[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-83207-en":3,"doc-seo-83207-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},83207,962075114765,"Quinn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","Rag Classification of Tagore Songs Using Symbolic Music Notation and Novel Weighted Distance Measures","Rabindra Sangeet, Tagore’s body of songs, combines poetic expression with melodies influenced by Hindustani rags, Bengali folk traditions, devotional forms, and Western tunes. Reliable rag identification remains difficult because many compositions follow creative musical freedom rather than strict rag grammar. The paper frames rag identification as supervised classification using symbolic music-sheet notations from Swarabitan, building a rag-labelled dataset, testing distance/similarity measures, and proposing a weighted Euclidean distance that emphasizes characteristic sequences to improve k-nearest-neighbour classification accuracy.","arXiv :2607 .0724 1v2 [ cs . SD] 9 Jul 2026  \nR¯AG CLASSIFICATION OF TAGORE SONGS USING SYMBOLIC MUSIC  \nNOTATION AND NOVEL WEIGHTED DISTANCE MEASURES  \nCHANDAN MISRA AND SWARUP CHATTOPADHYAY  \nAbstract . Rabindra Sangeet, the body of songs written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore, occupies a distinctive position in Indian music by combining poetic expression with melodic ideas drawn from Hindustani r¯ags, Bengali folk traditions, tappa, k¯ırtan, Baul music, and Western tunes.  \nAlthough many Tagore songs are associated with r¯ag labels provided by Tagore himself or preserved in authoritative notational traditions, r¯ag identification remains challenging because the songs often reflect creative freedom rather than strict adherence to classical r¯ag grammar.  \nThis paper formulates r¯ag identification in Rabindra Sangeet as a supervised classification problem using symbolic music-sheet notations from Swarabitan. Since large-scale annotated audio or music datasets for Rabindra Sangeet are not readily available, this study constructs a r¯ag-labelled symbolic dataset from notated Tagore songs. The work investigates Euclidean distance and cosine similarity for r¯ag classification and introduces a weighted Euclidean distance measure that assigns greater importance to notes belonging to characteristic r¯ag sequences such as arohana and avarohana. Applied within ak-nearest-neighbour framework, the proposed measure improves r¯ag classification by better capturing r¯ag-specific melodic identity.  \n1. Introduction  \nIndian music has evolved through a continuous interaction between classical discipline, regional expression, devotional imagination, poetic thought, and cultural practice. The Hindustani classical tradition, with its highly developed concepts of r¯ag and t¯ala, provides a sophisticated framework for organizing melody, rhythm, mood, and performance. At the same time, Indian musical culture has never remained restricted to the boundaries of formal classical grammar. It has continuously interacted with folk traditions, devotional forms, literary movements, theatre, dance, and regional musical practices.  \nWithin this rich musical landscape, Rabindra Sangeet occupies a distinctive and culturally significant position. Composed by Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate poet, composer, philosopher, and artist, Rabindra Sangeet represents one of the most important song traditions of Bengal. These songs form an integral part of Bengali cultural life in India and Bangladesh and continue to hold a central place in artistic, social, educational, and devotional contexts.  \nMusically, Tagore’s songs draw from a wide range of sources. Many compositions reveal the influence of Hindustani classical r¯ags and t¯ala-based structures, while others reflect the melodic character of tappa, k¯ırtan, Baul, Bengali folk music, devotional idioms, and Western tunes [1–3] . Tagore did not merely reproduce these traditions in a fixed or mechanical manner. Instead, he adapted and transformed them according to the expressive needs of the text, the emotional situation of the song, and his own artistic vision. As a result, Rabindra Sangeet retains a deep connection with Indian musical traditions while developing an independent musical identity.  \nAlthough, the tonal colours of r¯ags often provide the emotional foundation of the songs, the use of r¯ag in Rabindra Sangeet is not always identical to its use in formal Hindustani classical performance. In many cases, Tagore employed r¯ag elements with creative freedom, allowing poetic meaning and emotional expression to guide the musical structure. Some Tagore songs closely follow the characteristic structure and melodic behaviour of a particular r¯ag. Others combine features of two or more r¯ags, while some songs are traditionally associated with a r¯ag but do not strictly follow its grammatical framework [4, 5] . The compositional structure of Rabindra Sangeet further increases the difficulty of r¯ag identif","cbCaijU2fmqFmKzM","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijU2fmqFmKzM","pdf",1011054,2,1,16,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Background and context of Rabindra Sangeet\n## Motivation for computational rag identification\n## Problem setting and challenges\n# Method overview (supervised classification)","[{\"question\":\"Why is rag identification challenging for Rabindra Sangeet?\",\"answer\":\"Many Tagore songs use creative freedom, so their melodies may not strictly follow formal Hindustani rag grammar. A single song can include long note sequences, expressive variations, and movements that diverge from classical rules.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper approach rag identification?\",\"answer\":\"It formulates rag identification as a supervised classification problem using symbolic music-sheet notations from Swarabitan. Because large annotated audio datasets are unavailable, it constructs a rag-labelled symbolic dataset from notated Tagore songs.\"},{\"question\":\"What is novel about the proposed distance measure?\",\"answer\":\"The work compares Euclidean distance and cosine similarity and introduces a weighted Euclidean distance. The weighting assigns greater importance to notes in characteristic rag sequences such as arohana and avarohana, improving rag discrimination within a k-nearest-neighbour framework.\"}]",1784185953,40,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"rag-classification-of-tagore-songs-using-symbolic-music-notation-and-novel-weighted-distance-measures","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/rag-classification-of-tagore-songs-using-symbolic-music-notation-and-novel-weighted-distance-measures/83207/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-22","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Why is rag identification challenging for Rabindra Sangeet?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Many Tagore songs use creative freedom, so their melodies may not strictly follow formal Hindustani rag grammar. A single song can include long note sequences, expressive variations, and movements that diverge from classical rules.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the paper approach rag identification?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It formulates rag identification as a supervised classification problem using symbolic music-sheet notations from Swarabitan. Because large annotated audio datasets are unavailable, it constructs a rag-labelled symbolic dataset from notated Tagore songs.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What is novel about the proposed distance measure?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The work compares Euclidean distance and cosine similarity and introduces a weighted Euclidean distance. The weighting assigns greater importance to notes in characteristic rag sequences such as arohana and avarohana, improving rag discrimination within a k-nearest-neighbour framework.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,119,122,127,130,134],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":29,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare","healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]