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Talam Page
Application
of Gati
Now that thirty-five talam structure have been defined,
the concept of gati can be introduced. Gati (lit. “speed”) implied the
underlying rhythm per each matra. Unlike North Indian
music where the number of matras remains the same,
regardless of speed, South Indian music will adjust speed by having smaller
rhythms within each matra. Therefore, it feels like
it is going at a higher speed. There are five types of speeds and incidentally,
they are the same names as the jatis: tisra gati, caturasra jati, khanda gati, misra
gati, and sankirna
gati. Each matra will
have the gati-dependent number of matras
within it.
TALAM NAME |
SYMBOL |
TOTAL MATRAS |
Caturasra Jati
Eka Talam Tisra Gati |
|4 |
4*3 = 12 |
Caturasra Jati
Eka Talam Caturasra Gati |
|4 |
4*4 = 16 |
Caturasra Jati
Eka Talam Khanda Gati |
|4 |
4*5 = 20 |
Caturasra Jati
Eka Talam Misra Gati |
|4 |
4*7 = 28 |
Caturasra Jati
Eka Talam Sankirna Gati |
|4 |
4*9 = 36 |
Throughout all of the gatis for this one particular tala
(caturasra jati eka talam), we see how each matra has an underlying rhythm. It so happens that the caturasra jati eka talam caturasra
gati is the most common Carnatic
talam, known as adi
talam. While caturastra
jati eka talam had four matras originally,
each matra had four matras
within for adi talam.
Therefore, there are sixteen matras total.
Applying gati to each talam can yield
one-hundred seventy five talams, with the higher
number of matras being 261 matras
long per cycle! This is something that would be baffle North Indian musicians,
for the longest comfortable cycle that is played is tintal
of sixteen matras.
This is the conceptual
basis on how the talam works. Vocalists depend on
these to keep time and percussionists use these concepts to aid them in
improvisation. Of course, for percussionists, the knowledge does not bear as
much fruit as if it was to be played on an instrument like mridangam
or ghatam. Carnatic
percussionists learn how to produce sounds and their names, called konnakol (very similar to the North Indian bols). Then, they learn how to apply their
instrument of choice to the talams studied and how
effectiveness accompaniment works. These topics are beyond the scope of this
site and it is highly recommended to seek a Carnatic
professional percussionist for guidance.
UPDATED: April 2, 2009