Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

(iv) Tāla in Hindustani music.

The tālas of Hindustani music are not codified according to any consistent system, but rather comprise a number of overlapping repertories associated with different genres and ensembles. Table 13 gives an overview in which the tālas are arranged by metrical type: binary (8 or 16 mātrā), ternary (6 or 12), quintuple (5 or 10), septuple (7 or 14) and others (9, 11, 15 etc.). For each tāla the genres and tempos in which it is used are indicated. Thus Tīntāl is used in all tempos and in almost all genres except dhrupad, Cautāl is used in all tempos, mainly in dhrupad, and so on.

The division of each tāla into segments (vibhāg), indicated in practice either by hand-gestures or by an accompanying drum-pattern (thekā), is shown numerically in Table 13. Thus the 16-beat Tīntāl, which is by far the most common Hindustani tāla, is divided into four segments of four beats each, shown as 4 + 4 + (4) + 4. Each segment except the third begins with a clap (tālī), and the third segment (bracketed) is indicated by a wave (khālī); for the accompanying drum-patterns see Table 14. In written notation the clapped segments are numbered, with X (in place of 1) to mark the first clap (sam) and 0 to denote khālī; the notation for Tīntāl is therefore X 2 0 3. Note that it is the claps that are enumerated, not the pulse-beats or segments, hence the name Tīntāl, ‘three[-clap] tāla’ (compared with Cautāl, ‘four[-clap] tāla’, which has 12 pulse-beats).

The tendency to organize musical rhythm within the cycle into an evenly balanced two-phrase format, which was noted in the case of Karnatak Jhampā, Deśādi and miśra Cāpu tālas (though not reflected in their clap-patterns), has become an important principle of tāla construction in Hindustani music and is manifested more or less overtly in the clap-patterns. Thus in each metrical category of Table 13, except the last, there are one or more tālas whose clap-pattern resembles Tīntāl, clap-clap-wave-clap (X 2 0 3), with the khālī wave marking the division of the cycle into two halves of equal length. The segment lengths in these tālas are usually the same in each half, thus [4 + 4] + [(4) + 4] (Tīntāl), [2 + 3] + [(2) + 3] (Jhaptāl), and [3 + 4] + [(3) + 4] (Dīpcandī, Jhūmrā). There are also two short tālas, used in light genres, with a simpler symmetry: 4 + (4) (Kaharvā) and 3 + (3) (Dādrā). The khālī in all these tālas does not mark a ‘weak beat’, as is sometimes claimed, but the second of two balancing components, of which the first (marked by sam) is the stronger. This symmetry is reflected in compositions such as the sitār gat in ex.3. Although a pervasive feature of Hindustani rhythm, the function of the mid-way khālī is quite different from that of the similar hand-gesture in Karnatak time-beating and is unprecedented in the historical tāla systems. It is a relatively recent development in Hindustani music, being mentioned in written sources only from the late 19th century.

In addition to these balanced tālas, associated particularly with the tablā and the genres that it accompanies, there are others constructed less symmetrically, in which the khālī is either absent (Tīvra), functions as the sam (Rūpak), or serves to subdivide segments of four or five mātrā into shorter units (Sūltāl, Ādā-cautāl, Savārī tāl, Brahma tāl etc.). Thus in Cautāl, of 12 beats, the claps articulate a pattern of 4 + 4 + 2 + 2. Each of the four-beat segments is subdivided by khālī to give 2 + (2) + 2 + (2) + 2 + 2. One result of this subdivision, however, is that the second khālī falls at the beginning of the second half of the cycle and thus implies an alternative, balanced structure of two equal (if differently structured) halves: [2 + (2) + 2] + [(2) + 2 + 2]. Similarly for the 14-beat tāla Dhamār, the most common of several alternative clap-patterns is [5 + 2] + [(3) + 4], where the khālī again marks the division of the cycle into two halves of equal length but different internal division. In both Cautāl and Dhamār the typical rhythm of vocal compositions is different from the tāla segmentation but coincides with it at the sam and the mid-way khālī: [3 + 3] + [3 + 3] in Cautāl, [3 + 4] + [3 + 4] in Dhamār. In both tālas the mid-way khāli is an important landmark for singers when improvising rhythmic variations (laykārī: see §5 below). The only tālas, therefore, that exhibit no balanced structure at all within the cycle are those that are very fast (Sūltāl, Tīvrā) or not divisible by two (tālas of 7, 9, 11 etc. mātrā). Even taken together these tālas account for a very small proportion of performances.

