Tala (music)

A tala (IAST ''tāla'') literally means a 'clap, tapping one's hand on one's arm, a musical measure'. It is the term used in Indian classical music similar to musical meter, that is any rhythmic beat or strike that measures musical time. The measure is typically established by hand clapping, waving, touching fingers on thigh or the other hand, verbally, striking of small cymbals, or a percussion instrument in the Indian subcontinental traditions. Along with ''raga'' which forms the fabric of a melodic structure, the ''tala'' forms the life cycle and thereby constitutes one of the two foundational elements of Indian music.

''Tala'' is an ancient music concept traceable to Vedic era texts of Hinduism, such as the ''Samaveda'' and methods for singing the Vedic hymns. The music traditions of the North and South India, particularly the ''raga'' and ''tala'' systems, were not considered as distinct till about the 16th century. There on, during the tumultuous period of Islamic rule of the Indian subcontinent, the traditions separated and evolved into distinct forms. The ''tala'' system of the north is called ''Hindustaani'', while the south is called ''Carnaatic''. However, the ''tala'' system between them continues to have more common features than differences.

''Tala'' in the Indian tradition embraces the time dimension of music, the means by which musical rhythm and form were guided and expressed. While a ''tala'' carries the musical meter, it does not necessarily imply a regularly recurring pattern. In the major classical Indian music traditions, the beats are hierarchically arranged based on how the music piece is to be performed. The most widely used ''tala'' in the South Indian system is '' Adi tala''. In the North Indian system, the most common ''tala'' is '' teental''.

''Tala'' has other contextual meanings in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. For example, it means trochee in Sanskrit prosody.

Etymology

() is a Sanskrit word, which means 'being established'.

Terminology and definitions

According to David Nelson, an ethnomusicology scholar specializing in Carnatic music, a ''tala'' in Indian music covers "the whole subject of musical meter". Indian music is composed and performed in a metrical framework, a structure of beats that is a ''tala''. The ''tala'' forms the metrical structure that repeats, in a cyclical harmony, from the start to end of any particular song or dance segment, making it conceptually analogous to meters in Western music. However, ''talas'' have certain qualitative features that classical European musical meters do not. For example, some ''talas'' are much longer than any classical Western meter, such as a framework based on 29 beats whose cycle takes about 45 seconds to complete when performed. Another sophistication in ''talas'' is the lack of "strong, weak" beat composition typical of the traditional European meter. In classical Indian traditions, the ''tala'' is not restricted to permutations of strong and weak beats, but its flexibility permits the accent of a beat to be decided by the shape of musical phrase.

A ''tala'' measures musical time in Indian music. However, it does not imply a regular repeating accent pattern, instead its hierarchical arrangement depends on how the musical piece is supposed to be performed. A metric cycle of a ''tala'' contains a specific number of beats, which can be as short as 3 beats or as long as 128 beats. The pattern repeats, but the play of accent and empty beats are an integral part of Indian music architecture. Each ''tala'' has subunits. In other words, the larger cyclic ''tala'' pattern has embedded smaller cyclic patterns, and both of these rhythmic patterns provide the musician and the audience to experience the play of harmonious and discordant patterns at two planes. A musician can choose to intentionally challenge a pattern at the subunit level by contradicting the ''tala'', explore the pattern in exciting ways, then bring the music and audience experience back to the fundamental pattern of cyclical beats.

The ''tala'' as the time cycle, and the ''raga'' as the melodic framework, are the two foundational elements of classical Indian music. The ''raga'' gives an artist the ingredients palette to build the melody from sounds, while the ''tala'' provides her with a creative framework for rhythmic improvisation using time.

The basic rhythmic phrase of a ''tala'' when rendered on a percussive instrument such as ''tabla'' is called a '' theka''. The beats within each rhythmic cycle are called ''matras'', and the first beat of any rhythmic cycle is called the ''sam''. An empty beat is called ''khali''. The subdivisions of a ''tala'' are called ''vibhagas'' or ''khands''. In the two major systems of classical Indian music, the first count of any ''tala'' is called ''sam''. The cyclic nature of a ''tala'' is a major feature of the Indian tradition, and this is termed as ''avartan''. Both ''raga'' and ''tala'' are open frameworks for creativity and allow theoretically infinite number of possibilities, however, the tradition considers 108 ''talas'' as basic.

