Sunday, 6 April 2014

South Indian Taal system

Today in Bharata Natyum we discussed the taal theory, or basic music theory. The first part of the word, "ta" comes from Shiva, it is the concept of rhythm, and the "l" comes from the word "lasya" which is the grace of Parvati.
There are seven taals, each with its own rhythm pattern. Each taal has five variations and each of those have five variations, for a totaly of 135 total taals. The different taals in order are Druvo taal, Matya taal, Rupak tal, Jhampa taal, Triputa taal, Ata taal and eik taal.
The taals are counted with a mixutre of clapping, counting with fingues from pinky to thumb and then blanks. So for example, Druvo taal consists of a clap and counting, followed by a clap and a pause and then followed by two sets of the clap with the counting.
The number of beats between claps is called lagu. In a set, there can be 3,4,5,7 or 9 claps. These are where the variations come in. Each tal can have these five variations and then within those, the time between beats can be a 3,4,5,7, or 9 count.
The most common taal is the adital, which is triput tal with a four count, so chatura triput tal. This is that taal I use for many of the most common compositions, like Shri Ram Achandra. 

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