chowtal

English

Etymology

From Hindi चौताल (cautāl, literally “four-rhythm”).

Noun

chowtal (plural chowtals or chowtal)

1. A four-beat rhythmic pattern used in Hindustani classical music.
   • 1968, Sudhibhushan Bhattacharya, Ethno-musicology and India, page 41:

     Trital, ektal and chowtal are not characteristic of the traditional tribal and folk-music of India.

   • 1974, Quest - Issues 86-92, page 53:

     The style of rendering the sur and the rhythmic composition of the tal (typical being 'chowtal' and 'brahmatal'), its resonance and 'gayaki', etc. are very close to the chanting of the Vedic sutras by a group of specially trained Vedic pandits.

   • 2009 May, Md. Ashrafuzzaman, Md. Ashrafuzzaman, Muhd Mahbub Rashid, “Mathematical and geometrical analysis and representation of north indian musical rhythms based on multi polygonal model”, in 2009 International Conference on Signal Processing Systems:

     Figure 8 shows the multi polygonal representation of chowtal.

2. An Indian folksong traditionally sung during the Holi festival.
   • 2001, Arnold Itwaru, Home and Back, page 70:

     ...chanting Holi kellay ragubeera together, singing chowtal after chowtal, going higher and faster and louder as the dholak drum, played by one of them, twacked and clapped, bursting out in resounding pleasure, pacing the thumping dancing rhythm and the sharp ringing bursts of jaal, the men singing and singing and singing to a strong rising sudden joyous end.

   • 2009, Asian Music: Journal of the Society for Asian Music:

     The chowtals of both singers (Sucharita Gupta and Santosh Srivastava) derived from an anthology by Banaras-based folklorist Hariram Dwivedi.

   • 2011, Kamille Gentles-Peart, Maurice L. Hall, Re-Constructing Place and Space, →ISBN:

     In the Caribbean and the secondary diaspora in New York and elsewhere, groups of young and old enthusiasts gather every spring to sing chowtal. In India's Bhojpuri-region, the chowtal groups I encountered tend to sing from hand-written notebooks of original lyrics by local poets.