History

The roots of ''tala'' and music in ancient India are found in the Vedic literature of Hinduism. The earliest Indian thought combined three arts, instrumental music ('' vadya''), vocal music (''gita'') and dance (''nrtta''). As these fields developed, ''sangita'' became a distinct genre of art, in a form equivalent to contemporary music. This likely occurred before the time of Yāska (~500 BCE), since he includes these terms in his nirukta studies, one of the six Vedanga of ancient Indian tradition. Some of the ancient texts of Hinduism such as the ''Samaveda'' (~1000 BCE) are structured entirely to melodic themes, it is sections of ''Rigveda'' set to music.

The ''Samaveda'' is organized into two formats. One part is based on the musical meter, another by the aim of the rituals. The text is written with embedded coding, where ''svaras'' (octave note) is either shown above or within the text, or the verse is written into ''parvans'' (knot or member). These markings identify which units are to be sung in a single breath, each unit based on multiples of one eighth. The hymns of ''Samaveda'' contain melodic content, form, rhythm and metric organization. This structure is, however, not unique or limited to ''Samaveda''. The ''Rigveda'' embeds the musical meter too, without the kind of elaboration found in the ''Samaveda''. For example, the Gayatri mantra contains three metric lines of exactly eight syllables, with an embedded ternary rhythm.

According to Lewis Rowell, a professor of music specializing in classical Indian music, the need and impulse to develop mathematically precise musical meters in the Vedic era may have been driven by the Indian use of oral tradition for transmitting vast amounts of Vedic literature. Deeply and systematically embedded structure and meters may have enabled the ancient Indians a means to detect and correct any errors of memory or oral transmission from one person or generation to the next. According to Michael Witzel,

The ''Samaveda'' also included a system of chironomy, or hand signals to set the recital speed. These were ''mudras'' (finger and palm postures) and ''jatis'' (finger counts of the beat), a system at the foundation of ''talas''. The chants in the Vedic recital text, associated with rituals, are presented to be measured in ''matras'' and its multiples in the invariant ratio of 1:2:3. This system is also the basis of every ''tala''.

In the ancient traditions of Hinduism, two musical genre appeared, namely ''Gandharva'' (formal, composed, ceremonial music) and ''Gana'' (informal, improvised, entertainment music). The ''Gandharva'' music also implied celestial, divine associations, while the ''Gana'' also implied singing. The Vedic Sanskrit musical tradition had spread widely in the Indian subcontinent, and according to Rowell, the ancient Tamil classics make it "abundantly clear that a cultivated musical tradition existed in South India as early as the last few pre-Christian centuries".

The classic Sanskrit text ''Natya Shastra'' is at the foundation of the numerous classical music and dance of India. Before ''Natyashastra'' was finalized, the ancient Indian traditions had classified musical instruments into four groups based on their acoustic principle (how they work, rather than the material they are made of). These four categories are accepted as given and are four separate chapters in the ''Natyashastra'', one each on stringed instruments (chordophones), hollow instruments (aerophones), solid instruments (idiophones), and covered instruments (membranophones). Of these, states Rowell, the idiophone in the form of "small bronze cymbals" were used for ''tala''. Almost the entire chapter of ''Natyashastra'' on idiophones, by Bharata, is a theoretical treatise on the system of ''tala''. Time keeping with idiophones was considered a separate function than that of percussion (membranophones), in the early Indian thought on music theory.

The early 13th century Sanskrit text '' Sangitaratnakara'' (literally 'Ocean of Music and Dance'), by Śārṅgadeva patronized by King Sighana of the Yadava dynasty in Maharashtra, mentions and discusses ''ragas'' and ''talas''. He identifies seven ''tala'' families, then subdivides them into rhythmic ratios, presenting a methodology for improvisation and composition that continues to inspire modern era Indian musicians. ''Sangitaratnakara'' is one of the most complete historic medieval era Hindu treatises on this subject that has survived into the modern era, that relates to the structure, technique and reasoning behind ''ragas'' and ''talas''.