The major vocal genres of dhrupad, khayāl and thumrī, and the instrumental styles based on them, use different (if overlapping) sets of tālas (see Table 13). They also adopt different approaches to time-keeping, to rhythmic accompaniment and to rhythmic style in composition and improvisation. In dhrupad, the tāla gestures are executed by the singer himself and knowledgeable members of the audience, as in Karnatak concert-music. The pakhāvaj accompanist is thus freed from the necessity of playing a simple thekā and may improvise an elaborate and rhythmically dense accompaniment. The dhrupad singer's approach to rhythm is essentially ‘syllabic’. In the composition each syllable of text is set to one or two beats' duration (sometimes on the basis of metrical quantity), and these durations are respected in performance, with some slight anticipations and delays for expressive effect. In laykārī variations, whether fixed or improvised, the syllables of text (like the strokes of the pakhāvaj, also conceived as syllables) are set to precise subdivisions of the mātrā according to the different levels of laya (see §(i) above). There is little room in this style for rubato.

By contrast, the rhythm of khayāl can be extremely flexible, depending on the tempo and the gharānā. The rotation of the tāla is marked by the thekā of the tablā, which frees the singer to indulge in a ‘melismatic’ rhythmic style, especially in the very slow tempos and extended tālas (Ektāl, Tilvādā, Jhūmrā) of barā khayāl. That is, syllables of text may be rather freely distributed across the beats of the cycle or extended into sustained pitches or florid melismas. Syllables and other rhythmic events do not necessarily fall on the beat, except at the first beat (sam). Such flexibility may be assisted by a tempo as slow as eight seconds per beat, a relatively recent development achieved by having the tablā player play the thekā at half the previous minimal tempo. As the tempo quickens, however, the rhythm becomes more ‘syllabic’, especially in sargam tān (solfège passages). In thumrī the retardation of tempo and melismatic freedom of the vocal rhythm have progressed so far that the mātrā can become irregular. Sometimes it is impossible to distinguish whether a 14- or a 16-beat tāla is being used, and some thumrī tālas (Dīpcandī, Cacar) can be played and counted either way.

Instrumentalists typically employ a combination of ‘syllabic’ and ‘melismatic’ rhythmic styles. The latter tends to predominate in slow-tempo, khayāl -style performances in Tīntāl or Ektāl, the former in medium- or fast-tempo, dhrupad -style gat played in tālas such as Rūpak or Jhaptāl.

The importance of the thekā in most genres of Hindustani music is such that the tālas tend now to be defined and identified in terms of their thekā, rather than by the Karnatak practice emphasizing clap-patterns. Basic thekā for the principal tālas of Hindustani music are set out in Table 14. The sonorities are encoded in the notation syllables (bol). For the purposes of defining a thekā, the most important contrast of sonority is between ‘heavy’ (bhārī) and ‘empty’ (khālī) strokes. ‘Heavy’ strokes comprise an undamped resonant stroke on the lower-pitched, left-hand drum (bāya), either alone or simultaneously with any stroke on the right head. ‘Light’ strokes comprise all strokes that lack this left-hand resonant sound. In tablā notation all heavy strokes begin with a voiced consonant (usually also aspirated): dhā, dhin, dhī etc. (both hands), ghe (or ge) (left hand alone). Empty strokes by contrast begin with an unvoiced, unaspirated consonant: tā, tin, tī, tū, tete etc. (right hand), ka, kat (left hand).

