[Tango-L] Recognizing Tango Music

[Myk Dowling]

On 10/06/10 04:28, Trini y Sean (PATangoS) wrote:
> One thing he says about the accompaniment is that it is a consequence of the melody.  Thus, if someone called him and said that he had written a typical waltz but needed an accompaniment, Salgan could basically whip it up without hearing the melody.  However, if the caller said that he needed a tango accompaniment, Salgan would need to hear the melody first.  He describes this special relationship between melody and the accompaniment as being unique compared to other genres of music.
>    
He's at least partially wrong. As someone who plays accompaniment to 
other forms of dance music, I always fit my accompaniment to the rhythms 
of the melody. I _could_ lay down a bland repetitive rhythm that ignores 
the melody, but I wouldn't be asked back to play with a group if I did that.

In fact, there are several folk dances that are specifically fitted to 
the rhythms of a particular melody, so any accompaniment that fails to 
match the melody would actively harm the dancers ability to perform the 
dance, in a way that would be even more destructive than doing the same 
thing to a tango melody.

Myk,
in Canberra