The centrality and significance of ''Tala'' to music in ancient and early medieval India is also expressed in numerous temple reliefs, in both Hinduism and Jainism, such as through the carving of musicians with cymbals at the fifth century Pavaya temple sculpture near Gwalior, and the Ellora Caves.

Description

In the South Indian system (Carnatic), a full ''tala'' is a group of seven ''suladi talas''. These are cyclic (''avartana''), with three parts (''anga'') traditionally written down with ''laghu'', ''drutam'' and ''anudrutam'' symbols. Each ''tala'' is divided in two ways to perfect the musical performance, one is called ''kala'' (kind) and the other ''gati'' (pulse).

Each repeated cycle of a ''tala'' is called an ''avartan''. This is counted additively in sections (''vibhag'' or ''anga'') which roughly correspond to bars or measures but may not have the same number of beats (''matra, akshara'') and may be marked by accents or rests. So the Hindustani ''Jhoomra tal'' has 14 beats, counted 3+4+3+4, which differs from '' Dhamar tal'', also of 14 beats but counted 5+2+3+4. The spacing of the ''vibhag'' accents makes them distinct, otherwise, again, since ''Rupak tal'' consists of 7 beats, two cycles of it of would be indistinguishable from one cycle of the related ''Dhamar tal''. However the most common Hindustani ''tala'', '' Teental'', is a regularly-divisible cycle of four measures of four beats each.

The first beat of any ''tala'', called ''sam'' (pronounced as the English word 'sum' and meaning even or equal) is always the most important and heavily emphasised. It is the point of resolution in the rhythm where the percussionist's and soloist's phrases culminate: a soloist has to sound an important note of the raga there, and a North Indian classical dance composition must end there. However, melodies do not always begin on the first beat of the ''tala'' but may be offset, for example to suit the words of a composition so that the most accented word falls upon the ''sam''. The term ''talli'', literally 'shift', is used to describe this offset in Tamil. A composition may also start with an anacrusis on one of the last beats of the previous cycle of the ''tala'', called ''ateeta eduppu'' in Tamil.

The ''tāla'' is indicated visually by using a series of rhythmic hand gestures called ''kriyas'' that correspond to the ''angas'' or 'limbs', or ''vibhag'' of the ''tāla''. These movements define the ''tala'' in Carnatic music, and in the Hindustani tradition too, when learning and reciting the ''tala'', the first beat of any ''vibhag'' is known as ''tali'' ('clap') and is accompanied by a clap of the hands, while an "empty" (''khali'') vibhag is indicated with a sideways wave of the dominant clapping hand (usually the right) or the placing of the back of the hand upon the base hand's palm instead. But northern definitions of ''tala'' rely far more upon specific drum-strokes, known as ''bols'', each with its own name that can be vocalized as well as written. In one common notation the ''sam'' is denoted by an 'X' and the ''khali'', which is always the first beat of a particular ''vibhag'', denoted by '0' (zero).

A tala does not have a fixed tempo (''laya'') and can be played at different speeds. In Hindustani classical music a typical recital of a raga falls into two or three parts categorized by the quickening tempo of the music; ''Vilambit'' (delayed, i.e., slow), ''Madhya'' (medium tempo) and ''Drut'' (fast). Carnatic music adds an extra slow and fast category, categorised by divisions of the pulse; ''Chauka'' (one stroke per beat), ''Vilamba'' (two strokes per beat), ''Madhyama'' (four strokes per beat), ''Drut'' (eight strokes per beat) and lastly ''Adi-drut'' (16 strokes per beat).

Indian classical music, both northern and southern, have theoretically developed since ancient times numerous ''tala'', though in practice some ''talas'' are very common, and some are rare.