The thekā relate to the theoretical structure of the tālas in a variety of ways. In some cases the thekā could be said to be a drummed version of the clap-pattern. Heavy strokes are used for those segments of the tāla (vibhāg) denoted by claps (tālī), light strokes for the segment(s) denoted by a wave (khālī). An exemplar of this principle is Jhaptāl: the first, second and fourth segments are marked by claps and by the ‘heavy’ stroke dhī, while the third segment (commencing the balancing second half of the tāla) is marked by a wave and by the corresponding ‘light’ stroke tī. The same clap-pattern and similar thekā are found also in the 14-beat tālas Dīpcandī and Jhūmrā, and in the 16-beat Tilvādā and Cacār. The 16-beat Cacār and its 14-beat relative Dīpcandī both show a one-beat anticipation of the khālī, with ‘light’ strokes appearing at the last beat of the first half of the tāla.

The correspondence between clap-pattern and thekā is not always so direct, however. In Tīntāl, of 16 beats, the thekā is similar to that of Jhaptāl in terms of the selection and arrangement of strokes, but there is a displacement of the ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ segments of the thekā by one beat in relation to the clap-pattern. The ‘light’ strokes begin at beat 10, one beat after the wave in the clap-pattern, and ‘heavy’ strokes re-enter at beat 13, one beat after the clap on beat 12. This displacement gives a strong upbeat character to the whole thekā. Its basic formula is dhin dhin dhā / dhā, leading to and resolving on the first beat of the next segment, not / dhā dhin dhin dhā / beginning and ending with the segment boundaries. (This sense of anacrusis is also characteristic of many Tīntāl melodies, for example the instrumental Masītkhānī gat (see ex.3), where, however, the anacrusis is of five rather than three beats.) The resulting coincidence of a ‘heavy’ tablā stroke with the khālī wave on beat 9 belies the assumption that the khālī of the clap-pattern represents a ‘negative’ or ‘unemphasized’ beat. Both it and the immediately following change of tablā sonority signal the start of the second half of the tāla.

The basic correspondence of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ tablā strokes with claps and waves respectively applies to all the variants of Tīntāl thekā and to many of the shorter tālas in varying degrees. The same correspondence also applies in some degree to the pakhāvaj thekā for tālas used in dhrupad. The thekā for Dhamār, a tāla notorious for its intricacy, is treated as two seven-beat segments, the first ‘heavy’ and the second ‘light’, with a one-beat displacement against the clap-pattern such that a ‘light’ stroke appears on the sam and a ‘heavy’ stroke on the khālī. This is even more anomalous than the well-known tāla Rūpak, which resembles the Karnatak miśra Cāpu in having a wave (and a light stroke) on the sam.

There remains a small number of tālas in which the clap-pattern and thekā bear essentially no relation to each other. Two tālas used for khayāl, Ektāl and Ādā-cautāl, derive their clap-patterns from Cautāl. However, the thekā for these tālas, though related to each other, are not derived from Cautāl thekā and show no consistent correspondence of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ strokes with the clap-patterns. It seems likely in such cases that clap-patterns borrowed from dhrupad tālas were superimposed for theoretical purposes on to independently evolved tablā rhythms.

In summary, the Hindustani tālas are differentiated not only by length measured in beats, but by the internal organization of the constituent beats, so that ten beats (for example) can be articulated as (2 + 3) + (2 + 3) (Jhaptāl) or 2 + (2) + 2 + 2 + (2) (Sūltāl). Where two tālas have the same number of beats and the same clap-pattern, it is the thekā that distinguishes them. The same clap-pattern, on the other hand, can articulate tālas with different numbers of beats, and a sequence of drum-strokes can similarly be adapted to provide thekā for tālas of different lengths. When we bear in mind that factors such as characteristic rhythmic inflections, the sounds of particular tablā strokes, tempo and vocal or instrumental style and genre can also be strongly associated with particular tālas, the concept of tāla in north India emerges as a complex musical identity that cannot be completely defined in terms of mātrā (beats) and vibhāg (segments).

India, Subcontinent of, §III: Theory and practice of classical music.