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Chapter 13: Ten Matra
Cycles
The last of the rare rhythmic cycles in the introduction
to common thekas is the ten matra
cycle. Unlike the previous section of the “rare rhythmic cycles”, there is no
discussion of a five matra cycle. There are indeed
five matra cycles, however, there is no five matra cycle which is very common. There is only one ten matra cycle that will be discussed at this point known as jhaptala. Since
this has ten matras, it is
of the khanda jati of talas, since ten is a multiple of five.
JHAPTALA
Jhaptala is a very simple and symmetrical tala. There are four vibhags
divided 2-3-2-3. The sam, matras
3 and 8 bear talis while the sixth matra bears the khali. This tala could be compared to dipachandi
tala from Chapter 12. Recall that dipachandi
tala has the first two vibhags
and the last vibhag bearing resonant baya bols, while the third vibhag, which starts off with a khali,
has nonresonant or no baya
usage. Like dipachandi tala,
each vibhag does not have the same length. Look at
Figure 13.1 to see the theka.
|
X |
|
2 |
|
|
0 |
|
3 |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
dhin |
nā |
dhin |
dhin |
nā |
tin |
nā |
dhin |
dhin |
nā |
Figure 13.1
Of course, with creativity and skill, one double up the
number of “ta”s or “dhin”s.
Here are two examples of such prakars.
The underlying theme of this chapter is to be very
familiarized with the ten matra talas.
Like the seven and fourteen matra talas,
the ten matra talas would
be difficult to picture due to the lack of popularity these days. Jhaptala is very important, because jhaptala
has a unique feel that can enhance the flavor to certain melodic forms called ragas. For now, mastery and
improvisation is very important to master in the matter of jhaptala.
UPDATED: June 20, 2009