Tansen Samaroh 2023

99^th World Music Festival: Tansen Samaroh 2023 (Dec 22-28) is currently under way at Gwalior, UNESCO Heritage City of Music.

Taal Darbar

On Dec 25, a Special Session: Taal Darbar[i] was held where 1282 Tabla artists played together to earn for the event a Guinness Book of World Records. 

Chief Minister, MP announced that 25^th December would henceforth be celebrated as Tabla Divas.

Teen Taal

Dainik Bhaskar reported that the Tabla players had played Teen Taal. Teen Taal is one of the most popular taals, the others being Ektal, Jhaptal, Rupak, Kaharwa, and Dadra.

Why was Teen Taal chosen for Taal Darbar? I guess it was a conscious decision by the Co-ordinators of the event upon the advice of music and tabla maestros, possibly to ensure harmony; not an easy task when 1282 players are performing in a vast field under the open sky.

Teen Taal has 16 Beats/Matras or Pulses with 4 vibhagas or segments each of 4 Beats (4-4-4-4), with vibhagas1, 2, and 4  stressed and vibhaga 3 unstressed. Should that appear too esoteric, the music maestros have devised an elegant method to convey the four segments of this Taal through simple gestures of the palm: Taali (Clap) - Taali - Khaali or Empty conveyed by a Wave of the palm (no Taali) - Taali. Additional oral clues, called thekas, for this Taal are:

(Dha-Dhin-Dhin-Dha) (Dha-Dhin-Dhin-Dha) (Dha-Tin-Tin-Ta) (Tata-Dhin-Dhin-Dha).

How very simple, yet elegant. No need for the music score to be written or referred to by the Guru or the chelas. You have, of course, seen several singers conveying the taal to the accompanying musicians through these simple claps and thekas.

Teen Taal Tabla Lesson

Link for this lesson on You Tube, uploaded by 'Singing with Charu': 

https://youtu.be/RRbYWq6tyuM?si=v1_KcE3WW8WhvVjl

Zakir Hussain 

A link for Teen Taal performance by Tabla Maestro Padma Bibhushan Zakir Hussain is given in the end notes.[ii]

Further Readings

For those who may be interested to know more about northern Hindustani Classical music, and particularly about Taal, links are given in end notes for further Readings.[iii]

Link for my blog (Nov 5): Thus Sang Tansen: https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2023/11/thus-sang-tansen.html

Largest Concert

As per Guinness, the largest concert by Town Musicians of Bremen involved 1,499 participants in an event organised by Bremer LeseLust (Germany) in Bremen, Germany on 13 July 2007.

I do not have the details, but I guess the musicians of Bremen played a variety of musical instruments, and not a single percussion instrument like the Tabla played at Taal Darbar.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-concert-by-town-musicians-of-bremen

Longest Tabla Solo Performance

Jagjit Singh, Taal Music Academy, Canada claims to have played Tabla solo for 5 days-5 nights (110 hrs) for Guinness Record (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo_kl8zv3a0).

However, I could not locate this Record in Guinnessworldrecords.com

Postscript

I thank Department of Culture, Govt. of MP for sharing the following facts regarding Taal Darbar:

Total ensemble =1628

Tabla Artists =  1535

Stewards =70

Time-keepers = 3

Lehra = 20

Total tabla artists qualified by Guinness World record = 1276

Gwalior Tabla Artists= 429

 

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[i] Link for MP Tourism video of the event: https://youtu.be/W8rqDUUC1Mc?si=mZfgsSiZjhegmHMx

 

[ii] https://youtu.be/WvF1T5vq-Wc?si=H88A3jwOYvM2Mnng

 

[iii] Taal in Hindustani Classical Music

“Taals are the most important element of Hindustani Classical Music. They are, essentially, time measuring devices, which are formed using various matras. This special musical meter is represented through Taali and Khaali, which are represented by clapping and waving the hand to one side respectively. The concept of Taals is ancient and dates back to the Vedic Period.” (https://www.taalgyan.com/taals/ )

Taal: Concepts & Definitions

https://digitabla.com/reference/concepts-and-definitions/tal/