
- There were two main kinds of
in the early nineteenth century: the
,
which focussed on a highly flexible melodic interpretation of the text;
and the
which specialized in rhythmic manipulations of melody and text. Whereas
the popular
had more commonly been set in shorter structures of six ( ),
seven ( )
and eight counts
the
used for
compositions comprised mainly fourteen or sixteen counts (see Figure
5). As Manuel has shown (145-52), little separates fourteen- from
sixteen-count
,
and since performance practice used to favor their flexible rhythmic
interpretation they may in fact have been one and the same thing. Confusingly,
both are called
or (latterly) ,
and
is another word sometimes encountered.
- Structural evidence suggests few differences between
of eight and sixteen counts (see Figure
6). In essence they all move in pitch from low to high, or from
(full) to
(empty), and back again. The quality of fullness is conveyed by the
presence of the bass drum, which is represented by voiced syllables
such as the phonemes
and ;
emptiness is suggested by the absence of the bass, and the corresponding
unvoiced syllables such as
and .
First, these are not additive structures but rather divisive, based
on their internal hierarchy: all of these sixteen-count
could be, and indeed often are, counted as eight or four beats, and
the eight-count varieties as four or two beats. Second, these are not
quantitative structures but rather qualitative, based on the means they
use to realize this: their variable pitch, stress, and timbral qualities
can be seen to follow almost identical patterns of organization, which
I have tried to show by vertical alignment. One notes the -oriented
changes in pitch, a strategy that highlights the tendency for the all-important
(the only surviving Arabic/Persian term among Sanskrit ones) to fall
halfway through the patterns. When conceived as fours the final
prepares the return to
with a contrasting musical signal. Since greatest contrast is achieved
through pitch differentiation, the fourth
often includes the return of the bass drum. Sometimes, too, contrast
is conveyed by density: a cadential flourish of more rapid strokes.
- If we observe Figure
6 closely, the folk/popular-derived
and
might not look very much alike in all their details, but they do share
certain structural properties: they move from
to
using sequences of
that are almost identical in their pitch and stress contours. Their
similarities become even more apparent when examined in relation to
the slower
is a folk dance from Rajasthan/Punjab) which, it could be argued, combines
the cadential features of both the others. In turn, 's
relationship to the stately
(a hill fortress in the Punjab) and the primary
of
(
is a folk dance from the Punjab hills) is unmistakeable.
and
are really varieties of the same thing, but with different rhythmic
emphases within the :
both disguise the pulse, especially when the former is played in the
now extinct
(limping) style (see Manuel 149-50). The purpose of such rhythmic ambiguity
is probably to accommodate irregular melodic phrasing through sensitive
accompaniment, and an important contributor to this is the variable-pitch
stroke (Stewart 368). And thus one sees the connection between these
and ,
which also has the delightful name of "the donkey's tail ":
mimics accurately elements of pitch and stress not immediately obvious
in the notation.
- The distinctly swinging, lilting
was one of the direct precursors of ,
and even Bhatkhande referred to the latter as
(11). The other was known as
,
or simply ,
and was notated by Imam in the mid-nineteenth century (190). The name
also appeared regularly on early twentieth-century recording labels,
in fact much more so than the term
(see Kinnear 1994). Although
means "slow", these early recordings show that its pace was what we
would now think of as
(medium-fast tempo): roughly 200 beats per minute. Recorded tabla accompaniments
from this era show a strong tendency to integrate the rhythmic features
and stroke patterns of both
and
.
Fast 's
indebtedness to
is undeniable, since it tends to use the recited phrase
rather than the more cumbersome
that is more suitable at slower speeds. Fast
also mimics effectively the " "
(footwork) patterns of the kathak dancer. Fast
is nearly always reverted
to at the conclusion of a
where, in the past, the singer and/or members of the dance troupe were
expected to dance in quick tempo as the final refrain of the song was
repeated.
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