Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site crystal.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!crystal!ravi From: ravi@crystal.UUCP Newsgroups: net.music.classical,net.nlang.india Subject: Re: Tala, or metre, in Indian music Message-ID: <456@crystal.UUCP> Date: Sun, 5-May-85 14:33:39 EDT Article-I.D.: crystal.456 Posted: Sun May 5 14:33:39 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 7-May-85 07:19:00 EDT References: <219@ucbcad.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Lines: 105 Xref: linus net.music.classical:758 net.nlang.india:394 The two articles on the notions of "raga" and "tala" give the general idea behind these crucial notions in Indian classical music. For those who are interested, here are some more details: Firstly, the scale in Indian music is both untempered and microtonic: Properly, there are 22 "shrutis" or intervals (as opposed to the 12 in the western scale). Such fine intervals are not present in the system simply for pedantic reasons: There are ragas played/sung commonly in which these shruti distinctions are very important. However, these shrutis are not always given distinct names; they may roughly (and somewhat reasonably) be viewed as variations on a named note in the scale. The notion of "raga" corresponds only very loosely to the notion of "mode" as used by western musicologists. There are eastern musics (that of Iran, for instance) that are built primarily around modal ideas, and it is tempting to view ragas in the same terms. However, that turns out to be both inappropriate and incorrect. There are ragas, for instance, with the same notes, but the style of presentation (interpretation) makes all the difference. Melodic phrasing, accent/intonation, manner of ascent/descent in the scale, patterns of graces/embellishments, and even the manner of transition into certain notes from others define the raga. (Strange as it may seem, all these are very important.) Ragas are classified and grouped according to the notes that constitute them. The South-Indian system of classification (far more advanced than the one in the North), recognizes 72 classes ("melakartas"). Theoretically, the number of ragas is countably infinite, but in practice, about 300 or so are recognized. Estimates are that one actually encounters about 100 or so; a good musician may be able to do some justice to about five or six dozen, and have mastered about two dozen. A raga creates a certain ambience; it is the experience (or aesthesis, to be pedantic) of this ambience that may crudely called "rasa". It is the purpose of the musician to maintain this ambience and lead the listener through the various aspects of the rasa he is trying to elaborate, and the musician's skill and the effectiveness of his performance is determined entirely by how well this goal is acheived. This is the reason why rapport with the audience is so important in Indian classical music, and why so much of it is improvised. It is also the main reason why the music sounds needlessly repetitious to the casual western listener: Repetition serves to establish the principal mood in the minds of the audience (or re-establish it after a variation on it); western audiences are not at all familiar or at ease with this technique. A western musician may shift to a different key (variation/create tension); he then returns to the original key (repetition). The Indian musician strives to do the same with "bhava" ("bhava" is roughly the reaction in emotional terms to the "rasa"). This may involve repeating melodic phrases or certain kinds of embellishments. "Tala" is the rhythmic component of Indian music. The idea of rhythm in western music is a rather simple one (caveat: I am not a musicologist, so all this is to be taken E&OE -- Errors & Omissions Excepted): The rhythm consists of sections (bars) or groupings repeated through the piece of music. In Indian music, there are higher-level groupings of these elementary groups. For instance, one 10-beat tala may be grouped as (2-3)-(2-3) and another as 2-2-2-2-2: These would be distinct talas. What is more, the stress-values of the beats within a group are not equal. Two talas with the same groupings but different stress-values would be different. There are a large variety of talas: There are literally hundreds of them (although most musicians and audiences can generally cope with only about a couple of dozen or so of them). There are talas with eight-and-a-half beats or thirteen-and-a-half beats per cycle, for instance. North-Indian classical music generally recognizes 108 different talas (although, of course, one can invent and play any number of them). Master musicians will occassionally play compositions in a complicated tala just for variety. Thirty five talas are generally recognized in South-Indian classical music. As was also pointed out in the earlier articles, it is possible to play a percussion solo and develop a tala just as a singer may develop a raga. (In Indian music, "percussion" generally refers to drums.) Just as with the "raga" notion, there is also much theory and tradition behind the tala concept. Indian drums are capable of a wide variety of tones; these tones are generally given names: It is therefore possible to transcribe compositions for various percussion instruments just like it is possible to transcribe music. Percussion solos generally begin by establishing the basic character of the tala being played and then playing compositions and variations on the basic cycle. One may, for instance, introduce a composition (that fits the tala) and then proceed to play variations using the phrases and sounds that consitute the composition. This is analogous to what one generally does with a musical composition. Here is another simple example: If one is playing a 16-beat rhythm (a very common one), one may create a rhythmic composition of 21 beats (that has the sub-structure, say, 6-5-5-5), and then repeat this composition three times with a beat skipped before each repetition (this creates emphasis). This would span 3 x 21 + 2 (skipped) = 65 beats, and since the 65th beat is the start of the 5th cycle of the tala (16 x 4 = 64), one is back to the proper place in the cycle. One very interesting aspect of Indian drums is that they are true musical instruments (unlike their western counterparts). That is to say, their overtones are perfect harmonics. (While kettledrums are generally regarded as producing harmonic overtones, it is only the dominant overtones that are harmonic because of the effects of membrane stiffness and air-loading.) The reason why the Indian drums are different is that their membrane characteristics are altered by loading them with a black coating. (For those who are more technical minded: The reason that drums do not generally produce harmonic overtones is that the solution of the wave-equation in two dimensions for a circular membrane may be expressed in terms of Bessel fuctions of the first kind. The zeroes of this function are not regularly spaced on the x-axis, and hence the membrane's vibration does not give rise to harmonic overtones. The black loading on the Indian drums causes the membrane density to vary with the radius and hence changes the solution of the wave-equation. Work on this was first done by C. V. Raman: A report appears in "Nature", around 1932 or so.)