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Beat Subdivision in South Indian (Karnatic) Music: - Exploring The Concept of

Beat subdivision (nadai) is an important concept in South Indian (Karnatic) music that explores dividing each rhythmic unit (akshara) of a tala into a different number of inner pulses without changing the overall tempo. Nadai can be practiced through exercises like korvai that train musicians' sense of laya and ability to calculate rhythmic patterns in relation to the tala. Audio examples from a mridangam solo demonstrate smoothly transitioning between different nadai divisions like from chatusra to khanda or chatusra to tisra within a steady tempo. Nadai is a tool for rhythmic exploration, transposition of compositions, and developing nuanced timing

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100% found this document useful (1 vote)

593 views18 pages

Beat Subdivision in South Indian (Karnatic) Music: - Exploring The Concept of

Uploaded by

Pablo Ziffer

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Nadai - Exploring the Concept of

Beat Subdivision in South Indian

(Karnatic) Music

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
South Indian Classical (Karnatic) Music:
Overview

Bifurcation of Indian music into North (Hindustani) and South (Karnatic) -

c.13th Century (Mughal invasion)

Melodic framework - RAGA (“that which colors your mind”)

Rhythmic framework - TALA South India

Karnatic composers
- Puranadaradasa (15th C.)
- “Karnatic Trinity” Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar,
Syama Sastri (18th C.) - contribution to kriti song form;
composer “saints”

Laya - concept of temporal flow, temporal

space; “sense of laya” is of great importance

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
Tala : The Rhythmic Framework

Sarngadeva (author of Sangitaratnakara, 13th-Century music treatise): tala

as the root of every form of Indian music (vocal, instrumental, dance)

Tala is “an organized metric cycle composed of traditionally determined

rhythmic units and is performed through a series of conventional hand
gestures such as claps, finger counts, and waves” (Sankaran 1994: 9)

The underlying framework over which solos are played

Functions as both time-keeper (marking the pulse) and time-marker

(outlining ‘important beats’)

Serves as a rhythmic counterpoint to performed rhythmic patterns

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
Tala Dasa Pranas: 10 Elements of Tala theory

KALA - the division of time into units; a conceptual unit of time

MARGA - measure of the density of musical events; rhythmic construction or poetic setting of a
melody

KRIYA - method of indicating beats of a tala - sounded (sasshabda, e.g. hand clap) or unsounded
(nisshabda, e.g. hand wave)

ANGA - traditionally prescribed divisions or parts of a tala

akshara (1 beat), drutam (O - 2 aksharas; clap + wave)
anudrutam (U - 1 akshara; clap)
laghu (I - variable aksharas; clap + finger counts);
e.g. Adi Tala = Chatusra Triputa Tala (I4 O O) = 8 beats

JATI - “classification”; basic lengths of rhythmic units;

Chatusra (4) - “ta ka di mi”
Tisra (3) - “ta ki ta”
Khanda (5) - “ta ka ta ki ta”; “ta din gi na tom”; etc.
Misra (7) - “ta ki ta ta ka di mi”; “ta . din . gi na tom”
Sankirna (9) - “ta ka di mi ta ka ta ki ta”; “ta - din - gi - na - tom”; etc.

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
Tala Dasa Pranas: 10 Elements of Tala theory

GRAHA : position of the beginning of a composition - sam, sama, atita (before 1st beat of tala), anagata
(after 1st beat of tala)

KALAI : method of stretching a tala cycle exponentially, e.g., 2x, 4x, 8x; related to slower tempi

LAYA : the concept of time; tempo; the inwardly flow of rhythm; term under which nadai
is found
Varieties of Yati
YATI : geometric shapes that give form to various
arrangement of rhythmic patterns; can be applied
to text, melody, rhythmic patterns, etc

PRASTARA : “spread out” or elaboration; method gopuccha srotogata mrdanga

for dealing with logical and mathematical process
of permutations and combinations of rhythmic vishama
factors. e.g., 9 = 4+5, 3+6, 2+2+2+3, etc (random
configuration)

sama
damaru

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
Nadai − Beat subdivision
- Nadai (Tamil) / Gati (Sanskrit) = the rate of movement within each akshara of a tala; the number of
inner divisions of each akshara

From Trichy Sankaran’s “The Rhythmic Principles and Practice of South Indian Drumming” (Lalith
Publishers, 1994)
Nadai in Western Notation
- Nadai bedam = “The concept of changing
the inner pulse divisions governing the tala
aksharas in a cycle without changing the
tempo of the tala”

- “Perfect sense of laya, mathematical preci-

sion, and articulation are fully in demand for
a command over intricate nadai changes”

- “Maintaining a steady tempo for the tala

throughout a musical composition is one of
the stipulated principles of South Indian
performance practice.”

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
Features of Nadai

- practical performance aspect

- transposition tool - a exercise/solo can be “transposed”

into different nadais, revealing and creating different
rhythmic relationships between solo pattern and tala

- steady tempo (through keeping tala) must be maintained

during nadai change (audio samples)

- training tool for developing sense of laya

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
Application of nadai: Korvai exercises
“strung together”; complex cadential form consisting of various phrase structures
arranged in sequential order following the model of a yati (geometric shape)

Values of korvai exercises:

- traditionally prescribed cadential structures prevalent in Karnatic music
- training in rhythmic calculations of patterns in relation to tala (where the korvai begins within a tala)
- cultivate sense of laya through awareness of precise rhythmic spacing between patterns and within
patterns; recognize points of reduction (where the phrase is reduced)

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
“9-7-5-3” Korvai
in chatusra (4) and tisra (3) nadai

Wednesday, 23 October, 13
“tom-ta-tom” korvai:
chatusra(4), tisra(3), khanda(5) nadai