Thani Avartanam (percussion solo/ensemble)

The invitation to the percussionists to play solo will usually occur when the main artist has finished doing kalpana swara in the main piece. Regretably, in today’s rather shortened concert format, this is often towards the end.

The mridangist always begins. The first part of the thani will be in Chatusra nadai. He will start by playing a few cycles of sarva laghu (patterns following rhythmic structure fairly simply) before moving on to more complex patterns involving more calculations. He will play at least one korvai, and will finish this section with a korvai, which is a rhythmic composition having two parts, the first can be any jati composition, the second will always feature the jatis Tha Dhi Gi Na Thom.

The korvai will be played three times and signals the next player (who will often join with the final korvais) that his turn is coming.

Throughout the thani, the players must adjust their korvais to match the eduppu (the starting point within the rhythmic cycle) of the song. This is particularly important at the end of the thani, where the singer will be rejoining with the final pallavi.

After each player has taken a turn (according to the ‘seniority’ of the instruments: mridangam, Kanjira, ghatam, morsing), the mridangist plays again, this time in a different nadai, usually tisra. The other players will take their turns in this nadai. There may, unusually, be turns taken in other nadais.

The mridangist then returns to Chatusra Nadai, playing a few cycles before beginning the Koraipu. In the Koraipu (meaning: reducing) each player will play one cycle, then half cycle, quarter cycle, eighth cycle etc.

In a simple Koraipu, it is just a matter of following the mridangist and filling the fractions of the cycle. However more complex koraipus involve calculation, eg Misra (7 beats) Koraipu in Adi (8 beats) thalam involves leaving 1 beat in full cycle, half beat in half cycle, quarter beat in quarter cycle, etc. This can become very complex and (even if we do not understand the calculations) is very exiting for the audience.

The final phase of the Thani consists of the players joining together in set-piece compositions farans, mohara and korvai.

Farans is a composition of very fast finger work, Mohara is a four-cycle composition that always follows the same format and warns the principal artist that the final korvais is about to played. The final korvai will usually be the longest most complex korvai to be played. It will be chosen on the spot by the mridangist; the others must quickly understand and join with him. In this final koraipu the Ghatam player may add to the drama by throwing his pot into the air and catching it. A reminder: this korvai must come to the edippu of the song, so that the singer can seamlessly take up the song at the finish.

The actual performance will vary according to the number of players and the time allowed to them by the main artist. A thani recorded for a CD may be just a few minutes, consisting of little more than the opening and closing phases. At the other extreme, for a Tala Vadya Kutcheri the thani will take up most of the program.