How to appreciate a Tabla concert ?
Jay Naik
In Message-ID: <54...@osc.COM> (Ashwin Honkan) :
> How does one appreciate a Tabla concert ? ....
It depends entirely on the color of one's glasses (ok, I'm in the
mood for cliches). As I commented in my review of a recent AR/ZH/SK concert,
I am not entirely pleased with the presentation of "solo" tabla concerts,
nowadays. This view, I suspect, has to do with the color of MY glasses.
Nevertheless, I do greatly enjoy tabla concerts for a number of reasons.
With a few years of dabbling in Tabla, I can follow the various stages
of the concert without much difficulty and I have tried to reproduce
various styles with some success, so I treat a concert as a sort of a
Tabla workshop also. The very nature of Tabla is one of playfulness.
The comparison between melody and rhythm is rather silly, because they
evoke very different feelings in the minds of a listener. Darbaari or
Bhairav might evoke a sense of solemn and silent joy, but the rhythm
of Keharva or Matta Taal makes you swing in delight! What I celebrate
in a Tabla concert is not merely the ability of the Tabla wizard to
speak the bols and play them, but the dexterity and capacity to create
the marvelous sounds while maintaining the strict framework of a taal.
A concert is also an occasion to express appreciation for the artist's
lifelong dedication to the art. This is already a rich experience
that one can take home with!
One need not understand all the intricacies of tabla and its concert
practice to appreciate it, of course; understanding, only makes it that
much more enjoyable. The fact that we can respond to rhythm even with
little understanding of it makes me suspect that it is a "deeper"
feeling than what a recent poster suggested! But appreciating melodic
expressions is a cultivated trait. Any psycho-ethno-musicologists out
there ?! I am discounting those occasions where I had to sit next to
people who were snapping their fingers or slapping their thighs for
a simple Keharva or Daadra while the Tabla player was playing Deepchandi,
Roopak or Jhap Taal. Major annoyance here!
>>p...@mimsy.cs.umd.edu (P. J. Narayanan)
>>Another complaint I have about Hindustani tabla solo performances is
>>that they rely only on speed and "tricks" for the most part. I must
Now, now. What Milli Vanilli did was a "trick"! When I think of the
Tabla greats like Ahmed Jan Thirakwa (he got the title Thirakwa for
his mastery of Tabla - thiraknaa - 'to dance, swing', dancing with
fingers!), Alla Rakha or Samta Prasad or the current generation of
Swapan C. or Zakir H., the word "magical", comes to mind, not "tricks"!
There is a story about Pt. Samta Prasad's visit to Moscow in the '50's
where after a concert Bulganin examined his (SP's) fingers to see if they
had any mechanical devices attached to them that made them move so fast!
Incidentally, it was a documentary, "Magic at Fingertips" produced by
Jialal Vasant of Bombay's Vasant Kala Niketan about a bunch of kids
playing Tabla, that got me started in Tabla, when I was 9 or 10. And
the fact that my cousin was one of those kids in the documentary only
made it imperative that I go out, buy a Tabla and start learning it :-)
In any event, speed and a touch of flamboyance are a vital part of the
playfulness of percussion- something like the Ghatam player throwing
the Ghatam up in the air and catching it without missing a beat!
Speaking of which, I am delighted to see Tabla and Pakhaavaj being
included in the "Taala Vaadya Kacheri" (percussion ensemble), which is
very popular in Karnataki music. (Suresh Talwalkar has produced a pair
of cassettes of a Taala Vaadya Kacheri, with Tabla). Tabla is primarily
an accompanying instrument and the "solo", apart from short segments that a
Tabla player is allowed all for himself in a vocal or Sitar/Sarod concert,
is a relatively recent practice. So, it needs to evolve some more. But
the Taala Vaadya Kacheri, with a long tradition has a well laid out
set of rules and the Ghatam and Kanjira and the Mrdangam add contrast
and variety. It is interesting to see all five of these popular percussion
instruments of India, come together, in a full circle as it were.
Even though Tabla is (thought to be) named after an Arabic drum, 'tabl',
which itself is traced at least etymologically to the Akkadian 'tabaalu'
(Cf. Oxford History of Music), modern Tabla is most probably descended
from earlier drums of India. Its bols, the onomatopoeic syllables, like
dha, tin, tirikita, are all of course, descended from Pakhaavaj and
Mrdanga, and are all mentioned in Bharata's Naatya Shaastra (before
4th cent. A.D.) and Shaarngadeva's Sangeeta Ratnaakara (13th cent. A.D.).
Very little has changed since then !! The practice of applying a circular
plaster to the Tabla (syaahi/aak), to control the damping of its sounds,
is of course, common to Pakhaavaj, Tabla and Mrdanga. Bharata describes it
in detail, under "vilepana" (plaster, to apply). For Tabla, it is a paste
of flour, lampblack and sometimes, iron filings. Some think that
mrdanga got its name not from "clay-bodied", but from the dark clay that
was applied as syaahi. mrdanga has had a wooden barrel for a long time.
There are legends galore that credit Amir Khusro (134h-14th cent. A.D.)
with the creation of Tabla, by splitting the Pakhaavaj into two halves!!
The practice of attributing to Khusro, many things in Indian Music that were
not mentioned in the Sanskrit and non-Islamic texts on music, is an old one.
I suppose it was an act of Political Correctness and expediency for
those times :-) This however, in no way diminishes Khusro's great
contributions to the art and music of India - poetry, quwwaali, khamsa,
naat, etc... and his efforts in the synthesis of Hindu and Persian/Sufi
music styles that are documented.
The Arabic 'tabl' was a generic term for a drum, just as 'veena'
was a generic term for a stringed instrument in ancient India. I have
looked through a number of Moghul, Rajasthani and Kangra miniatures
but have not yet spotted the Tabla in any of them! Tabla probably
developed beside Khyaal and may be a hybrid of several types of small
drums; its playing style is obviously derived from Pakhaavaj and mrdanga
(cf. B.C. Deva's writings). Ektaal, very popular with Vilambit Khyaal
is thought to be a creation of Sadaarang, one of the founders of Khyaal,
in 1700's, and it shows the clear influence of Dhrupad/Pakhaavaj's chartaal.
It is very likely that Tabla has Indian origins but its name, Arabic.
Tabla-Bayan in its *present form* is probably not more than 200 years
old. Sidhhar Khan of Delhi is generally credited with developing it into
the principal accompaniment for Khyaal singing, in the last century.
Interestingly, Sourindro Mohun Tagore, the eminent musicologist of the
19th Cent. writes in the glossary of his compilation of musical essays,
"Hindu Music" (1882, pp. viii):
Tubla Small drums. ........ It is of modern invention.
It gets curiouser and curiouser!!
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Jayant Naik