| RHYTHM AND METER |
| North Indian conceptions of tāl are very similar to those of south India, but at the same time very different. Some of the terminology is very similar. For example, āvarta [or avard, Sanskrit-Hindustani nm "cycle"] is the time-span of one cycle of a tal (Karnatak: avartanam). Some of the terminology is very different. For example, vibhāg [Sanskrit/Hindi, nm., "partition" "breakdown"] a subsection of the avarta (Karnatak: aṅga). |
| In the Hindustānī saṅgīt paddhati, lay is not very differently from the Karnatak saṅgīt paddhati. Metric subdivision: caturaśra ("quadratic") is 4 sub-beats, tiśra ("triple") 3 sub-beats, miśra ("mixed") 7 sub-beats, khaṇḍa ("broken") 5 sub-beats, and saṅkirna ("composite") 9 sub-beats. Tempo: vilambit (slow), madhya (medium), and drut (fast). |
| North Indian time, like that
of south India, is conceptually additive. However, rather than a standard
set of formulae modified through a set of metrical options (like the sulādi tālas) or meters which follow a standard mathematical function
(like the cāpu talas), north Indian tāls derive
from performance practice. Hindustānī tāls are generally
not a series of laghus, drutams, and anudrutams,
but rather as a series of drum strokes. |
| Drummers call the strokes
on the tablā, bols. Each bol mnemonically
represents a specific combination of the location of a stroke and how
the drummer executes that stroke: dental sounds represent right-hand strokes,
gutteral sounds represent left-hand strokes, and aspirated sounds represent
simultaneous strokes on both the left and right drum heads. All north
Indian classical musicians use these bols to describe not only
what the drummer specifically does, but also to identify the structure
of a tāla. That is, a tāla has an abstract structure
(described in terms of āvarta, vibhāg, and mātrā)
AND a realized form. |
| The principal way of representing tāls is in the form of their ṭhekā [Sanskrit-Hindustani, "support"]: a time-keeping pattern played
by the drummer. A ṭhekā is also a pardigm of the tāl — an illustration of shape of tāl, showing
the sam, tāli, and khāli — and the framework against which the melodic soloist extemporizes. |
| Some things are similar. A
series of claps and waves mark Hindustani tāls.
A clap is a tālī Sanskrit-Hindustani diminutive
of tāl "beat" or "clap"]. The most important
of these tālīs is the sam Hindustani "together"], the first beat of an āvarta and the point at which the end of the time cycle comes back and joins
the beginning. The sam in tāl schematics
is an X and demonstrated with a clap. Commonly, secondary division points
within an āvarta that mark the beginning of some vibhāgs are tālīs. In tāl schematics, many of these
secondary division points — tālīs — are numbered and demonstrated
with a clap. However, some of these divisions commence with a wave. In tāl schematics, an "O" marks these empty or "khālī"
[Hindustani, "empty"] beats. |
| See "Drum Compositions"
later in this section. |