In Hindustani, there are 10 main forms of styles of singing and compositions -- Dhrupad, Dhamar, Hori, Khayal, Tappa, Chaturang, raga' agar, Tarana, Sargam and Thumri. The Dhrupad style is supposed to be the oldest. In this style, we find the gravity and stability of notes, improvisations of Alap, peculiar variations of rhythmic patterns not found in any other styles. There are four forms of Dhrupad singing -- Daagar Bani, Khandaar Bani, Nauhar Bani and Gauhar Bani.
Khayal is an extempore development and improvisation of the typical composition sung in different raga' with alap, boltaan and taans. Khayals are of two varieties -- Vilambit(slow tempoed) and Drut(fast tempoed). They are sung in different talas.
Tappa is another style of song composition, which has short and modulated graceful taans: a sort of ornamental chain of small cluster of notes.
raga'agar consists of different parts of musical passages in different raga', as one song composition. These compositions have 8 to 12 different raga' and the lyrics indicate the change of the raga'. The peculiarity of this style depends on how smoothly the musical passages change along with the change of raga'.
Tarana is a style consisting of peculiar syllables woven into rhythmical patterns as a song, and it is usually sung in faster tempo.
Chaturang denotes four colours or a composition of a song in four parts: Fast Khayal, Tarana, Sargam and a ``Paran" of Tabla or Pakhwaj.
Thumri is supposed to be a romantic and erotic style of singing; the song compositions are mostly of love, separation and devotion. They are usually sung in slower tempo, giving more importance to the lyrics with short alaps.
Hori compositions are based mostly on the description of the spring season: of colour throwing, based on the Radha-Krishna episodes. Horis are of two varieties -- ``Pakki Hori" and ``Kacchi Hori". ``Pakki Hori" is very dignified, sung in Dhamar style, while ``Kacchi Hori" is sung in Deepchandi tala, in which fast taans are used.
The laws governing the performance of vocal and instrumental music are much the same. There are 2 modes of training for instrumental, one which is purely instrumental, and the other who first receive training in vocal music.
The Gharana or family is a school of a particular style of singing or playing instruments, or a traditionally characteristic individual style. The birth of Gharanas must have taken place in the 18th century with the idea of preserving the tradition of music and the musical compositions. A Gharana has got a particular discipline, system and style. The character and style of traditionally disciplined music of a gharana remains with one generation only, and in due course one of the brilliant pupils adds his own individual contribution and creates a new style of singing.
In the case of the instrumentalists, we may divide Gharana into 2 categories. The first is the traditional disciplined style giving more stress on the ``JHOD-ALAP" and exploring all possibilities in this direction, plus the gat and a perfect Layakari. The second gives less importance to the ``JHOD-JHALA", but lays more stress on the gat and the perfect Layakari.
tala -- RHYTHMICAL GROUPINGS OF BEATS
There is a perfect balance in the universe. This balance is the essence of tala and therefore tala is in classical music is an important factor. The tala is the theory of time measure. It has the same principle in Hindustani and Carnatic music, though the names and styles differ. The musical time is divided into simple and complicated meters. When accompanying the dance, vocal and instrumental music, the tala maintains the balance which is the most essential function of music. tala is independent of the music it accompanies: it has its own divisions. It moves in bars, and each beat in it is divided into the smallest fraction.
Rhythm has three aspects: tala, Laya and Mantra. tala is a complete cycle of Metrical phrase composed of a fixed number of beats. There are over a 100 talas, but only 30 talas are known and only about 10-12 are used.
The Laya is the tempo, which keeps uniformity of time span and it has 3 divisions -- Vilambit, Madhya and Drut.
The Mantra. is the smallest unit of the tala.
tala is the most important aspect of classical music, and it can be considered to be the very basis or pulse of music. To appreciate the structure of simple and complicated divisions, the improvisations of tala and its theory, one should listen to an accomplished solo drummer. A classical drum player requires at 8-10 years of methodical training and another 4-5 years of hard practice.
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