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Discourses in Music: Volume 2 Number 2 (Winter 2000-2001)

On Musicians' Speech About Music: Musico-Linguistic Discourse of Tabla Players

By Lowell Lybarger

Introduction

In his recent monograph Text and Act, Richard Taruskin aptly summarizes the common attitude that many musicians hold concerning those who make their living by reading, writing and talking about music:

Dmitri Shostakovich once had a good laugh over a definition of a musicologist he had heard at breakfast one day from his piano teacher, and repeated it all his life. "What's a musicologist? I'll tell you. Our cook, Pasha, prepared the scrambled eggs for us and we are eating them. Now imagine a person who did not cook the eggs and does not eat them, but talks about them - that is a musicologist."1

Taruskin concludes that "musicologists and performers are on better terms now than ever before..."2, but like Shostakovich he fails to mention that musicians themselves also talk about music. Speech acts concerning music create momentary common sense out of the polysemic chaos of musical communication. Speech about music is a natural feature of musical activity, whether it occurs before, during, or after a performance. Music and speech have a symbiotic relationship that can be viewed more holistically as musico-linguistic experience. This paper is a brief examination of how musicians speak about music, specifically the musico-linguistic discourse of tabla players from the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. I will reflect on my own conversations with musicians and provide analyses of recorded live concerts. The main question I ask does not concern the similitude of music and speech in human communication and cognition, but rather the impact each has on the other in musical experience.

The Musical Mode of Discourse

One of the primary features of my interviews with tabla players was what ethnomusicologists call the "musical mode of discourse"3. This form of communication was primarily "musical" insofar as the semantic content of the conversation was formed outside of speech, and was largely ccomplished through the drum language that tabla players employ known as bol. Bol-s are spoken, onomatopoeic syllables used to represent actual drum strokes, and are an integral feature of the oral/aural transmission of music. Examples include syllables such as dha, dhin, kat, tu, na or more elaborate phrases such as takitadhin -nakita dhit-ta- kiranaga. One of my first examples of the musical mode of discourse was during an interview with two tabla players, Ustad Mohammad Tufail and his student Zahid Farani, which took place in Islamabad, Pakistan in 1994. When I asked Mohammad Tufail to define a specific genre of tabla music, a gat-tora, he laughed, wondering why I would ask such a question. I was dumbstruck by his laughter, and while I stammered, he recited a flourish of tabla sounds Click here for MP3 audioclip.

Ustad Muhammad Tufail, Zahid Farani (student), Lowell Lybarger, Islamabad 1994

Lowell Lybarger: What is a gat-tora?

Mohammad Tufail: What is a gat-tora? (chuckles)

Zahid Farani: Why did you ask that?

Lowell Lybarger: Because um...sometimes people this call this paran and they call it gat-tora. I'm just trying to see what the different...uh....(stammering)...uh...huh.

Mohammad Tufail:

dhiredhire kttk / taka taka / taka taka / dhiredhire kttk /

dha

(Pause)

dhiredhire kttk / taka         taka   / taka   taka   / dhiredhire kttk /
dha         -       / dhiredhire kttk   / take     -ta    / ke-          taka /
dha-tr      kttk   / dhiredhire kttk  / dha-   taka   / dha-tr       kttk /
dhiredhire kttk   / dha-        taka   / dha -tr kttk / dhiredhire kttk /

dha

Zahid Farani: bas ("enough, end of discu sion")

An important issue that arises from this example concerns my pre-existing knowledge of tabla music. Mohammad Tufail knew from the outset that I had studied tabla for several years, knew what bol-s were, and had some understanding of the esoteric musical structures of the solo repertoire. Perhaps this is why he readily engaged in a musical 'discussion' with me and found this mode to be the most appropriate. Indeed, the interview would likely have been entirely different had I possessed only a rudimentary knowledge of tabla.

The next musical example demonstrates the musical mode of discourse taken to its fullest extent. The setting is a tabla solo by the late Ustad Bashir Hussain Goga in a large hotel room in Lahore, Pakistan in the late 1980s. According to Goga's son, Amanat Ali, the audience consisted entirely of musicians, including some of Pakistan's greatest: the late Ustad haukat Hussain Khan, Ustad Tari Khan, Ustad Altaf Hussain 'Tafo' Khan, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. This excerpt is from a theme and variations genre known as qaida. Some audience members respond knowledgeably at critical moments in the performance of these variations through interjections such as 'ah' and 'vah'. To finish the qaida, Bashir Hussain Goga performs a cadential formula known as tihai which is of considerable arithmetic complexity: a highly valued aesthetic among the Punjabi tabla players of Pakistan and India. Fittingly, the audience responds at the end of this threefold formula with exclamations of praise for a stunning demonstration of rhythmic acrobatics Click here for MP3 audioclip.

