[Tango-L] Transition of Tango Music

[Tom Stermitz]

On Feb 27, 2007, at 2:49 AM, Gregory wrote:
> Hello All,
> ...
> 	Just one more example of the connection between Baroque music and  
> Tango
> music and dancing - Baroque music leaves you some space to  
> improvise and to
> add adornments (“melismas,” in music).  When we dance to  
> traditional Tango
> music we interpret trills, mordent, gruppeto, forshlag, etc. as  
> volcadas,
> rock steps, lapices, etc.   Alternative and Neo Tangos do not have  
> these
> melismas in their structure.
> ...Best,
> Gregory “Grisha” Nisnevich


Grisha's comment hits the point that is really important to me in  
this discussion: Space within the composition for the dancers to  
participate.

You have a number of different musical elements and qualities that  
make tango "Tango" A good dancer uses all of these elements to be  
expressive.


(1) TANGO-NESS:

  - Crescendo or oomph preceding the strong-beat, the "And-Moment"

You know how you can always spot swing, because it "swings", it has a  
specific swing-like syncopation. For me, the single most important  
DEFINING quality, the thing that separates tango from a foxtrot or  
swing, is this pre-beat, the "And-Moment". The breath of the  
bandoneon initiates, before the musician stomps the ground for the  
strong "One-Beat". The dancers interpret this by engaging before  
accelerating. It calls for a musical interpretation of "Suspension  
and Surge".

It sounds sort of like "ha-RUMPPH".

When the leader doesn't move with boldness and drive, when the  
follower is all willowy instead of engaged, then tango becomes  
ballroom-light instead of masculine-feminine (strong-feminine, not  
timid feminine). No chest, no balls, no diva.


(2) COMPLEXITY:

If the "And-moment" characterizes tango, the poly-melodies and poly- 
rhythms make tango interesting. Grisha and others have talked about  
this already:

  - Use of 3-3-2 (or 1xx-1xx-1x) rhythms
  - Multiple rhythmic lines,
  - Mutliple melody lines,
  - Trading melodic or rhythmic elements from one instrument to another
  - Little fills or frills


(3) DEPTH and SPACIOUSNESS:

  - Space, sparsity, or transparency

The best traditional Tango music is Driving. It is also Rich and  
Complex. But it also leaves an empty a space for the dancer. The  
dancer is a PART of the orchestra, helping to interpret and shape the  
music. Modern musical sensibility calls for the musicians to fill in  
every space, as if they are performing a concert rather than  
including or even thinking about the dancers.

Piazzolla and even a lot of late Pugliese is spectacular, but drives  
the dancers rather than including them. Its heavier bass or melodic  
line or swing rhythm pushes a single musical idea rather than  
multiple lines. It isn't so spacious and deep, and doesn't leave as  
much room to be interpretive.

D'Agostino, the anti-alternative.

In total contrast to late-Pugliese or Alternative, listen to  
D'Agostino/Vargas. The music is spacious sometimes even sparse, a  
quality that Marilyn Hof (a cellist who dances tango here in Denver)  
calls "TRANSPARENCY". Like a crystal you can look down into the music  
at all the layers and inclusions. As a Dancer you can connect to the  
melody line with one part of your brain while dancing to the little  
trills and sub-rhythms.

Most people don't hear D'Agostino until they have been dancing tango  
for a while. And, sitting in your living room, D'Agostino doesn't  
grab you like when you start to dance at a milonga. D'Agostino isn't  
even very interesting at a practice.


ALTERNATIVE, DIFFERENT, NOT BAD:

These listed qualities are what make tango so rich and interesting.  
They separate tango from other kinds of music, and even distinguish  
dance tango from concert tango.

OF COURSE you can dance tango movements to Alternative. Of course it  
can be fun. Of course it is easier if you aren't accustomed to tango.  
AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! Passionate movement is fine.  
Romance is fine. Prosecco is giggly, even if Barolo curles your toes.

The issue, is that Alternative may be fun and easy but it lacks the  
depth, spaciousness and intensity of tango.

What I like about using Alternative is a DJ, is exactly this fun,  
easy-access energy. It contrasts with tango, so when I do an  
alternative set it is preparing people to return to the depth of  
tango. Lhasa to D'Arienzo, Fabrizio de Andre to Di Sarli, Waltzes to  
Pugliese.

On the other hand, if you have ever been to an all-alternative tango- 
evening. Everybody's movements become sort of fun but not intense.  
Energy eventually dissipates, or at least drifts away from feeling  
like tango. People get silly and fast, but it is like all desert no  
main course.


Tom Stermitz
http://www.tango.org