[Tango-L] Milonga rhythms

[Carol Shepherd]

Me, I can definitely distinguish triplets (3 against 2) in any music I 
hear, but I have a lot of music training.  I don't hear them in tango 
music.  I hear them in Afro-Cuban music all the time, and in Brazilian 
samba drumlines (ie, percussion improvisation).  But I don't hear them 
in tango or milonga orchestra music.

The confusion in the dance world about triplets comes from dancers and 
teachers equating "triple step" with "triplet".  "Triple step" 
intuitively seems like 3 equal steps to a dancer who has no musical 
training.  The rhythm is more accurately called out in dance classes as 
"quick quick slow" or "slow quick quick" to remind the dancers that 
there is a pause on the extra beat.

And of course waltz and vals are in 3, but I don't hear any 2 against 3 
in vals.  I sometimes hear it in Viennese waltz orchestrations.

Anyone can dance against the beat and improvise with these syncopated 
rhythms.  In any kind of dance.  It just won't look like it belongs in 
the dance, because it's not in the dance vocabulary -- ie, it will look 
like "doing your own thing."  I'm fine with that, do it all the time in 
lindy hop and blues dancing.  But it spoils the aesthetic for many.

CS

Bruno Afonso wrote:

Can you easily distinguish triplets in music you hear? Every kind of
music has them... even rock. I don't see how this will lead anyone
anywhere. syncopation is a much stronger tool to use as far as
creating timming "fun". Syncopating a triplet may make it not become
so much of a triplet anymore. The music sheet is a guide that
performers will either try to follow precisely or not.



-- 
Carol Ruth Shepherd
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Ann Arbor MI USA
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