[Tango-L] Milonga, etc.

[Myk Dowling]

On Sun, 2009-08-02 at 03:07 -0400, Steve Littler wrote:
> Dear Keith,
> 
> Can you explain that 1-2/2-2 or make an audio and post it?

Joaquin Amenabar, when explaining the difference between Tango and
Milonga, throws away the 4/4 - 2/4 difference, because it really isn't
relevant.

Milonga music has a secondary rythm overlying the basic 2-beat pattern.

A standard 2/4 beat is like this:

| ' | ' | ' | '

Where the "|" is an accented beat, and the "'" is an unaccented beat.

The Milonga rhythm is a four-beat pattern that lines up to the basic 2/4
like this:

Plain 2/4
| ' | ' | ' | ' 
|  '| ' |  '| '
Milonga

Here's a sample of the Milonga Rhythm that I have recorded using claves:
http://www.4shared.com/file/122343713/f2d8aff9/MilongaRhythm.html

You see that the first unaccented beat in the block of four beats is
delayed, so that instead of having equal amounts of time on either side
(50/50), it is closer to the second accented beat (75/25).

Joaquin states that "tango" music before the 20th century all used this
rhythmic pattern, and it was the loss of this pattern (and indeed the
loss of any fixed rhythmic pattern over the basic four-beat timing) that
defines tango music and makes it what it is. Basically, it was the
introduction of the freedom of classical music into dance music.

So basically, there was tango music, which then became tango music and
milonga music, but the milonga music is closer to what was earlier known
as tango music. 

Does that make it clearer?