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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