In Carnatic music

Carnatic music uses various classification systems of tālas such as the ''Chapu'' (four talas), ''Chanda'' (108 talas) and ''Melakarta'' (72 talas). The ''Suladi Sapta Tāla'' system (35 talas) is used here, according to which there are seven families of tāla. A tāla from this system cannot exist without reference to one of five ''jatis'', differentiated by the length in beats of the ''laghu.''Thus, with all the possible combinations of ''tala'' types and ''laghu'' lengths, there are 5 x 7 = 35 talas having lengths ranging from 3 (Tisra-jati Eka tala) to 29 (sankeerna jati dhruva tala) aksharas. The seven ''tala'' families and the number of ''aksharas'' for each of the 35 ''talas'' are;

In practice, only a few talas have compositions set to them. The most common ''tala'' is ''Chaturasra-nadai Chaturasra-jaati Triputa tala'', also called ''Adi tala'' (''Adi'' meaning primordial in Sanskrit). Nadai is a term which means subdivision of beats. Many kritis and around half of the varnams are set to this ''tala''. Other common ''talas'' include:
* ''Chaturasra-nadai Chaturasra-jaati Rupaka tala'' (or simply ''Rupaka tala''). A large body of krtis is set to this ''tala''.
* ''Khanda Chapu'' (a 10-count) and ''Misra Chapu'' (a 14-count), both of which do not fit very well into the s''uladi sapta tala'' scheme. Many padams are set to ''Misra Chapu'', while there are also krtis set to both the above ''talas''.
* ''Chatusra-nadai Khanda-jati Ata tala'' (or simply ''Ata tala''). Around half of the varnams are set to this ''tala''.
* ''Tisra-nadai Chatusra-jati Triputa tala'' (Adi Tala Tisra-Nadai). A few fast-paced kritis are set to this ''tala''. As this tala is a twenty-four beat cycle, compositions in it can be and sometimes are sung in ''Rupaka talam''.

Strokes

There are six main angas/strokes in talas;

*Anudhrutam, a single beat, notated 'U', a downward clap of the open hand with the palm facing down.
*Dhrutam, a pattern of two beats, notated 'O', a downward clap with the palm facing down followed by a second downward clap with the palm facing up.
*Laghu, a pattern with a variable number of beats, three, four, five, seven or nine, depending on the ''jati''. It is notated 'l' and consists of a downward clap with the palm facing down followed by counting from little finger to thumb and back, depending on the ''jati''.
*Guru, a pattern represented by eight beats. It is notated '8' and consists of a downward clap with the palm facing down followed by circling movement of the right hand with closed fingers in the clockwise direction.
*Plutham, a pattern of twelve beats notated '3', it consists of a downward clap with the palm facing down followed by counting from little finger to the middle finger, a krishya (waving the hand towards the left hand side four times) and a sarpini (waving the hand towards the right four times)
*Kakapadam, a pattern of sixteen beats notated 'x', it consists of a downward clap with the palm facing down followed by counting from little finger to the middle finger, a pathakam (waving the hand upwards four times),a krishya and a sarpini

Jatis

Each tala can incorporate one of the five following ''jatis.''

Each tala family has a default ''jati ''associated with it; the tala name mentioned without qualification refers to the default ''jati''.

*''Dhruva tala'' is by default ''chaturasra jati''
*''Matya tala'' is ''chaturasra jati''
*''Rupaka tala'' is ''chaturasra jati''
*''Jhampa tala'' is ''misra jati''''A practical course in Karnatik music'' by Prof. P. Sambamurthy, Book II, The Indian Music Publishing House, Madras
*''Triputa tala'' is ''tisra jati'' (''chaturasra jati'' type is also known as ''Adi tala'')
*''Ata tala'' is ''kanda jati''
*'' Eka tala'' is ''chaturasra jati''
*''For all the 72 melakarta talas and the 108 talas the jathi is mostly chatusram''

For example, one cycle of ''khanda-jati rupaka tala'' comprises a two-beat ''dhrutam'' followed by a five-beat ''laghu''. The cycle is thus seven aksharas long. Chaturasra nadai khanda-jati Rupaka tala has seven aksharam, each of which is four ''matras'' long; each avartana of the tala is 4 x 7 = 28 matras long. For Misra nadai Khanda-jati Rupaka tala, it would be 7 x 7 = 49 matra.

