Music is centred on time and rhythm is about how music unfolds within a particular time. As part of the Natyamrita Manthan, organised by Lakshmi Ramaswamy’s Sri Mudhralaya in association with Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, B.P. Haribabu presented an illuminating lec-dem on ‘Scripting Sound.’ It was about measuring and scripting the sound of ‘sorkattu’ (rhythmic patterns). His reasoning is simple: If you know it already, you needn’t write it down; but, if you don’t know, you better script it.
Haribabu is a versatile mridangam artiste, having established himself in the world of dance. Little wonder, he is at ease with nattuvangam and rhythm composing. He is also good at drawing and that helped him make the lec-dem interesting.
Rhythm or tala has gathi, tempo, karvai, korvai, calculation, jathi, placement, etc. Accompanying requires special attention In songs having a conspicuously rhythmic orientation.
Rooted in tala
Dance is firmly rooted in tala that provides the supporting plinth. Notation helps the mridangam artiste to perform efficiently as well as in coordination with the nattuvanar and dancer. Without notating and practicing it ahead of the performance, especially rare or complex pieces, the playing cannot be accurate. This is more so when playing intricate rhythmic structures, especially in higher tempos and random patterns, he asserted. Notations, he said, were necessary even for the nattuvanar’s non-reciting parts. Notation helps to minimise, if not eliminate errors.
The mridangist has developed his own coding system for different kinds of sorkattus and varied rhythmic phrases, especially used in dance. This system has symbols and numbers and helps shorten lengthy phrases that need to be otherwise noted down by nattuvangam and mridangam artistes.
He is of the firm opinion that symbols are an effective and better way of documentation of the entire rhythmic structure like jathi, korvai, etc. in athidhuritha kala (superfast) without losing the details. Symbols can effectively represent rhythmic phrases and differentiate between subject and karvai.
Developed 20 years ago, he has been practicing and perfecting the system and soon plans to bring out a book about the same. “This system,” he said, “will help standardise the scripting of rhythm the world over.” He also explained the frequency of sound as well as the international standards of tempo (Beats per Minute).
He also described a few chathusram and misram sequences as well as the 7x5 tala chakra. After elucidating a few basic symbols to represent 4, 3, 5, 7 and 9, he dwelt upon an exclusive symbol for dhi-dhi-thai – a three letter symbol, having four matras or one akshara.
He also demonstrated the use of top and bottom lines representing vilamba, athi vilamba, duritha and athi duritha. He showed how these symbols can represent several tala sequences of different patterns and speeds.
The highlight of the lec-dem was the symbolic representation of a swara sequence of ranjani-maala, the first swara sequence of ‘Jagathanandakaraka,’ a sequence of Kuntalavarali Tillana and a korvai of ‘singara velane deva.’