Ustad Bashir Hussain Goga "Qaida" Lahore, Pakistan, late 1980s

tala (rhythm): tintal (sixteen counts)

accompanying instrument: harmonium

cycle one: theme in single speed

dhin---     gira naga / dhinga naga gina naga / tira kita dha- ghege  / naga tine nana gena /
dha- dha- gira naga / dhine dhine dhine ta-   / tira kita dha- ghege / naga tine nana gena /
tin---        kira naka / tinga naka kira naka   / tira kita ta- keke      / naka tine nana k na /
dha- dha- gira naga / dhine dhine dhine ta-  / tira kita dha- ghege  / naga tine nana gena /

cycle two: theme in double speed

dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga / tir kita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /
 tin--- kiranaka tinganaka kiranaka       / tirakita ta-keke nakatine nanakena       nbsp;/ dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /
dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena  / dha-dha- giranaga dhine hine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /
 tin--- kiranaka tinganaka kiranaka       / tirakita ta-keke nakatine nanakena       / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /

cycle three: variation one

dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giradhin- / dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga dhin-dhin-  / dhin--- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta-    / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /
dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena      / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /
 thin- - -kiranaka tinganakakiradhin-    / dhin - - - giranaga dhinganagadhin-dhin- / dhin--- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta-   / tirakita dha-gh ge nagatine nanagena /
dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena       / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /

cycle four: variation two

dha-tira kitadha- giranaga dhinganaga / tirakita dha-gira nagadhine nanagena  / dha-tira kitataka  dha---  dha-tira           kitataka dha-tira kitataka dha---/
dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga   / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena/
 ta-tira kitata-  giranaga  tinganaga         / tirakita ta-gira nagatine nanagena        / ta-tira   kitataka   ta---   ta-tira         &nbs ;      / kitataka ta-tira kitataka ta--- /
dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga  / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena  / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /

cycle five: tihai (cadential formula)

 [dhin--- giranaga dhinganaga giranaga  / tirakita dha-gira nagadhine nanagena / dha-dha- giranaga dhinedhine dhineta-     / tirakita dha-ghege nagatine nanagena /
dhinedhine dhineta- tirakita dha-ghege  / nagatine nanagena na-na- ge-na-        / na-na-   ge-na-   na-ti-   kat-ta                    / dha--- na-na- ge-na- na-na- /
ge-na-   na-ti-   kat-ta-   dha---               / na-na-   ge-na- nbsp;  na-na-   ge-na-          / na-ti-   kat-ta-   dha---]   [dhin---               / giranaga dhinganaga giranaga tirakita/
 / giranaga dhinedhine dhineta- tirakita  / dha-ghege nagatine nanagena dhinedhine / dhineta- tirakita dha-ghege nagatine /

cycle six: tihai (cadential formula) continued

nanagena   na-na-   ge-na-   na-na-       / ge-na-     na-ti-      kat-ta-       dha---      / na-na-         ge-na-      na-na-    ge-na-       / na-ti-     kat-ta-      dha---     na-na-/
 ge-na-       na-na-    ge-na-   na- ti-     &nb p; / kat-ta-     dha---]   [dhin---     giranaga   / dhinganaga giranaga  tirakta    dha-ghege / nagatine nanagena dha-dha- giranaga/
dhinedhine dhineta- tirakita dha-ghege / nagatine nanagena dhinedhine dhineta- / tirakita        dha-ghege nagatine nanagena / na-na-    ge-na-     na-na-     ge-na-/
na-ti-        kat-ta-     dha---   na-na-      
/  ge-na-    na-na-    ge-na-       na-ti-        / kat-ta-        dha---         na-na-    ge-na-      / na-na-    ge-na-      na-ti-      kat-ta- /

 dha (praise and applause)

Mode Switching: The Musical and Verbal Modes Combined

In the previous two examples we have dealt with musical modes of discourse where musicians perform for other musicians. What then happens when a tabla player performs for an audience lacking the structural knowledge of solo genres? As the next examples will show, they invariably talk about their music as a means of helping their audiences relate to it. In some instances they modify or bandon the traditional genres solo tabla. Yogesh Samsi, a well-known performer from Bombay, performed in Seattle, WA in 1991. Here, he plays a rapidly-articulated genre known as rela, and he uses the image of a train to engage the audience Click here for MP3 audioclip.

