The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c9.25

c9.25

As in European music each period is complete in itself, being clearly marked by the tâlas, which divide the different periods into regular or irregular sections, as the case may be, following each other in definite and regular order. The periods differ only from those commonly found in European music in that they may consist, if necessary, of an uneven number of sections or measures, the tâla itself often being irregular, owing to the employment of mixed times. Hence when Indian music is written in ordinary notation there will be a regular rotation corresponding to the tâla, of bars each of which may have a different time signature. A reference to the list of tâlas upon page 36 will explain this more readily than any words can. These periods or phrases are often extended by the addition of a few notes leading up to the commencing note of the phrase, or by being terminated with a small cadence or codetta which may be either a repetition or imitation of what has gone before, or may lead up to the next phrase.