teental (north india)

time now to go back to an old blog exercise
for the sake of completeness if nothing else
songlines (world music) magazine being the inspiration
they published a very interesting article a number of issues back
documenting what they considered to be 50 rhythms of the world
so with the amazing resources of youtube i have gone one step further
for each rhythm i have found an appopriate clip and blogged it
i got up to 45 of 50 ages ago and then lost the plot
but spring is sprung and spring-cleaning is in order
so this project needs to be dusted off and finished
heres what the magazine had to say about teental

teental (north india) - it means a 16-beat cycle - that's 4/4
but there's nothing square about the flying fingers, ingenious cross-rhythms,
competitive exchanges and frantic build-ups
that feature in this most popular of north indian structures
all classical music operates within cycles of various lengths
which are easiest to follow in percussion
the tabla being the dominant instrument
performers often recite their compositions
in rapid bursts of syllables before playing them
traditionally the bowed sarangi accompanies a solo recital

songlines recommends memorable tabla duet by ustad alla rakha and zakir hussain
esne notes womadelaide visitors from a few years ago

the following clip in a short space of time demonstrates the above
furious finger work being the most dominant feature
also the use of the sarangi as accompaniment
my feeling is that this rhythm is best experienced live
late night, outdoors, warm air, altered consciousness stuff
sprawled out on the grass and taken away by this music
fond memories of the last act on many womad days
(46 of 50)