Selection of tALa

vgvindan · Post by **vgvindan** » 19 Jun 2008, 10:52

I have been listening to some of the Thyagaraja Kritis being rendered by musicians in a manner which left me wondering whether Sri Thyagaraja would have ever sung the Kriti in such a manner.

In this regard, I refer to an article on 'Chandas' by Alathur Vijayakumar wherein he mentions as to how to select a suitable tALa.

I may further amplify that it is not only the words of the lyrics but also the intonation which are to be taken into account so that the bhAva can be properly brought out.

For example, let us take the sentence 'How beautiful is this flower!' - When we actually speak out the sentence, the word 'beautiful' is emphasised as 'beeaauutiful'. Similarly, in the Tamil sentence, 'inda poo evvaLavu azhagAyirukku'. Here the stress falls on 'evvaLavu' as 'evvvvaLavu'. Alternatively, the stress is on 'azhagu' - azhzhagu'. This bhAva or intonation which we use in normal speech has to be brought into the musical rendition also without which, rendering kRtis is like a bland diet.

The article may be downloaded from -
http://www.musicresearch.in/categorydet ... p?imgid=60

knandago2001 · Post by **knandago2001** » 19 Jun 2008, 17:59

vgv: i read the article with much interest. while chhandas (as in poetic meter or recitation of mantras) and tala in music both deal with recording intervals of time, iâ€™m not convinced that they are necessarily mutually informative or even equivalent. let us assume i had no knowledge of the tune and had access to only the text of this composition, how would i then select the tala a priori in order to sing or teach the composition?

jagadaananda kaaraka (8 syllables)
jaya jaanaki praana naayaka (10 syllables)

gaganaadhipa sadkulaja raja raajesvara (15 syllables)
sugunaakara surasevya bhavya daayaka sadaa sakala (19 syllables)

and the exercise could be continued with remainder of the composition..
even with the same composer, however, there are many variations to this example.

in contrast, if one were to recite from say Shakespeare, we know that he wrote mainly in iambic pentameterâ€¦..

vgvindan · Post by **vgvindan** » 19 Jun 2008, 18:19

kn,

5. If there is any difficulty in achieving the â€˜tala-avartaâ€™ at any place, modify the
syllables without losing sight of the following rules
a. A dirgham, although has to be sustained for 2 aksharakala-s can be extended to any
length of time.
b. Alliteration may be applied to enhance the beauty of the lyrics or to achieve the
correct tala only after ensuring that no distortion of the meaning takes place.

I am not arguing that what is stated in the paper is the optimum solution to arrive at the proper tALa for any kRti. But, IMHO, applying these rules would bring the artist as close as possible to the conception of the composer as to how any kRti should be rendered.

I will take the example of the Thyagaraja Kriti 'ETi janmamidi' - rAga varALi. The pallavi line reads 'ETi janmamidi hA O rAma'. Now, how this word 'hA' is to be rendered? Just like 'hA' in 'hAsya'? No, it is an anguish. If the artist is going to render it simply as 'hA' (as in 'hAsya') the whole effect of the expression is undermined. Therefore, such elongation, alliteration rules are very much relevant.

In Tamil language, these rules are called 'isai aLabeDai'.
(Those who know Tamil may view complete details here)
http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/p ... /mp263.htm

PS : Applying such a rule, the 15 and 19 syllables can be suitably broken into smaller syllables at the appropriate places by elongation.
PS : It was a sad experience for me to hear some talented musicians singing the word 'hA' in a bland manner. Well, that seems to be the parampara.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 30 Jun 2008, 08:01

I read the paper with interest. I think I got something out of that on how consonants affect the mapping of a song to a thala. But I do not understand one aspect of it.

The syllable "bha" in "bhaktha" is a Guru requiring to be sustained for two
aksharakala-s. Hence it has to be pronounced as follows. First say "bhak" for one
aksharakalam, hold your breath for the second aksharakalam and then say "ta" in the third.

However for convenience of gamaka-prayogam the rust word of this phrase is often
sung as | bha | Kta |. This in no way affects the syllable to syllable aksarakala value. The
only difference being that â€˜bhaâ€™ instead of being pronounced as a hrasva followed by
holding of the breath for one aksarakalam, which together make a Guru, is pronounced
as â€˜bhaâ€™ which being a dirgham constitues again one Guru only.

1) If one says 'bhak' ( ending with a short consonant ) and hold the breath for another aksharakalam, by definition there is a pause. And in fact there does not seem to be any other way except to be silent since a short consonant is produced by holding the breath. You need a vowel to breath out. This means the word will come out as 'bhak ta' with no sound at all between the splits. VGV, I thought you were in general against such splitting of words.

2) I don't understand why it has to be sung that way as stipulated by the author of that article. The alternative is not 'bhA' but 'bha.' ( without the A of bhA but just with bha but keep the 'a' sound for another aksharakalam. That should take care of not alterning the meaning, shouldn't it?

3) In another thread, (http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=85092#p85092), the song "thAmathamen swami - Thodi- P.Sivan" is being discussed. During many places in the song including kalpanaswarams, the singers split the opening line as 'thA Mathamen" and in wrap around it sounds like "SwamiTha Madhamen".

I can put the words together myself since the refrain has already been established many times and enjoy the music since it fits the thodi gamaka on "Tha" very well. It needs two aksharakalams to bring out the thodi gamaka. One can say that the singer can sing them continously without a break. Sure they can and still do full justice to the gamaka. But the pause does provide a musical aesthetic,

Such splits never used to be of any concern to me, but with all these discussions on lyrics in our forum and the fact I can understand the lyrics in this case make me think about this. Is that split considered acceptable?

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 30 Jun 2008, 11:06

I had always held this view that sruti and laya of saMgItam are very related to the concept of the sruti and chandas used in vyAkaraNam, even when musicians with greater knowledge had suggested otherwise. Somehow it appeared very obvious to me that chandas should be closely related to tAla.

I am happy to note that my convictions are confirmed by this article.

That aside, this is a serious topic to be analysed by musicians to understand the science behind correct uccAraNam rather than following their parampara blindly.

vgvindan · Post by **vgvindan** » 30 Jun 2008, 20:33

VGV, I thought you were in general against such splitting of words.

vk (there seems to be one more 'vk' in our forum)
I think my intention in citing this paper has been nicely conveyed by srkris and I thank him for that.

I may humbly point out that even in ordinary spoken language there is a definite pause between two consecutive Inter-group (ka, ca, Ta, ta, pa) consonants - (eg bhak/ta - sUk/ta - muk/ta - etc.) which require different movements of lip and tongue as against consonants of intra-group (ka, kha, ga, gha). Therefore, a pause is in-built even in our ordinary language. But this pause is neither discernible nor avoidable. Further, resonance effect of human voice helps in shadowing such pauses. The rules of language cannot but apply to lyrics also.

What I had pointed out as a undesirable is the attempt by the musicians to break the words in order to contrive a sangati where none exists.

BTW, in Tamil film 'kELaDi kaNmani' SPB displays his skill in reverse- breath singing. Is it a gimmick or real?

knandago2001 · Post by **knandago2001** » 01 Jul 2008, 20:19

let us consider a composition with little â€œmusical detailâ€