Tihai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The tihai (pronounced tee-'high) is a poly-rhythmic device originating from Indian classical music. The basic format of the tihai is 3 equal repetitions of a rhythmic pattern, interspersed with 2 equal rests, and all five components adding up to the number of beats in the phrase.

If the phrase is sixteen beats long, the outline of a tihai might look like: 4 2 4 2 4. Each "4" represents a pattern that is four beats long and each "2" represents a rest that is two beats long (4+2+4+2+4=16). The start of the next phrase is exactly on the downbeat. Another example is a 2 5 2 5 2 in a sixteen beat phrase. Two beats of rhythm with five beats of rest between.

Tihai's may be employed in any length of phrase as long as the rules are followed.:

there must be three groupings of playing, all of equal length
these must be alternated with 2 groupings of rest, both of equal length
the pattern must land the player back on the downbeat-- ready to start the next phrase.

[edit] Western use

Modern western composers have also employed this technique. One example is Daniel Levitan's percussion duet First Invention ^[1] copyrighted in 2006 and premiered at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.