What makes tango TANGO?
February, 2006
How can you describe a musical genre in one page. (Imagine trying to describe "What is jazz?") A number of different musical elements and qualities combine to make tango "Tango". A good dancer uses all of these elements to be expressive.
(1) TANGO-NESS:
First, Tango is characterized one, specific element: namely the crescendo or oomph preceding the strong-beat. I call this the "And-Moment".
You know how you can always spot swing, because it "swings", it has a specific swing-like syncopation. For me, the single most important DEFINING quality, the thing that separates tango from a foxtrot or swing, is this pre-beat, the "And-Moment". The breath of the bandoneon initiates before the start of the measure, and then the musician stomps the ground for the strong "One-Beat" of the new phrase. The dancers interpret this by engaging before accelerating. It calls for a musical interpretation of "Suspension and Surge". This musical expression is sometimes danced in the long, slow dramatic pauses of tango.
It sounds sort of like "ha-RUMPPH".
When the leader doesn't move with boldness and drive, when the follower is all willowy instead of engaged, then tango becomes ballroom-light instead of masculine-feminine (strong-feminine, not timid feminine). No chest, no confidence, no diva.
(2) COMPLEXITY:
If the "And-Moment" characterizes tango, the poly-melodies and poly- rhythms make tango interesting:
- Use of 3-3-2 (or 1xx-1xx-1x) rhythms
- Multiple rhythmic lines,
- Mutliple melody lines,
- Trading melodic or rhythmic elements from one instrument to another
- Little fills or frills
(3) DEPTH and SPACIOUSNESS:
Tango has a sense of Spaciousness, Sparsity, or Transparency
The best traditional Tango music is Driving. It is also Rich and Complex. But it also leaves an empty a space for the dancer. The dancer is a PART of the orchestra, helping to interpret and shape the music. Modern musical sensibility calls for the musicians to fill in every space, as if they are performing a concert rather than including or even thinking about the dancers.
Piazzolla and even a lot of late Pugliese is spectacular, but drives the dancers rather than including them. Its heavier bass or melodic line or swing rhythm pushes a single musical idea rather than multiple lines. It isn't so spacious and deep, and doesn't leave as much room to be interpretive.
D'Agostino, the anti-alternative.
In total contrast to late-Pugliese or Alternative, listen to D'Agostino/Vargas. The music is spacious sometimes even sparse, a quality that Marilyn Hof (a cellist who dances tango here in Denver) calls "TRANSPARENCY". Like a crystal you can look down into the music at all the layers and inclusions. As a Dancer you can connect to the melody line with one part of your brain while dancing to the little trills and sub-rhythms.
Most people don't hear D'Agostino until they have been dancing tango for a while. And, sitting in your living room, D'Agostino doesn't grab you like when you start to dance at a milonga. D'Agostino isn't even very interesting at a practice.
ALTERNATIVE, DIFFERENT, NOT BAD:
These listed qualities are what make tango so rich and interesting. They separate tango from other kinds of music, and even distinguish dance tango from concert tango.
OF COURSE you can dance tango movements to Alternative. Of course it can be fun. Of course it is easier if you aren't accustomed to tango. AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! Passionate movement is fine. Romance is fine. Prosecco is giggly, even if Barolo curles your toes.
The issue, is that Alternative may be fun and easy but it lacks the depth, spaciousness and intensity of tango. And, notice that alternative misses precisely the most important aspect, the "tango-ness" of the "and-moment".
However, what I like about using Alternative is a DJ, is exactly this fun, easy-access energy. It contrasts with tango, so when I do an alternative set it is preparing people to return to the depth of tango. Lhasa to D'Arienzo, Fabrizio de Andre to Di Sarli, Musette Waltzes to Pugliese.
On the other hand, pay a visit to an all-alternative tango- evening. The dancers' movements are sort of fun but not intense. As the evening continues, the energy eventually dissipates, or at least drifts away from feeling like tango. People get silly and fast, but it is like all desert no main course.
