Tala (music)
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In Indian classical music, Tala (tāl (Hindi), tāla (anglicised from talam; in Sanskrit), literally a "clap," is a rhythmical pattern that determines the rhythmical structure of a composition. Each composition is set to a tala, and as a composition is rendered by the main artist(s), the percussion artist(s) play the pattern repeatedly, marking time as well as enhancing the appeal of the performance.
| Indian classical music | |
|---|---|
| Carnatic music | |
| Composers | |
| Purandara Dasa | |
| The Trimurti | |
| Tyagaraja | |
| Muthuswami Dikshitar | |
| Syama Sastri | |
| Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma | |
| Singers | |
| M. S. Subbulakshmi | |
| Hindustani music | |
| Concepts | |
| Śruti | |
| Raga | |
| Melakarta | |
| Katapayadi sankhya | |
| Swara | |
| Tala | |
| Mudra |
The most common instrument for keeping rhythm in Hindustani music is the tabla. In Carnatic music, the Mridangam is a stock feature in vocal, violin, Veena and flute concerts, with the Ghatam, the Khanjira and the Morsing also featuring at times. In Nadhaswaram concerts, the Thavil takes the place of the Mridangam.
While Indian classical music has a complete and complex system for the execution and transcription of rhythms and beats, a few talas are very common while most others are rare. The most common Tala in Hindustani classical music is Tintal. This tala has a cycle of 16 beats divided in 4 bars. Bars 1,2 and 4 are accented while bar 3 is light. Most talas can be played at different speeds, but no tala is generally slowed down as much as Ektal, with its 12 beats sometimes taking more than a minute.
Talam in Carnatic music
Traditionally, Carnatic music vocalists mark the talam by tapping their laps with their palm. Instrumentalists such as violinists and flutists that use both hands mark the talam by tapping their feet on the ground inconspicuously.
Talam varieties
In Carnatic music, each repeated cycle is called an Aavartanam, while each "tap" is called an aksharam or a kriyā. A talam thus describes the number and arrangement of aksharam-s inside an Aavartanam. Note that the intervals between the aksharam-s are all equally long. The aksharam-s are subdivided into maatraa-s or svaras.There are three patterns of beats that recur in all talam-s - these are the laghu, the dhrutam and the anudhrutam.
- A dhrutam is a pattern of 2 aksharam-s, with the first aksharam marked with the palm face down, and the second with the face up. This is notated 'O'.(ie., Tapping once with your palm facing down and once with it facing up.)
- An anudhrutam is a single aksharam, marked with the palm face down and notated 'U'.(ie., Tapping once with your palm facing down)
- A laghu is a pattern with the first aksharam marked with the palm face down, followed by a variable number of aksharam-s marked with successive fingers starting with the little finger. This is notated '1'
| # aksharam-s in laghu | Jāti |
| 3 | Tisram |
| 4 | Chatusram |
| 5 | Khandam |
| 7 | Misram |
| 9 | Sankeernam |
Talam families
Modern day Carnatic music uses a comprehensive system for the specification of talam-s, called the sulaadi sapta taala system. According to this system, there are seven families of talam-s differing on the way an Aavartanam is constructed from the laghu, dhrutam and anudhrutam.
These are respectively:
| talam | Description of Aavartanam | Default length of laghu |
| Dhruva | 1O11 | 4 |
| Matya | 1O1 | 4 |
| Rupaka | O1 | 4 |
| Jhampa | 1OU | 7 |
| Triputa | 1OO | 3 |
| Ata | 11OO | 5 |
| Eka | 1 | 4 |
For instance, one Aavartanam of Khanda-jaati Rupaka talam comprises a 2-long dhrutam followed by a 5-long laghu. An Aavartanam is thus 7 aksharam-s long.
Thus, there are 5 x 7 = 35 talam-s, with lengths ranging from 3 (Tisra-jaati Eka) to 29 (Sankeerna-jaati Dhruva) aksharam-s.
Nadai or gati
The duration of an aksharam, usually fixed (though there are exections)within a rendition of a composition in its talam, varies across talam-s. The fundamental unit of time used is called a maatraa or a svaram, and each talam is also characterised by the number of maatraa-s in an aksharam. This count, which corresponds to the length of an aksharam is called the nadai or gati of the talam. The default nadai is Chatusram. But the nadai can be one of 3, 4, 5, 7 or 9, and these are respectively called Tisra, Chatusra, Khanda, Misra and Sankeerna, as above. This provides further variation from the 35 talam-s specified above.