Yogesh Samsi, "Rela" Seattle, WA, 1991

tala (rhythm): tintal (sixteen beats) harmonium accompaniment, Sharad Gadre

Yogesh Samsi: I'll now play a rela. Rela is a continuous movement of one bol, one syllable. The word rela came from the word rel gari. Rel gari means train in India. And the train, when it moves, makes one sound only, on the track. Keeps going on making one sound. So that's how the term rela has come. ontinuous movement of one particular bol.

rela performance:

cycle one: theme (chalan) in single speed

dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / 
dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na /
dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na /
dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na /

cycle one: theme (chalan) in single speed

dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na /
dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na /
dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na /
dhi te dhin dhin / dhi te na na / dha dhin dha kite / taka ta- tira kita /

cycle one: theme (chalan) in double speed

dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana /
dhitedhindhin dhitena a / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana /
dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana /
dhitedhindhin dhitenan / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / dhitedhindhin dhitenana / kitedha- trkt takataka trkt /

cycle one: rela

dha-dhin- trkt dha-tr    / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr /
kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr /
kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr /
kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr / kttk dhin-tr kttk dha-tr /

The next example also involves a sonic imitation of a train, this time performed by Ustad Tari Khan, a Pakistani tabla player of international renown who currently lives in the United States. Unlike Yogesh Samsi, Tari Khan dispenses with the traditional tabla repertoire altogether and attempts to perform an iconic representation of a train. In other words, Tari Khan strives for literal imitation instead of finding a close correlation from within the rich repertoire of rela-s. The performance took place in Washington DC for a lay audience that was primarily South Asian Click here for MP3 audioclip.

Ustad Tari Khan, "The Train" Washington DC, Early 1990s

Unaccompanied, Free Rhythm

Ustad Tari Khan: So, I will play the train. It's a very old item. So, I will present it. In India and Pakistan we have old engines. I have created the effect [of these old trains]. A lot of people have appreciated it. I will play a little of this, with Khan Saheb's [permission]. This is an old engine. How does it leave the station? Slowly, slowly it gets faster. What was its [sound] effect? The old engine? Steam engine.

performance: train effects; (purely iconic)

audience response / cheers

The final example is of Ustad Zakir Hussain, unquestionably the most famous tabla player at present. A large part of Zakir Hussain's success can be attributed to his ingenious verbal descriptions about solo tabla music for lay audiences. The following excerpt is from a tabla duet of Zakir Hussain with his legendary father, the late Ustad Allah Rakha. The concert took place at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1992. Zakir Hussain began with a ten-minute speech about the traditions, styles and performance practice of solo tabla music. Throughout the duet, Zakir Hussain interjected numerous commentaries on and explanations of the abstract musical structures that he and his father performed. One was the rela genre. Zakir Hussain offered two images to describe rela: first an iconic performance of a flood similar to Tari Khan's train solo, and then an indexical-iconic performance of the train, similar to Yogesh Samsi's rela performance Click here for MP3 audioclip.

Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustad Allah Rakha, tabla duet 1992 Seattle

Ustad Sultan Khan, sarangi (bowed lute) accompaniment

Zakir Hussain: So, rela..the word rela comes...there are two definitions. When a dam breaks, there is an Urdu word (phrase): rela aya meaning the water gushed in. So that's one representation.

performance: trkt rela flourish (fade in and fade out) (purely iconic)

Zakir Hussain: The other is. They said when the steam engine pulled into..Nagpur...at a superfast speed of twelve miles per hour. So the maharaja in those [days] told his court musicians please compose a rhythmic composition for this memorable occasion. So he took the syllable (bol) dhiredhire and composed a drum roll-like composition and of course the maharaj in his own wisdom gave tha composition on the word rel, rela. So here's a rela. performance:

Demonstration of the bol dhiredhire followed by traditional dhiredhire rela.

 

Comparison and Summary

In these recorded examples of Tari Khan, Yogesh Samsi, and Zakir Hussain, musical meaning has been shaped through speech that the music 'itself' does not provide. This interplay of music and speech provides a good example of the well-known Peircian semiotic theory of the tripartite structure of the sign, namely icon, index and symbol.4 Examples of musical iconicity include a literal representation of nonmusical sounds are Tari Khan's performance of a train and Zakir Hussain's performance of a flood. Examples of musical indexicality combined with musical iconicity are Yogesh Samsi's performance of a traditional genre, the rela, the structure of which points to the sound of a train but is not intended to be a literal representation. The same holds true for Zakir Hussain's imagery of a train in his performance of a rela.

