Eight minutes, three items, one tihai
A candidate's practical slot is eight minutes, strictly timed. He plans: (i) a maseetkhani gat in Teental, vilambit, with two avartans of alaap and one avartan of jod; (ii) a razakhani gat in the same raga and Teental, with jhala; (iii) a Jhaptal gat carrying a tihai built on a four-matra phrase played three times, timed so that the last stroke falls on sam. His teacher times the rehearsal: the maseetkhani section alone takes 5 minutes 40 seconds, the razakhani 2 minutes 10 seconds, and the Jhaptal item 1 minute 30 seconds. The rubric allots marks separately for alaap, gat presentation with tala accompaniment, and tihai. He cannot extend the slot and does not want to drop the Jhaptal item, because Jhaptal is a prescribed tala. He asks which section to cut and how to place the Jhaptal tihai so that it does not go wrong under pressure.
1. Work out the time problem and recommend what to cut, with a defensible budget.
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The rehearsal total is 5:40 + 2:10 + 1:30 = 9:20 against an 8:00 slot, an overrun of 1:20 - and rehearsal timings always stretch under exam nerves, so he should plan to about 7:30 and keep thirty seconds in hand.
The marks structure decides where the cut falls. Alaap, gat presentation and tihai are marked separately, so all three must survive in some form; what can shrink is the quantity inside each.
- Alaap: reduce from two avartans to one avartan plus a short unmeasured vistar. This is the largest single saving, perhaps 1:30 to 2:00, and it costs least, because the rubric rewards shape and raga-bhava, not duration. A single avartan that rises from mandra Sa to the upper Ga and returns does the job.
- Jod: keep one avartan but slow the final third so it flows into the gat rather than being cut off.
- Razakhani and jhala: hold at about 1:45. Cutting jhala is a bad trade - it is the section where tala accompaniment and energy are most visible.
- Jhaptal item: keep at 1:00–1:15. It is a prescribed tala and it carries the tihai marks.
Resulting budget: about 2:15 alaap and jod, 1:45 razakhani, 1:15 Jhaptal, 1:00 for tuning and the initial tanpura check - roughly 7:15 of playing.
2. Where must the four-matra phrase begin in Jhaptal so that its third repetition ends on sam? Show the counting.
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Jhaptal has ten matras in 2 + 3 + 2 + 3. The tihai is 4 x 3 = 12 matras, which is longer than one avartan, so it cannot simply be started 'somewhere in the second half' - it must begin in the previous cycle.
Count backwards from the target. The final stroke is on sam, matra 1 of the new cycle. Working back twelve matras:
- the three repetitions occupy matras 9, 10 of the old cycle, then matras 1 to 10 of the new cycle;
- that is 2 + 10 = 12 matras, and the twelfth stroke is matra 1 - sam.
So the tihai must begin on matra 9 of the preceding avartan. In practice the player marks the entry by finishing the previous gat phrase so that matra 8 is a clean resting point and matra 9 begins the first repetition.
Two cautions. Matra 9 falls inside the last vibhag, so the tihai crosses the khali/tali pattern and the player must not let the drum's khali pull the phrase off course. And an alternative worth knowing: a three-matra phrase repeated three times gives 9, which starts on matra 2 and also lands on sam - useful if the four-matra version proves unstable at speed.
3. The candidate wants the Jhaptal item included only 'because Jhaptal is prescribed'. How should he justify its place in the programme beyond that, and what should the tihai demonstrate?
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'It is prescribed' is a scheduling reason, not a musical one, and an examiner will hear the difference. The Jhaptal item earns its ninety seconds if it demonstrates something the Teental items cannot.
Jhaptal's 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 grouping is asymmetrical, and a gat played in it shows that the candidate can hold a phrase across unequal vibhags instead of defaulting to four-square phrasing. That is a real skill and it is visible in a single minute. The item should therefore be chosen for its phrasing, not its speed: a madhya-laya gat whose mukhda leans on the long 3-matra vibhags makes the asymmetry audible.
The tihai should demonstrate calculation and control. A good exam tihai is played at a tempo where all twelve matras are clean, entered deliberately from a settled phrase, with the last stroke landing audibly on sam and the theka immediately continuing. A faster tihai that arrives early or late is worth nothing.
Finally, the candidate should be able to say in the viva why he placed the tihai on matra 9, and what would change if he used a three-matra phrase instead. That converts a risky item into evidence of understanding.