[Tango-L] music; live or dead

[Michael]

Hello:
I've read a lot. I'm not responding to any particular person. Music has nuance and live music sounds different from recorded music. I remember a musical group that was in Washington, DC. Whatever they played, it sounded like milonga. There were times I was confused. I thought "this is a tango, but it doesn't like a tango." 

After you hear a particular recording a number of times, you learn when the last note comes. Here are two Pugliese examples; Jueves and Barra Querida. Each of them builds to a climax at the NEXT to the last note. It sounds like !! There's a slight pause followed by a soft note which sounds like a soft period. This is the resolution to the climax. A live orchestra can build to the climax at a different rate than the Pugliese recording and the resolution can come at a different time. This is interpretation. I'm NOT calling it an error.

A live orchestra will always sound different from recorded music. The recording could have a different number of instruments and their interpretation could be different from the recording you are familiar. Even several recordings of the same tango sound different. My favorite tango is Quejas de Bandeneon (from "The Tango Lesson.") I only like the version on the soundtrack (Troilo's 1958 recording.) I don't care for any other recording even any other Troilo recording. Only the 1958 version.

I wonder if we have become so familiar with a particular version, we've fallen into a trap of dancing the same way to that version and whenever another version comes along, some of us are lost.

Just wondering.

Michael Ditkoff
Washington, DC
Going to the orthopedist tomorrow for an examination of my ankle and collarbone after a terrible car collision

I'd rather be dancing Argentine Tango (The wait is killing me!!!)