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

[Andrew RYSER SZYMAÑSKI]

Hi All,

Canyengue, technically speaking in musical terms,
means slapping the [double] bass, pioneered by
Leopoldo Thompson around 1910:
http://www.elportaldeltango.com.ar/english/orchestras/English/firpoingles.htm
http://www.todotango.com/spanish/creadores/lthompson.asp
It was also popular from around 1920 in jazz, mainly
New Orleans.

Robert Farris Thompson tells us:
"Canyengue in music is like the term duende in
flamenco.  Like the term salanc in the folk music of
Cataluña.  Salanc in Catalán, duende in Spanish, swing
in U.S. jazz parlance, all of the above.  Canyengue
means you know how to swing, you've got the flavor,
you're culturally appropriate.  And the first
historical notice – one of the first – Canaro, the
great orchestra leader, Canaro had a black bassist – I
call him the Cachao of tango, a big, powerful black
bassist -- and his name was Ruperto [Leopoldo]
Thompson.....  And Ruperto was famed for introducing
[percusses] drumming the side of his bass.  And also
striking, sometimes drumming, the strings.  And he
started the tradition of canyengue, that is, the
drum-izing, or turning melodic instruments into
percussion instruments. And that is canyengue, when
percussion begins to dominate at highly sophisticated
levels, which is one of the definitions of swing, then
you've got canyengue.  And if you dance with a kind of
rhythmic flair, you have canyengue."

http://www.afropop.org/multi/interview/ID/86/Robert+Farris+Thompson-2005/

I haven't been able to hear the Piazzolla piece Igor
refers to, but there presumably should be some
bass-slapping on it. If not, Piazolla might be
referring to the "social" meaning of the word, i.e.
"sleazy-like, uncouth". Remember that Piazzolla
constantly went back to the roots of tango, in
reaction to the very polished stuff that was played at
the time. 

http://www.planet-tango.com/lyrics/elchoclo.htm
http://www.blackwellassociates.com/tangoterms.html

Cheers,

Andy.

--- "Barnes, Bob" <BBarnes at mpr.org> wrote:

> 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
> 


Andrew W. RYSER SZYMAÑSKI,
23b All Saints Road,
London, W11 1HE,
07944 128 739.


	
	
		
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