In these examples of musical iconicity and indexicality, one wonders if the semiotic process would occur without the verbal mode of discourse. In the case of Tari Khan's purely iconic enactment of a train, audiences would probably hear the image of a train speeding up without Tari Khan's prefatory speech. In the case of Yogesh Samsi's rela, train imagery may or may not occur for the audience, largely due to Samsi's primary intent in performing a traditional tabla genre. Finally, in the example of Zakir Hussain's train image of rela, the iconic gesture is arguably more like the sound of a helicopter than a train.

The most crucial issue that these three examples raises concerns the recent changes in tabla solo performance practice within the past thirty years. We have seen in the first and second examples that traditional knowledge and musical communication between tabla players is largely within the musical mode of discourse, an example of what the eminent musicologist Charles Seeger called "music knowledge of music".5 With the recent changes of performance context from musician audiences to non-musician audiences, one can see a shift from the syntactical, symbolic meanings of traditional tabla solo music to iconic and indexical meanings created through a musical and verbal mode-switching. In the case of Tari Khan's performance, we see a total abandonment of traditional genres in favor of musical communication that will appeal to non-musician audiences. One might consider this latter example as pandering to unsophisticated listeners, but musicians have to eat and pay rent. Indubitably, this new 'gimmick' genre is the result of the rise of the tabla as a solo instrument in the late twentieth century for audiences that are not only South Asian but also lack the specialist knowledge of these musicians. A new musical semiotic system of tabla is indeed arising and its success largely hinges on the fact that musicians talk about music.

Transcription System

Transcribing solo tabla music poses a special challenge because it involves reconciling the oral notation (bol) of compositions with actual performance practice. Tabla players frequently do not match the spoken bol with the played bol. My prescriptive transcription system for this paper does not take into account this complex dimension. Instead, I have chosen to use a minimal set of symbols and organizing principles, giving the reader a basic, 'gestalt' of the performance.

The minimal temporal units of the cyclical time structure (tala) are grouped by a red backward slash /. Subdivisions of a unti are indicated by a dash ( - ). For example, a bol phrase might appear thus:   dha - / thuna / kitetaka / ta - / .    The sixteen beat tala, tintal is grouped into four sections of four units and the first time unit of each cycle is highlighted in yellow:

 

tintal

 

    /  2   /  3   /  4   /

  5   /  6  /  7   /   8   /

  9  /  10  / 11 /  12   /

  13 /  14 /  15 /  16  /

 

 


Select Bibliography

Feld, Steven 1974 "Linguistics and Ethnomusicology" Ethnomusicology. 18(2)197-217.

Feld, Steven 1984 "Communication, Music and Speech about Music" Yearbook for Traditional Music. 16:1-18.

Feld, Steven and Aaron A. Fox 1994 "Music and Language" Annual Review of Anthropology. 23:25-53.

Hood, Mantle 1982 "The Speech Mode of Discourse" The Ethnomusicologist. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. pp. 225-229.

Hood, Mantle 1982 "The Music Mode of Discourse" The Ethnomusicologist. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. pp. 230-242.

Nattiez, Jean-Jacques 1990 "The Semiology of Musical Analysis" Music and Discourse; Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 150-182.

Nattiez, Jean-Jacques 1990 "The Musician's Discourse" Music and Discourse; Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 183-197.

Nettl, Bruno 1983 "In the Speech Mode" The Study of Ethnomusicology; Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 82-103.

Seeger, Charles 1987 "Speech, Music and Speech about Music" Studies in Musicology 1935-1975. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 16-35.

Sherzer, Joel 1987 "A Discourse-Centered Approach to Language and Culture" American Anthropologist. 89(2):295-309.

Taruskin, Richard 1995 "On Letting the Music Speak for Itself" Text and Act. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 51-66.

Tedlock, Dennis 1983 "The Analogical Tradition and the emergence of a Dialogical Anthropology" The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 321-338.

Turino, Thomas 1999 "Signs of Imagination, Identity, and Experience: A Peircian Semiotic Theory for Music." Ethnomusicology. 43(2)221-255.

Urban, Greg 1991 "An Approach to Language and Culture" A Discourse-Centered Approach to Culture; Native South American Myths and Rituals. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 1-31.


Notes

1. Nikolai Malko, A Certain Art. New York: William Morrow, 1966. p. 180. Cited in Taruskin 1995 p. 64.

2. Taruskin 1995: 64.

3. Hood 1982: 230-246.

4. Of course, Peircian semiotic theory involves much more than icon, index and symbol. For a detailed, rigorous discussion of Peircian musical semiotics, see Turino 1999.

5. Seeger 1987.