[Tango-L] Music preferences/Social-ethical behaviours‏

[Sergio Vandekier]

John Ward compares Argentine customs to those in Europe and says:  "Here it would be considered rude to ignore your partner's friends, or your friend's partner."
 
There are at least two very important reasons for this to be different in Argentine tango:
 
1- For a tango to be successful it has to be desired by both partners in the dance. To dance tango for courtesy could cause a "failure tango to occur" and this would be an embarrassing situation that both partners would wish to avoid.
 
Ballroom is danced for fun but tango is danced for "feeling".  Dancing tango therefore has other implications,not present in ballroom.
 
2- There is respect for the relationship between a man and a woman.  If a man and a woman are perceived as being together, then out of respect to their relationship and to the man, other men will not ask the woman to dance.
 
John also says: "Nobody in Europe seems to be worried about dancing to a vocalist's sad song".
 
As to the music in first place not all the tangos have "sad" lyrics, there are many funny lyrics full of slang (lunfardo), there are some very poetic, there are some speaking of positive feelings, some about horse races, some about "motherhood or dedicated to the mother", etc.
 
Instrumental music (without a singer) could be for listening or for dancing. Although you may dance tango to any type of music the essential feeling will not be the same if you dance tangos that are not for dancing.
 
As to tangos with singers there are also those that were written for the singer and not for dancing.
 
You will notice that the singer starts from the beginning and continues singing to the end. Those tangos may have an enormous
variation in mood and rhythm that render them difficult to dance to. These singers are called "vocalists" and the whole tango was dedicated to their art  dancing being a secondary element.
 
Other tangos with singers start with music alone, then eventually the singer appears for a moment, he is not intrusive, he is like another instrument of the orchestra, he does not disturb the dance at all.
 
These singers are called "estribillistas" as they only sing for a moment "un estribillo".
 
Francisco Canaro was an innovator and was the first director that included estribillistas in his orchestras in the 1920s.
 
Later on he introduced a second estribillista creating tangos with "duos" singing together or complementing each other.
 
Tangos with estribillistas are easy to dance to.
 
Best regards,  Sergio