• CESEM/UÉvora deposited Indian Music and Rhythm on Humanities Commons 7 years, 2 months ago

    Indian classical musica has two foundational elements, ‘Raag’ (melodic structure using musical notes) and the ‘Taal’ (rhythmic cycle). The Raag provides the singer a palette of musical notes to build a variety of melodies whereas the Taal provides a creative framework or a meter for rhythmic improvisation using time. Exploring Taal is the main aspect of the Indian percussion presentation. There are 108 basic Taals in the Indian Musica. A taal is a rhythmic cycle of fixed number of beats. The Rhythm in Indian music is cyclic or circular in form. The first beat of the time cycle of Taal is called as ‘Sam’ and one cycle of the taal is referred as ‘avartan’. Numerous calculative compositions are composed in the Taal and are presented on the canvas of the constant rhythmic meter of this Taal. The Taal is an open framework for creativity theoretically allowing infinite number of possibilities. The main traditional percussion instruments seen in India are the Tabla, the Pakhawaj and the Mrudangam. All the three of these have a unique style of playing and a unique texture of sounds. They are rich in the syllable language and versatile in the intricate, complex, calculative presentation.