Chaapu thaalam - how many beats?
Vidya Sridhar
Hello,
I understand that Adi thaalam is 8 beats and Rupakam is 6 beats (or
2 X 3 beats). How about chaapu thaalam? Does chaapu thaalam, by
default, mean kanda chaapu thaalam?
I'm told that the cycle of chaapu thaalam is small. i.e it is less than
4 beats. So,chaapu thaalam kritis are easier to play on the instrument.
Is this true? (e.g. "Kamakshi" swarajathi in Bhairavi)
Typically, what are the characteristics of chaaputhalam keerthanas?
Any information on this would be highly appreciated.
Best regards,
Vidya
Anand Balachandran
Chaapu Thalam is another name for misrachaapu thaalam!
Misram means seven(just like thisram is 3 and khandam is 5)
Chaapu reduces the beats one-half. Thus Misrachaapu thaalam has 3and 1/2
beats (and Khandachaapu had 2and 1/2 beats).I think the "aksharams" for
misrachaapu go like "thakita thaka Jhanu" though the mridangam wizards on
the net will know better.
It is true that misrachaapu is easier to sing 'coz of its small cycle of
beats. It is particularly easy to handle neraval and fast kalpanaswaram.
A rendition of "marivere" "Janani Ninnuvina" or "Pankaja Lochana" by
Semmangudi is ample testimony for this.
--Anand.
On Fri, 14 Jun 1996, Vidya Sridhar wrote:
> Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 18:30:24 -0500
> From: Vidya Sridhar <vsri...@in.oracle.com>
> Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
> Subject: Chaapu thaalam - how many beats?
Anand Balachandran
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Vidya Sridhar (vsri...@in.oracle.com) wrote:
: Hello,
: I understand that Adi thaalam is 8 beats and Rupakam is 6 beats (or
: 2 X 3 beats). How about chaapu thaalam? Does chaapu thaalam, by
: default, mean kanda chaapu thaalam?
[......]
ChApu tAlam, by default, means what is called as Misra ChApu tAlam which
has 3.5 beats a cycle. I used to be intrigued by this name ChApu till
sometime ago. The best explanation I saw was in a book titled
"Pazhantamizhar Marabil Muzhakkiyal" (loosely transl. as TAlas in the
tradition of ancient Tamils). The author (Dr T. V. K. Sundaram, himself
a disciple of Ramnad Sri Sankarasivam) provides a lot of evidence that
the name ChApu actually is a corruption of the Tamil word "ChAippu"
which literally means "tilted". This is as opposed to TAlas that are
evenly spaced. Such TAlas were called "Matta TAlas" by the Tamils. The
word "Mattam" means "even" in Tamil. (This is the origin of the word
"Matya" which now corresponds to the family of TAlas with 1 laghu, 1
drutham and 1 laghu.) The simplest example of such "Matta TAlas" is the
"OnRan Mattam" which goes as 1-1-1-1, i.e., a TAla of 4 evenly spaced
beats. If now, one 'tilts' this by reducing the last beat to 1/2, one
gets 1-1-1-1/2 which was called "OnRan Chaippu" (now called Misra
ChAPu). This theory also explains very naturally why the Mridangam "sol"
(beat) ChApu has this name. As every Mridangist knows, this "sol" is
produced by 'tilting' the hand and striking the right side of the
Mridangam. Thus, the word "ChApu" either in the name of a TAla or the
Mridangam "sol" is actually nothing but the Tamil word "Chaippu".
--
muthu
Nur der BVB!
Chidambaram N.
hi vidya,
Chaapu thalams don't fall under the normal classification of thalams
i.e. Dhruvam, Matyam, Rupakam, Jhampa, Triputa, Ata, Eka (seven)
I think chaapu thalams are basically derived from folk tunes.
Chaapu has three kinds: Khanda chaapu, mishra chaapu, and sankeerna chaapu
the third one being very rare and the other two being very common.
if you say that adi thalam has 8 beats (technically it has 8 mathras
or time intervals and 32 aksharams). i.e. each beat is further subdivided into
4 parts, then mishra chaapu has 3 and 1/2 mathras and khanda chaapu has 2 and 1/2
mathras. which means 14 and 10 aksharams respectively.
similarly sankeernachaap has 4and1/2 mathras i.e. 18 aksharams...
I think you must be knowing that khanda, mishra and sangeerna mean 5,7 and 9.
The structure of these three thalams is normally as follows:
There is to start with a beat of 1 1/2 mathras, then
khanda chaapu has one more beat of 1 mathra ( total 2 1/2)
mishra chaapu has two more beats of 1 mathra each (total 3 1/2)
sankeerna chaapu has three more beats of 1 mathra each (total 4 1/2)
I hope this answers your questions...( i hope i have been able to effectively
communicate the idea !!). as an aside, i am a mridangam player, so i know what
i am talking about, so in case something is not clear, you are free to shoot
me an email
chalo bye
chidu