Introduction to Laya and Tala

We have previously explored the frequency related concepts in the Introduction to Shruti post. Now we shall move on to explore the time based aspect of Carnatic music. The two terms which concern this matter are Laya and Tala.

 Laya

Each peak in the waveform separated by a length of time

This term refers to the repetitive nature of any activity or phenomenon. It roughly corresponds to the English word ‘rhythm‘. Laya is all around us in nature. The heart-beat has a laya to it, as does the ticking of a clock, as do the seasons of  year, or even the gait of person. In what other situations can you observe rhythm in nature?

In music, laya is the process where sounds are separated by time. If you were asked to clap for a duration of ten seconds, one can observe that each clap would be spaced out by some amount of time. So this nature of repetition of events which are spaced out by some time is called laya. Laya is not just confined to percussive sounds. Melody has rhythm too, the movement from one musical note to the other has a sense of time to it.

Tala

It is a cyclical way of observing a rhythm. It serves as the structured rhythmic meter to measure musical time-intervals. A clock can tick away for a length of time. Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick……..But we can divide the very same ticks into repetitive groups, or meters.

• [Tick -1, Tick-2, Tick-3][ Tick -1, Tick-2, Tick-3][Tick -1, Tick-2, Tick-3]…………..This meter (or Tala) is 3 ticks long
• [Tick -1, Tick-2, Tick-3, Tick 4][ Tick -1, Tick-2, Tick-3, Tick 4][Tick -1, Tick-2, Tick-3, Tick 4]……………This meter is 4 ticks long
• And so on…..

So tala is the cyclical or metric way of observing a laya. It is similar to western concept of a time measure. We shall explore the structure of the tala system and its complexities in future posts.