The Music of Hindostan c13.s3.89

c13.s3.89

Āṭa is one of the more difficult rhythms. This particular example seems to us almost impossible. We lose our bearings in the course of fourteen crotchets divided into semiquavers, especially at such a tempo as this, and with all sorts of cross-rhythms in the ‘bowing’. The slurs really represent the syllables of words; and this tune is actually sung, and sounds very puzzling but very interesting. The Āvard is divided into four groups (marked I, II, III, IV), and the phrase, which is the same length as the Āvard but does not coincide with it, begins and ends at the third beat of the first group. (Mind the flat!)