Krsna Kirtana Songs
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Chapter 19: Introduction to
Classical Accompaniment
You have finally learned the slow, the medium, and
the fast tempo, namely vilambit, madhya,
and drut lay, respectively. You know how to take a
regular tala and convert it to a vilambit
lay, madhya lay, or a drut
lay. You are probably wondering why this is important. Before reading on, I am
sure some people will say that “some people sing in various tempos.” That is
part of the answer, but not the whole picture.
Usually tabla teachers
will teach cadence and cyclic forms to correspond with the tala.
However, when some tabla students study tabla, they want to simply learn how to “keep the beat.”
“Keeping the beat” is only less than a half of the story of the tabla. When using the “keeping the beat” mentality in mind,
they forget to realize that there is more to it. It is often forgotten that tabla and its talas originated
from the classical music of India. The classical music of India today depends
on these three forms.
INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC
India is blessed with many musical instruments. In
the Natya Sastra, by Bharata Muni, there are four
classes of instruments. The string instruments, or tantri vadya,
consist of instruments like the sitar, sarod, sarangi, surbahar, vina, and the
modern santur. The second class is blown instruments, or susir vadya, consisting of bansuri and shehnai.
The other two classes of percussion with membrane heads and headless percussion
are not really in a category of instrumental music.
Usually the sitar for example, a concert could be as
long as two hours long for the same raga. The sitar player would first go and
play the alap.
The alap is a free-style rhythm-less elaboration of
the raga. It explores every note in the raga, its weight and relationship to
other notes, and its overall flow. The purpose of the alap
is for the audience to develop into the mood of the raga. For sitar players, it
helps them keep the fingering correct. Alaps are
almost always the longest part. Then a jod comes. The jod has a raga
going in some apparent rhythm but not a true tala
that a tabla could join in. The jod
goes from each octave and elaborates on the flow of the raga as well as its
mood. The jhala
follows in which special drone strings, or chikaris, are used to mark
rhythm. Even though it is more rhythmic than the jod,
the tabla does not come in yet. The tabla remains silent throughout the alap,
jod, and jhala.
The tabla then begins to
join the sitar player when it is time to do a “gat” or composition. Every sitar player has different expectations
on how to go about doing gat. Some will be very traditional, while some will be
very up to trend. The traditional approach is to use all three lays. A vilambit lay is used for one composition. A separate madhya lay composition will there, and a drut lay composition will be there. A key feature in each
of the three is that there will be a main thematic line that will be played
with the sitar and elaboration of the raga follows. One can think of the gat as
a song just played with the sitar. The main thematic line represents the
refrain while the elaborations are equivalent to the verse. After the drut lay gat is completed, the tabla
player might have one more line of accompanying a tabla
player in madhya lay and then the show is over.
VOCAL
STYLES
This is true not only for sitar, but for all
instruments. Of course, wind and bowed instruments won’t necessarily have a jhala. Vocal music would only have an alap,
and rarely a vocal jod known as nomtom. The North Indian system
of vocal alap and gat is known as khayal. The same tabla procedures, nevertheless, stay the same. Always keep
in mind to accent the talis, especially the sam. Remember, the musicians are there to concentrate on
getting the notes correct, not trying to find what part of the tala they are in.
In Bengal, classical kirtans
are in this format. The mridanga is played at a very
slow speed, just as a vilambit lay. Later into the kirtan, it would develop speed. In this manner, mridanga is very similar to the tabla
conceptually. In fact, mridanga is perhaps the only
folk instrument closest to the tabla. Of course, in
the West, this style is not too commonly used.
You may also use any of these three lays in
light-classical music. Thumri,
or romantic musical style, as well as dadra, another version of thumri, could start off with a vilambit lay. Then progress straight to a drut lay ending. Almost all of the thumris
that I know of have always started off with vilambit
always end with a phenomenal ending with a drut lay.
Some thumris and dadras
will start off in madhya lay and end in madhya lay without any change in tempo.
Similar to kheyal is
called the tarana.
The tarana is a recitation of syllables, either bols or fictitious words, sung in a particular raga. Most taranas could be heard in madhya
lay or drut lay. It would be virtually impossible to
hear of a tarana in vilambit
lay.
Of course, there are many more styles of classical
singing. Tabla is virtually used in every facet of
music in North India. You have developed enough knowledge of talas from unit two and how to use them in musical
applications. Please review all that you have learned up to this point. The
next entire unit will deal with talas in a much
different perspective.
UPDATED: June 20, 2009