[Tango-L] Tango quote from the 13th Century

[Nina Pesochinsky]

Nice post, Shahrukh.

In flamenco, the singer starts all music and rhythm.  The dancer follows the 
singer.  The guitarist follows the dancer.  When there is no singer, the 
dancer leads, changing the compass with the musicians following the dancer's 
lead.

So dancers are not always the last.  In tango, good musicians have always 
watched the dancers and, in a way, followed them.  The original tango 
singers blended in with the instruments of the orchestra, providing a 
punctuation with the synchopation of the poetry.  The later singers began to 
scream the lyrics, which I, personally, do not like.

So in the earlier tango, there was almost an equal fusion of the musicians, 
singers and dancers.

But flamenco, to me is very unique because of the complexity of the compass. 
The flamenco compass is the most difficult thing that I have ever 
encountered in music.

Thank you for a thought-inspiring post!

Warm regards,

Nina
www.NinaTango.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shahrukh Merchant" <shahrukh at shahrukhmerchant.com>
To: <tango-l at mit.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2011 8:27 AM
Subject: [Tango-L] Tango quote from the 13th Century


> People outside Argentine (or perhaps outside the Rio de la Plata area)
> who "get into" Tango generally start learning and liking the dance, then
> start to recognize and like the music (which earlier sounded dated and
> old-fashioned).
>
> Then another slower transition, or rather evolution, occurs, where the
> preference starts to change from instrumental to vocal music. A very
> small percentage learn and listen to the words, a task understandably
> complicated by cultural references, and more so if one is not a native
> Spanish speaker.
>
> I saw a quote recently, written in the 13th century, that captured this
> phenomenon, and could well have been written for Tango, had it not
> predated Tango by about 700 years:
>
> "Dance is subordinate to the instrument and the instrument to song,
> therefore singing is considered fundamental by the knowledgeable."
>
> It is actually from the Sangeet Ratnakar (a treatise on Indian music
> written in the 13th century), as quoted by S. Kalidas in "India:
> Timeless Splendour."
>
> We dancers, it seems, have been put in our place: a distant third in a
> pecking order, behind the musicians, and way behind the poets.
>
> Shahrukh
> _______________________________________________
> Tango-L mailing list
> Tango-L at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
>
>