Tintal

This article is about the Indian music. For the Maya archaeological site, see El Tintal.

For the neighbourhood of Bogotá see Tintal (neighbourhood)

Tintal (or teental, trital) is one of the most famous talas of Hindustani music. It is also the most common tal in North India. The structure of tintal is so symmetrical that it presents a very simple rhythmic structure against which a performance can be laid.

Arrangement

Tintal has sixteen beats in four equal divisions (vibhag). The period between every two beats is equal. The first beat out of 16 beats is called "sam" and the ninth beat out of 16 beats is called "khali". Sam is the I st Division. Khali is the III rd Division. To exhibit the Teental, the audience claps on the first beat, then claps on the fifth beat then shows that ninth beat is waived (not clapped) and lastly again claps on 13th beat. which in tintal. In fact Tintal derives from (Hindi, "tin") which means three and (Hindi, "tal")which means clap, so literally Tintal equals to "three claps".

Cyclical series of equally periodical beats consisted of recurring claps and waves:

clap, 2, 3, 4, clap, 2, 3, 4, wave, 2, 3, 4, clap, 2, 3, 4

or counted out as:

clap, 2, 3, 4, clap, 6, 7, 8, wave, 10, 11, 12, clap 14, 15, 16

Theka

It has a characteristic pattern of bols (theka).

The Theka for Tintal

dha	dhin	dhin	dha	|	dha	dhin	dhin	dha	|
x					2
dha	tin	tin	ta	|	ta	dhin	dhin	dha	|
o					3

Note the bols used for the first beat of each division: Dhaa, a bol involving both hands, is played at the beginning of the first, second and final divisions; for the khali section, Naa – a right hand bol – is used to indicate that the division is open. There are some pedagogical variations as to the actual syllables pronounced when reciting the bol, most of which occur in the final two vibhags.