The Music of Hindostan c13.s3.49

c13.s3.49

It is difficult to prove this, because it is so hard to make the experiment fairly. But, for some reason best known to the builders, the wheels of railway carriages commonly beat out a tripleted rhythm, and the reader may have noticed that if he is not particularly attending to them (and so making the experiment a fair one) these take the form ◡ ú ◡, and not ú ◡ ◡ nor ◡ ◡ ú. However that may be, here is Indian verse on the one hand employing three equal syllables in succession followed by a rest ♩ ♩ ♩ ⁑, and Indian music on the other counting a bar of common time with three equal beats (tāl) and a blank, or empty (khālī) beat; and the curious fact that this blank beat comes invariably on the third of the bar which gives the exact effect of prosodical feet: | ◡ ú ◡ | ◡ ú ◡ |¹ Common time is, accordingly, called in the North invariably ‘three-beat’ (tintāl), the fourth beat being ‘empty’. The first of the bar, which bears the musical accent, is called sam ² (‘complete’, or ‘total’), because at that point the two independent rhythms of singer and drummer from time to time coincide. Time is ordinarily beaten with the hand upon the thigh (the singer is invariably seated), emphasizing the *sam* slightly, and beating in the air with upturned palm for the *khālī*. This method of beating is also applied to other times besides common time in a way which will appear presently.