Gati (''nadai'' in Tamil, ''nadaka'' in Telugu, ''nade'' in Kannada)

The number of ''maatras'' in an ''akshara'' is called the ''nadai''. This number can be three, four, five, seven or nine, and take the same name as the jatis. The default nadai is ''Chatusram'':

Sometimes, pallavis are sung as part of a Ragam Thanam Pallavi exposition in some of the rarer, more complicated ''talas''; such pallavis, if sung in a non-''Chatusra-nadai tala'', are called ''nadai'' pallavis. In addition, pallavis are often sung in chauka kale (slowing the tala cycle by a magnitude of four times), although this trend seems to be slowing.

Kāla

''Kāla'' refers to the change of tempo during a rendition of song, typically doubling up the speed. ''Onnaam kaalam'' is first speed, ''Erandaam kaalam'' is second speed and so on. Erandaam kaalam fits in twice the number of aksharaas (notes) into the same beat, thus doubling the tempo. Sometimes, Kāla is also used similar to Layā, for example Madhyama Kālam or Chowka Kālam.

In Hindustani music

Talas have a vocalised and therefore recordable form wherein individual beats are expressed as phonetic representations of various strokes played upon the tabla. Various Gharanas (literally 'Houses' which can be inferred to be "styles" – basically styles of the same art with cultivated traditional variances) also have their own preferences. For example, the Kirana Gharana uses Ektaal more frequently for Vilambit Khayal while the Jaipur Gharana uses Trital. Jaipur Gharana is also known to use Ada Trital, a variation of Trital for transitioning from Vilambit to Drut laya.

The ''Khyal'' vibhag has no beats on the bayan, i.e. no bass beats this can be seen as a way to enforce the balance between the usage of heavy (bass dominated) and fine (treble) beats or more simply it can be thought of another mnemonic to keep track of the rhythmic cycle (in addition to Sam). The ''khali'' is played with a stressed syllable that can easily be picked out from the surrounding beats.

Some rare talas even contain a "half-beat". For example, Dharami is an 11 1/2 beat cycle where the final "Ka" only occupies half the time of the other beats. This tala's sixth beat does not have a played syllable – in western terms it is a "rest".

Common Hindustani talas

Some talas, for example Dhamaar, Ek, Jhoomra and Chau talas, lend themselves better to slow and medium tempos. Others flourish at faster speeds, like Jhap or Rupak talas. Trital or Teental is one of the most popular, since it is as aesthetic at slower tempos as it is at faster speeds.

There are many talas in Hindustani music, some of the more popular ones are:

72 melakarta talas and 108 anga talas

72 melakarta talas

7 Saptangachakram (7 angas)

Shodashangachakram (16 angas)

Compositions are rare in the 108 lengthy anga talas. They are mostly used in performing the ''Pallavi'' of ''Ragam Thanam Pallavis''. Some examples of anga talas are:

Sarabhanandana tala

Simhanandana tala : It is the longest tala.

Another type of tala is the ''chhanda tala''. These are talas set to the lyrics of the'' Thirupugazh ''by the Tamil composer ''Arunagirinathar''. He is said to have written 16,000 hymns each in a different ''chhanda'' ''tala''. Of these, only 1500–2000 are available.

Rarer Hindustani talas

References

Bibliography

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Further reading

*
* Humble, M. (2002)
''The Development of Rhythmic Organization in Indian Classical Music''
MA dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
*
* Junius, Manfred: ''Die Tālas der nordindischen Musik'' he Talas of North Indian Music Munich, Salzburg: Katzbichler, 1983.
*
*
* Montfort, Matthew
''Ancient Traditions – Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali and India''
Mill Valley: Panoramic Press, 1985.
*
*

External links

* Colvin Russell



Recordings of Tabla Bols, database for Hindustani Talas


MIDI files of the common (major) Hindustani Talas

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tala (Music)

Indian classical music
Hindustani music terminology
Carnatic music terminology