is very useful for analysis of percussion patterns. The tani is often performed with a subset of Mridangam, Khanjira, Ghatam, Morsing and vocal percussion (called Konnakol). The Mridangam is always present, while the other instruments are optional.