[Tango-L] Recognizing Tango Music

[Myk Dowling]

On 12/06/10 00:46, Trini y Sean (PATangoS) wrote:
> Thanks for clarifying, Myk. Yet it strikes me that people like to 
> dance to these alternative music that has this same boring repetitive 
> rhythm and call it tango. Well, the dance, anyway though not the 
> music. I haven't listened closely too much to the electronic tango put 
> out by Bajofondo or the Gotan Project for this type of thing. Has 
> anyone? And if so, what do you think?
There are some electronic tango pieces that do have varying rhythms, 
where there isn't a constant underlying bass/drums beat. But they're the 
minority. Why do people like to dance to such music? It frees you from 
having to listen to closely to the music, it's more easily predictable; 
for people who dance in a series of sequences, that's much easier. 
That's just a guess. It's certainly easier to time flashy moves to such 
music.
> By the way, if one were to take the melody of "Mary had a Little Lamb" and make it a tango, what rhythm would one make?
>
>    
1&2&3&4-1&2-3&4-1&2&3&4-1&2&3---

That's the rhythm of the melody.

(Or you could slow it down:
1234123-123-123-1234123-12341---)

Or alternatively, you could stretch some beats and shorten others, and 
completely change the rhythm.

Of course, such a short piece with just two phrases of eight steps (four 
bars each), isn't a tango, since it doesn't have the structure of 
varying phrases in themed parts.

Myk,
in Canberra