Tala (music)
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In Indian classical music, Tala, literally a "clap," is a rhythmical pattern that determines the rhythmical structure of a composition. It is similar to metre in Western music. 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.
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| Carnatic music | |
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| List of Carnatic composers | |
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| List of Carnatic singers | |
| Hidustani music | |
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| Śruti | |
| Raga | |
| Melakarta | |
| Katapayadi sankhya | |
| Swara | |
| Tala | |
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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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 aksharams inside an Aavartanam. Note that the intervals between the aksharams are all equally long. The aksharams are subdivided into maatraas or svaras.
There are three patterns of beats that recur in all talams - these are the laghu, the dhrutam and the anudhrutam.
- A dhrutam is a pattern of 2 aksharams, 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 aksharams marked with successive fingers starting with the little finger. This is notated '1'
The number of aksharams in the laghu is one of 3, 4, 5, 7 or 9, and this characterises the variety (jaathi) of the talam. The five varieties are:
| # aksharams in laghu | Jāti |
| 3 | Tisram |
| 4 | Chatusram |
| 5 | Khandam |
| 7 | Misram |
| 9 | sankeernam |
[edit] Talam families
Modern day Carnatic music uses a comprehensive system for the specification of talams, called the sulaadi sapta taala system. According to this system, there are seven families of talams 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 | 1UO | 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 aksharams long.
Thus, there are 5 x 7 = 35 talams, with lengths ranging from 3 (Tisra-jaati Eka) to 29 (sankeerna-jaati Dhruva) aksharams.
[edit] 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 talams. The fundamental unit of time used is called a maatraa or a svaram, and each talam is also characterised by the number of maatraas 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 talams specified above.
As in the example above, Chatusra-gati Khanda-jaati Rupaka talam has 7 aksharam, each of which is 4 maatraas long; each Aavartanam of the talam is 4 x 7 = 28 maatraas long. For Misra-gati Khanda-jaati Rupaka talam, it would be 7 x 7 = 49 maatraa
[edit] 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.
There is another variation where the composition starts in the last few maatraas of the previous Aavartanam. This is called Atheetha Eduppu. The following are the common Atheetha eduppus
- 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.
[edit] 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 Counting |
| Anudrutam | U | 1 | 1beat |
| Druta | O | 2 | 1 beat + Visarijitam (wave of hand) |
| Druta-virama | (OU) | 3 | |
| Laghu (Chatursa-jati) | l | 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 | ) | 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 | U) | 13 | |
| Pluta-druta | O) | 14 | |
| Pluta-druta-virama | OU) | 15 | |
| Kakapadam | + | 16 | 1 beat + patakam(lifting the right hand) + kryshya + sarpini - each of 4 aksharakalas) |
These are very rare and lengthy talas. Compositions are rare in these talas. They are mostly used in RTPs. Some examples of anga talas are:
Sarabhandana tala
| 8 | O | l | l | O | U | U) | |
| O | O | O | U | O) | OU) | U) | O |
| U | O | U | O | U) | O | (OU) | O) |
Simhanandana tala : It is the longest tala.
| 8 | 8 | l | ) | l | 8 | O | O |
| 8 | 8 | l | ) | l | ) | 8 | l |
| + |
Another type of tala is the chhanda tala. These are talas set the lyrics of the Thirupugazh by the tamil composer Arunagirinadhar. He is said to have written 16000 hyms each in a differend chhanda tala. Of these, only 1500-2000 are available.
[edit] Practice
In practice, only a few talams 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 aksharams, each being 4 svarams long. Most krtis and around half of the varnams are set to this talam.
Other common talams 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 talams.
- 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.
Sometimes, pallavis are sung as part of an RTP in some of the rarer, more complicated talams; such pallavis, if sung in a non-Chatusra-nadai talam, are called nadai pallavis.
A close equivalent to tala in the theory of Ottoman/Turkish music is the notion of usul.
