Tal

Tal (rhythm or beat) the basic temporal element of song, music, and dance concerned with duration and stress. Tal is of two kinds: samapad'i' (equal metrical foot) and bi's'amapad'i' or bisamachhandi (irregular metrical foot). Samapadi tal includes the following: ektal, trital, chautal, surfank, etc. Bisamapadi includes the following: teoda, dhamar, jhanptal, jhumra. A tal is made up of a number of units or m'a'tr'a. Trital, for example, has 16 matra, divided into four parts or feet: 1 2 3 4/ 5 6 7 8/9 10 11 12/ 13 14 15 16. In each part the number of matra are the same. In jhanptal there are ten matra arranged as follows: 1 2/ 3 4 5/ 6 7/ 8 9 10. As the matra are not divided equally, jhanptal is a bisamapadi tal.

The first matra of the tal is called the sama. The sama is indicated by t'a'li or clapping. The remaining feet, as well some matra, contain the beat and are shown by clapping. These are called tali. The division in which there is no clapping is called kh'a'li or f'a'nk (gap/empty).

Among the writers and composers who created new tals are rabindranath tagore, kazi nazrul islam, Ustad alauddin khan. Rabindranath Tagore created the following tals: jhampak, 's'a's'th'i, r'u'pka'da, nabat'a'l, ek'a'dash'i' and nabapa'v'cha. Nazrul Islam also created some tals such as nabanandan, priy'a'chhanda, ma'n'im'a'l'a' chhanda, sv'a'gat'a' chhanda, mand'a'kin'i' chhanda, and ma'v'jubh'as'i'n'i t'a'l.

Ustad Alauddin Khan created some tals for the Sarod such as moh'a'nta, r'a'jbesh, udaysin, bijay, bijay'a'nanda, upr'a'l, bikramat, laghukir, ra'b'ga, ra'b'gabara'n, ra'b'gar'a'yat, and abhinandan. [Mobarak Hossain Khan] [Khan, Mobarak Hossain former DG, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy]