Listen: Tabla virtuoso Swapan Chaudhuri accompanies a gat set to a cycle of 8½ matras

Among the less commonly heard taals that are used by instrumentalists for vilambit gats or slow-paced instrumental compositions are those that employ fractions of complete matras or time-units. For instance, taals that have quarter-, half- or three-quarter matras, fall in this category.

The uneven nature of the total number of matras and the gait of the taal understandably pose a challenge to performers. But in the hands of a master musician, such taals seem deceptively easy to negotiate and not far removed from the experience with more commonly heard taals.

The ability of such a musician to move beyond numbers and create a chhand or groove for the taal is what makes such taals accessible even to less informed listener. Needless to say, this requires a deep immersion of the musician in the risky waters of the taal stream.

Equally, it requires consummate skill on the part of the tabla player to navigate his or her way through these waters.

Listeners can hear the manner in which renowned tabla virtuoso Swapan Chaudhuri enters a dialogue with sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan in this gat set to Jhampak, a rhythmic cycle of 8½ matras.

The tabla enters with a very short tihai before laying out the theka. The gat is in...

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