Where does a 19-matra tihai actually begin?
A student will close his Teentaal khayal with a tihai built from a single five-matra phrase. He wants the phrase played three times, with a two-matra pause between repetitions, the last note of the third repetition landing exactly on sam. In rehearsal the tabla player begins the tihai on matra 2 of an avartan, it ends on matra 4, and the student accuses the tabla player of losing the tal. The examiner has also asked for two further options: one in which the tihai begins exactly on sam, and one in which it begins immediately after khali, both still resolving on sam. The student has fifteen minutes with the tabla player before the exam and cannot count past sixteen aloud without losing the laya. He needs a written count he can follow from the entry to sam.
1. At which matra must the 19-matra tihai begin for it to resolve on sam? Show the arithmetic and give the full count from the entry to the resolution.
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Length of the tihai. Three phrases of five matras plus two gaps of two matras: (3 × 5) + (2 × 2) = 15 + 4 = 19 matras.
Where it must start. If the final note falls on sam, the tihai begins 18 matras before sam. In Teentaal (16 matras) that is 18 − 16 = 2 matras before sam, i.e. matra 15 of the preceding avartan (the last vibhag, 13–16).
The count he should write down:
| Segment | Matras |
|---|---|
| Phrase 1 | 15, 16, 1, 2, 3 |
| Gap | 4, 5 |
| Phrase 2 | 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| Gap | 11, 12 |
| Phrase 3 | 13, 14, 15, 16, 1 (sam) |
Why the rehearsal failed. Starting on matra 2 gives: 2–6, gap 7–8, 9–13, gap 14–15, 16–1–2–3–4, so the tihai lands on matra 4. That is exactly the observed error. The arithmetic error is entering two matras late, not losing the tal: a 19-matra tihai can never resolve on sam if it begins on matra 1 or 2, because 19 is not congruent to 1 modulo 16 unless the entry is at matra 15.
Practical device: write the tihai in notation with matra numbers under each syllable and a bold × under the final note, and rehearse the entry only - from sam, count 1 to 14 aloud, enter on 15. Repeat ten times without singing the phrase.
2. Test the examiner's two extra options - tihai beginning on sam, and tihai beginning just after khali - against the same five-matra phrase and two-matra gaps. Which are possible, and what must change?
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The governing rule is: for a tihai to end on sam in a 16-matra cycle, its length L must satisfy entry = 2 − L (mod 16). Equivalently, L ≡ 1 (mod 16) for an entry on sam.
Option A: entry on sam. L must be 1, 17, 33 … The proposed shape gives L = 19, which cannot start on sam. To start on sam she must shorten the total to 17, i.e. keep the five-matra phrases but reduce the two gaps from two matras to one: 5 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 5 = 17, entry on sam, resolution on the sam of the next avartan. This is musically tighter and works well at drut laya.
Option B: entry just after khali (matra 10). Only 16 − 10 + 1 = 7 matras remain to sam, so L = 7. With three equal phrases and two two-matra gaps, 3p + 4 = 7 gives p = 1 - three single strokes separated by gaps, which no listener would hear as a tihai. Option B as stated is impossible.
Nearest workable substitutes:
- Three-matra phrases with two-matra gaps: 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 = 13, entry on matra 5 (the first tali). Good at medium laya.
- Four-matra phrases with two-matra gaps: 4 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 4 = 16, entry on matra 2.
- Keep entry after khali but make it a short 'chakradhar' style figure rather than a tihai, if the examiner will accept that.
She should present the 19-matra version as the main tihai and offer the 13-matra version as the alternative, and state plainly why the post-khali request cannot be met with the same phrase.
3. The tabla player says, 'I will follow your hand.' Why is that unsafe here, and what should the student agree with the tabla player before the performance?
Read the worked answer
Why hand-following is unsafe. In a tihai the tabla player is not accompanying a melodic line; he is executing a fixed rhythmic object whose entry matra determines whether the resolution is on sam. If he waits for a hand signal, the signal itself takes a fraction of a matra, and at drut laya a fraction becomes a full matra. The failure mode is not a wrong note but a resolution one or two matras away from sam - the most audible error in the whole performance. In the rehearsal the entry was already one matra late, which suggests the signal, not the counting, was the weak link.
What to agree, in the fifteen minutes available:
- Fix the entry matra in writing (15 for the main tihai; 5 or 2 for the alternatives).
- Agree a vocal cue - a slight lengthening of the last note before the entry, or a spoken 'tin' - plus a nod on the entry itself, but the nod confirms, it does not initiate.
- Agree who counts. Better: the tabla player keeps the theka and counts; the student sings the phrase. If both count aloud, they will diverge.
- Rehearse the last avartan only, three times, then stop. Do not rehearse the whole bandish.
- Agree a fallback: if the entry is missed, both continue to the next sam and end together rather than trying to squeeze the tihai in.
The principle is that a tihai is a shared count, not a cue-response.