[Tango-L] Musicality. What is it?

[Andrew RYSER SZYMAÑSKI]

1)In the tango, the man keeps the woman guessing, but
the music keeps the man guessing. There is no fun in
dancing day in day out to the same music: this
eventually leads to choreography, the opposite of
tango, which is based on improvisation. Anybody who
insists that the dancers dance better if they know the
piece of music by heart is talking about ballet, not
tango. There are many tangos I know so well that I
cannot move to them any more, they don't creat any
TENSION and bore the pants off me. My ideal milonga
would play exclusively music I didn't know - I haven't
come across it yet unfortunately!

2) We follow unfamiliar tango music by following basic
Western harmony [ie "harmonic rhythm": the chord
progressions] that we are all familiar with because we
have been hearing it even in our mother's womb [yes,
we hear 3 months after conception]; you only need
musical training if you want to name those chords.
Unfortunately, our innate musicality gets severely
castrated once we are made to count beats. And
memorise steps. All people then end up in perceiving
is a boring pulse that they are made to believe is
what dancing is all about. Some might be alert enough
to realise eventually that what they are doing has
little to do with the music - but this awareness can
take 10 years to manifest itself - and then have to
shell out more money on usually pedantic "musicality"
classes to get back to where they started in the first
place.
Great! more money for the "teacher"....

Cheers,

Andy.



--- Huck Kennedy <huck at eninet.eas.asu.edu> wrote:

> Igor Polk writes:
> > Because they are slow: you have plenty of time to
> > react and to interpret. IF YOU KNOW HOW !
> 
>      "If you know how."  Cute. :-)  This totally
> misses the point I was making, that no matter how
> well one can process and react to unfamiliar music
> (which means yes, you do know how, thank you very
> much), it is still inferior to the musicality that
> comes from intimate almost-like-breathing
> familiarity
> of the music being played.  How could it not be?
> 
> > Ok, Ok, I am going to restrain myself pointing who
> "plods
> > around clumsily like Frankenstein's monster."
> 
>      Which effectively means that by posting this
> oblique sideswipe, you did NOT restrain yourself in
> any way other than a hypocritically technical one.
> 
>      I'm sorry that you disagree with my opinion on
> musicality, Igor, and I'm also sorry that you can't
> express your disagreement without insulting me, and
> in a cowardly denying-you're-doing it manner to
> boot.
> 
> Huck
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Andrew W. RYSER SZYMAÑSKI,
23b All Saints Road,
London, W11 1HE,
07944 128 739.


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