As in the example above, Chatusra-gati Khanda-jaati Rupaka talam has 7 aksharam, each of which is 4 maatraa-s long; each Aavartanam of the talam is 4 x 7 = 28 maatraa-s long. For Misra-gati Khanda-jaati Rupaka talam, it would be 7 x 7 = 49 maatraa
Eduppu or Start point
Compositions do not always start at the start of the tala. It is offset by a certain number of maatraas or aksharas or combination of both. This is to better suit the words of the composition in the construct of the talam. The following are some of the common Eduppu handled in talas:
- 1 - Thalli - where 1 maatraas are ignored from the start of the talam before the composition starts.
- 2 - Thalli - where 2 maatraas are ignored from the start of the talam before the composition starts.
- 3 - Thalli - where 3 maatraas are ignored from the start of the talam before the composition starts.
- 4 - Thalli (one akshara offset) - where 4 maatraas are ignored from the start of the talam before the composition starts.
- 6 - Thalli (one akshara and 2 maatras)- where 6 maatraas are ignored from the start of the talam before the composition starts.
- 2 - Thalli - where 2 maatraas are carried over from the end of the previous Aavardhanam.
- 3 - Thalli - where 3 maatraas are carried over from the end of the previous Aavardhanam.
Other Rare Talams
Other than the 35 talams,the gathis mentined here, there are 108 anga talams. The following is the exhaustive pattern of beats used in constructing the anga thalams.
Anga Symbol Aksharakala Mode of CountingThese are very rare and lengthy talas. Compositions are rare in these talas. They are mostly used in RTPs. Some examples of anga talas are:Anudrutam U 1 1 beat Druta O 2 1 beat + Visarijitam (wave of hand) Druta-virama (OU) 3 Laghu (Chatursa-jati) | 4 1 beat + 3 finger count Laghu-virama (|U) 5 Laghu-druta (|O) 6 Laghu-druta-virama (|OU) 7 Guru 8 8 A beat followed by circular movement of the right hand in the clockwise direction with closed fingers Guru-virama (8U) 9 Guru-druta (8O) 10 Guru-druta-virama (8OU) 11 Plutam (8|) 12 1 beat + kryshya (waving the right hand from right to left) + 1 sarpini(waving the right hand from left to right) - each of 4 aksharakalas OR a Guru followed by the hand waving downwards Pluta-virana (8|U) 13 Pluta-druta (8|O) 14 Pluta-druta-virama (8|OU) 15 Kakapadam + 16 1 beat + patakam(lifting the right hand) + kryshya + sarpini - each of 4 aksharakalas)
Sarabhandana tala -
8 | O | | O U (|U)
O O O U (|O) (|OU) (|U) OSimhanandana tala : It is the longest tala.U O U O (|U) O (OU) (|O)
8 8 | (8|) | 8 O O
8 8 | (8|) | (8|) 8 |
| +Another type of tala is the chhanda tala-s. These are tala-s set the lyrics of the Thirupugazh by the tamil composer called Arunagirinadhar. He is said to have written 16000 hyms each in a differend chhanda tala. Of these, only 1500-2000 are available.
Practice
In practice, only a few talam-s have compositions set to them. As in the table above, each variety of talam has a default family associated with it; the variety mentioned without qualification refers to the default. For instance, Jhampa talam is Misra-jaati Jhampa talam In addition, the default nadai is Chatusra.
The most common talam is Chatusra-nadai Chatusra-jaati Triputa talam, also called Adi talam (Adi meaning primordial in Sanskrit). From the above tables, this talam has 8 aksharam-s, each being 4 svaram-s long. Most krtis and around half of the varnams are set to this talam.
Other common talam-s include the following:
- Chatusra-nadai Chatusra-jaati Rupaka talam, or simply Rupaka talam). A large body of krtis is set to this talam.
- Khanda Chapu (a 10-count) and Misra Chapu (a 14-count), both of which do not fit very well into the sulaadi sapta taala scheme. Many padams are set to Misra Chapu, while there are also krtis set to both the above talam-s.
- Chatusra-nadai Khanda-jaati Ata talam, or simply Ata talam). Around half of the varnams are set to this talam.
- Tisra-nadai Chatusra-jaati Triputa talam - A few fast-paced krtis are set to this talam.
A close equivalent to tala in the theory of Ottoman/Turkish music is the notion of usul.
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