I had a question for all of you. I have been a student of carnatic music for the last 16 years. One thing which is pretty intriguing is the fact that we use our hands for the taala (as opposed to Hindusthani vocalists). I was posed with this question in one of the music acedemies here in the Midwest (US) and I was not sure how to answer that. Any light on this topic will be much appreciated!
Thanks
Kaushik
Why do we use our hands for the taala in Carnartic music.
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vasanthakokilam
- Posts: 10958
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01
I am not sure how to interpret the question, so here are a few viewpoints.
1) Why any hand movements at all?
Thala is an external representation of the rhythm. It is defined by Kriyas assigned to each "part" of the thala. And they have assigned various hand gestures for each kriya type. In this view point, this is similar to a western music conductor using the hands to conduct the show.
2) Why hand movements as opposed to other body movements?
From ancient times, the kriyas are specified with hand movements. In fact, I read somewhere that from Bharatha's times, a person was designated who is part of the drama/music troup whose only job is to keep the thala using the kriyas ( like the jAlra person in a nahaswara group ).
3) Why this is not practised in HM?
From the very limited knowledge I have, it looks like HM thalas also have 'parts' but are defined by 'bols' which maps to how you say the solkattu and it matches exactly one to one with what the tabla player plays. So, the various 'bol' sounds of the tabla provides the clues for the various thala 'parts'. In CM, the thalas are defined with kriyas independent of the percussion instruments like mridangam, ghatam etc. They have much more freedom in exploring the layam, going outside of the tala anga defintiions, so one can not depend on the mridangam sound for knowing where you are in a thala. Hence the need for external visual representation of the thala.
Please correct me if I have not portrayed the right information. Thanks.
1) Why any hand movements at all?
Thala is an external representation of the rhythm. It is defined by Kriyas assigned to each "part" of the thala. And they have assigned various hand gestures for each kriya type. In this view point, this is similar to a western music conductor using the hands to conduct the show.
2) Why hand movements as opposed to other body movements?
From ancient times, the kriyas are specified with hand movements. In fact, I read somewhere that from Bharatha's times, a person was designated who is part of the drama/music troup whose only job is to keep the thala using the kriyas ( like the jAlra person in a nahaswara group ).
3) Why this is not practised in HM?
From the very limited knowledge I have, it looks like HM thalas also have 'parts' but are defined by 'bols' which maps to how you say the solkattu and it matches exactly one to one with what the tabla player plays. So, the various 'bol' sounds of the tabla provides the clues for the various thala 'parts'. In CM, the thalas are defined with kriyas independent of the percussion instruments like mridangam, ghatam etc. They have much more freedom in exploring the layam, going outside of the tala anga defintiions, so one can not depend on the mridangam sound for knowing where you are in a thala. Hence the need for external visual representation of the thala.
Please correct me if I have not portrayed the right information. Thanks.
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kaushik.navile
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 10 Mar 2009, 08:34
@vasanthakokilam,
Thanks a ton for the information. You almost answered my question. The reason why I asked this, was to get a better understanding and explain this process of using our hands to keep track of the taala. Carnatic music insists on displaying the taala using your hands as you render the Krithi. Thanks again!
Thanks a ton for the information. You almost answered my question. The reason why I asked this, was to get a better understanding and explain this process of using our hands to keep track of the taala. Carnatic music insists on displaying the taala using your hands as you render the Krithi. Thanks again!
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msakella
- Posts: 2127
- Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 21:16
Dear brother-members, Due to the invasions from north the music of North India was effected and, at the same time, the music of South India was not effected. That is why the six Angas of the Tala, which have been furnished in all our treatises have always been used in our music. But, me too never understand why they never use these Angas in their Talas in North Indian music when they also treat the same treatises as their ancient Granthas. More over, while we both have ‘Kriyas(acts)’ which are called Nisshabda-kriyas and Sashabda-kriyas in our music and Taali (sounded) and Khaali (un-sounded) in their music they do not have any Angas at all..
Even in respect of the Gamaka of Sadharana-gandhara having the oscillative range between Shuddha-madhyama and Chatusshruti-rishabha, even though they declare that this kind of Gamaka-treatment is not available in their Noth Indian music, I have recently heard the same Gamaka sung by a Hindusthani-musician in his concert at Bangalore. amsharma
Even in respect of the Gamaka of Sadharana-gandhara having the oscillative range between Shuddha-madhyama and Chatusshruti-rishabha, even though they declare that this kind of Gamaka-treatment is not available in their Noth Indian music, I have recently heard the same Gamaka sung by a Hindusthani-musician in his concert at Bangalore. amsharma