Taal
Taal is a love letter to the tabla, the musical drum from India traditionally used as accompaniment as well as a solo melodic instrument in its own right; it is also a homage to several poets and musicians and their ideas of rhythmic cycles, such as Gabriela Mistral, Rabindranath Tagore, Annie Besant, Violeta Parra, Stella Díaz Varin and Zakir Hussain.
The word “tala” is a verb in Spanish that refers to the act of felling a tree to clear the land. As Mistral very likely knew from her readings of the theosophy and Indian philosophies she loved, it is also a noun in Sanskrit that refers to the rhythmic cycles of beats and their metrical structure, which forms the basis of music in both the Hindustani music of the North, and the Carnatic music of the South of India. Traditionally this has meant a marking of time with the palms of the hands. In the transliteration from Sanskrit, Taal, the title of this book, can also be written as Tala.