The Madras Season of 2003/04:
A Searchable Database of Featured Ragas, Composers, and Compositions

For approximately one month each year, the South Indian metropolis of Chennai (formerly Madras) becomes the most concentrated hub of musical activity on the globe. The so-called “Madras Season” is not a centrally organized festival but an almost feverish schedule of concurrent concert series sponsored by scores of private cultural societies or “sabhas.”

The “Season” can trace its roots back to 1927 when, after a series of “All-India Music Conferences” in North India (1916-25), a similar conference was organized in the South (in conjunction with a political conference of the Indian National Congress party). Part music festival, part academic conclave, this conference established the pattern of great musicians and scholars converging on the city during the delightful month of December for an intense season of music-making. Today, over two thousand concerts and recitals, sponsored by sixty or more sabhas, fill the city with the sounds of classical South Indian (Carnatic) music.

Not only is the Madras Season an ideal occasion for music lovers to have an intense, concentrated experience with Carnatic music, it also provides a unique opportunity to observe current developments in this rich culture, in terms of what music is performed and what features this music displays. Using a statistically significant sample of concerts during the 2003/04 season – almost 15% of more than 2000 concerts, attended by a team of more than twenty assistants – this project provides ample raw data for observing the prevalence of certain ragas, the popularity of certain compositions, and the prominence of certain composers. Providing an empirical look at a large sample of performances during a restricted timeframe, the resulting database promises to provide a good snapshot of current performance practice in the Carnatic music world.

This DATABASE -- over 2400 compositions from almost 300 concerts -- is made available here to all alike – scholars, performers, rasika – in the hope that this information may be of interest and use. While the compilers of this database present their own observations, each user is encouraged to explore the data for him/herself and to draw one’s own conclusions. Especially in the areas of concert structure and raga use, this information may prove instructive for future repertoire selection.