The Score Magazine August 2018 issue | Page 21

AMOGH RAO Understanding INDIAN Rhythmic concepts in Indian music have been hailed as the some of the most complex and intricate across world music styles. Most attribute this to the ages over which it has evolved, developing a rich vocabulary and language of its own. Yet it continued to remain niche due to the lack of compatibility with most foreign music styles. Today, however, champions of diversity have been bringing these languages together to create vastly colourful and deeply textured compositions. very cycle, a framework that might seem highly constrained, but is actually flexible and spacious enough to accommodate immense improvisation if the musician is Rhythmic Concepts IN A Western CONTEXT The strength of Indian concepts lies in their fundamentals that have stayed unfettered through the millennia. Unfortunately, this also causes the very problem of seclusion, due to the difficulty in translating them effectively for musicians who have not studied them in depth. My goal here is not to translate these concepts for you, since that would take far more than a few paragraphs, but to inspire you to discover them for yourself by showing you their merits. Looking simply at rhythms, the very first thing anyone would notice is the length, or the number of notes in a cycle (Taal). In western music the most common and popular time signature is the 4/4, usually with emphases on the first and third beat, or the second and fourth, creating a simple but effective symmetry. In taals, the most popular counterpart to the 4/4 would be the teentaal, which consists of 16 individual notes, with an asymmetric emphasis on the first, second and fourth grouping (each grouping being 4 notes long). What this creates is a framework inside the conscious of the length and time. Unlike anything occurred in western rhythms, almost every taal consists of a kind of Ying-Yang, where every time signature is played in two parts with bass-heavy notes in one half and light/shallow notes in the second. This is also why most taals regardless of time signature, will come in multiples of two. This symmetry also has many exceptions, but the principle of creating dynamics within the framework of the groove itself, remains the same. Another popular aspect of Indian compositions is the ‘tihai’, a concept where a phrase of fixed length is repeated thrice at the end of a composition such that the last note of the third phrase falls on the ‘One’ or ‘Sum’. This makes for a very exciting, challenging and satisfying task of creating complex phrases with all kinds of groupings and subdivisions, and yet landing the last note on the one. The first step to understanding these principles is to listen intently and consciously to classical compositions. Applying them to western music then becomes less of a challenge, since the fundamental purpose is clearly understood. Recreating the vocabulary in the most accurate way is not as essential as recreating the effect that these concepts have on the listener. That is where the true challenge of unification lies, and that is also where the most satisfaction is gained. The Score Magazine highonscore.com 19