Tappa,
understood to have been the staple diction of the erstwhile camel drivers, has
since come to a ripened age, by being nurtured in the hands of some of the
legendary masters in this genre. The word Tappa stands for jumping,
bouncing and skipping, implying the extraordinary rule of unremitting attempts
made by a singer on the musical notes, not stopping or taking a pause for once.
This outstanding formation is unique to tappa only, absent in the other
Hindustani classical forms. It is thus composed of rhythmic and rapid notes,
and such a style calls for immense and extreme hold over the singing diction. A
contrary to which can damage the whole recital. Tappa is very unlike khayal rendition,
crisp and highly volatile in its nature. And the few exponents like Ghulam
Nabi, Pt. Bholanath Bhatt or Girija Devi have thus become legends in their own
right.
It
is usually held that tappa is derived from the songs and tunes sung by the
camel drivers of North West Punjab. These songs were composed in Punjabi and
Pusthu and, like thumri, were amatory in spirit. The word tappa is derived from
the root word tap, which means to 'jump', 'bounce', or 'rebound' in the manner
of a bouncing ball.
The
form itself, with its rapid movements, gives the impression of a briskly
hopping ball. Singers attempt to capture these rapid rhythms by hopping from
one note to the next, without respite. The song-text is very short and not as
elaborately structured as a khayal or a thumri. Singers render it crisply and
concisely. One of its most striking features is the singer's use of an
unrelenting cascade of jumpy and zig-zag taans called zamzama. Being a highly
unpredictable style, the singer cannot, and should not, rest on any of the
notes the way khayal and thumri singers
do. He or she has to persistently hop from one note to the next improvising as
he or she goes along using varieties of taans, which are not used in khayal.
Unnecessary to say, this breathless form demands a great mastery over melodic
and rhythmic aspects, as the singer has to improvise continually. To
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