Listen: Tabla accompaniment to instrumental recitals in Rupak

In our current series related to tabla accompaniment to Hindustani music and dance performances, we have been discussing the role of the tabla player while accompanying instrumental recitals. While focusing on the entry of the tabla in the vilambit gat or slow composition, we had listened to different approaches in negotiating the 16-matra Teentaal and the 10-matra Jhaptaal.

Today, we will listen to some tracks featuring vilambit gats set to the seven-matra Rupak. Interestingly, while the total number of matras or time-units in Rupak is seven, instrumentalists often prefer to have the sthayi or the first line of the gat spreading over two avartans or cycles of seven.

Thus, while instrumentalists have the liberty to improvise over one or more cycles of seven matras, the tabla players are expected to improvise while maintaining a cycle of 14 matras (two cycles of Rupak). Perhaps, a seven-matra cycle is considered too short to establish the sthayi of the gat, and this has probably led to a practice of using a canvas of 14 matras or two cycles of Rupak for the composition.

In the first track, listeners will observe celebrated sitar maestro Nikhil Bannerjee playing a sthayi in the raag Bhimpalasi that spreads over two cycles of seven matras....

Read more