TALA

in the music of India and Pakistan, a metric cycle with a specific number of beatsfrom 3 to 128that recur in the same pattern throughout a musical performance. Tala might generally be equated with rhythm or metre, although the tala procedure has no precise counterpart in Western music. Within the pattern the beats are not necessarily grouped in identical subunits, as in common Western practice, but might occur in asymmetrical groups. Even in cases in which subunits are numerically identical, each such group is functionally different. The tala known as tin-tala, for example, consists of 16 beats and might superficially resemble the Western 4/4 metre, for it is divided into groups of four. Each four-beat group, however, has a different degree of emphasis, the strongest being the first group (the opening beat of which, the sam, is the most emphatic of the 16) and the weakest being the third (the first beat of which is called khali, or open beat). Thus, each tala has a character of its own, determined not only by the number of the beats but also by the subdivision of beats into small units with different points of stress. Just as the scalar-melodic structure of the raga (q.v.; melodic framework) gives the performer a basis for melody, the tala provides the undeviating framework for rhythmic improvisation. Generally, the tala is given expression by an accompanying drummer; but the rhythmic cycles are maintained in the mind of the melodic soloist in any case and are ever present, whether or not audibly performed.