[Tango-L] Canyengue as a musical term rather than a dance style.

[Barnes, Bob]

Hi-

Canyengue is a whole can of worms when applied to classical musicians.
Jazz musicians instinctively know how to swing and how much or how
little to add depending on taste.  Your example of Sidney Bechet (early
dixieland) and Glen Miller ("In the mood", about 30 years later) is apt.
The earlier music did not have as much swing as the later ones.
Different musicians added different amounts of swing to a phrase.  For
instance, check out the difference between Louis Armstrong and Miles
Davis playing "Bye Bye Blackbird".  Armstrong's 8ths are very linting
and uneven, where Davis plays much stratighter 8ths.  I'm sure dancers
would interpret both of them differently.

In both Tango and Jazz, much of the musicality is what is not written on
the page.  If you play the notes exactly as written, it will sound OK,
but will miss some "spark" or "soul".  This is where swing or canyengue
comes in.  To complicate things further, Tango music is completely
arranged (w/ almost no improv) and Jazz relies heavily on improv with
complicated arrangments occuring only on the "tops and tails" (start and
end) of a tune.  In both tango and jazz arrangments, the notes are
usually written "straight" and the players add swing/canyengeu to taste.
The musicians devote years of their live becomeing immersed in the
musica culture and instinctively know what sounds right and what
doesn't.

Now for the big wrench in the works: Classical Musicians.  They may are
may not be familiar w/ swing, jazz or tango.  The orignal question in
this thread refered to an orchestral piece by Piazzolla.  Orchestral
musicians can not be expected to "swing" or "canyengue", so the figures
are generally written out for them.  This also makes sure that a section
of 20 violins swings or canyngues togheter.  The marking "acanyengado"
would make more sense for a soloist than a section.  

Guardia Vieja groups play with less canyengue than, say, late Pugliese
or Troilo.  Modern Tango groups (Color Tango, El arranque, Tango Forever
Orchestra) tend to play with a lot of it.

I'm sure someone could write a PhD thesis on the musical concept of
canyengue.  Unfortunately, I'm not a musicologist and I need to get back
to work now.

I hope this make some sense.

-Bob
http://www.mandragoratango.com

> Bob, do you actually see "canyengue" this direction written out in
tango sheet music (to the extent that one actually sees any original
scores)? 
> Or is it the way the music is labeled after recording, ie, for
listening or for dancing consumption (ie "In the Mood" is IIRC a
"quickstep" on the 78, even though it obviously "swings").

> We had a similar discussion on a lindy hop board about the 'swung
note'. 
> All the "jam by myself to early jazz doing choreographed routines of
charleston moves" enthusiasts insist that it is appropriate to play an
entire evening of early Sidney Bechet and still call it "swing night"
even though there will be no music played that has any significant
amount of swung rhythm.  Citations to the wiki definition of "swung
note" to no avail.

> So are you saying from your standpoint that canyengue is a rhythm or a
manner of playing associated with a particular era (or perhaps with
certain composers, or orchestras)?  Is is possible to play many tango
compositions 'acanyengando,' just as you can 'swing' just about any jazz
song? (obviously one's MMV, some results much better than others)