Re: Candombe and Milonga

["Jose A. Contreras" <ja.contreras @ENTELCHILE.NET>]

Hi everybody!

This is my humble contribution...

Actually, candombe has its origin in Uruguay, neighbor country of Argentina, to
the north. Uruguay  has north borders with Brasil, where there exists a big black
population, and so there is the relationship with the african rythm and
percusion. Argentina has no black people, as well as in Chile (well... may be
some here and there ...).

Anyhow, despite its origin, Argentina took the milonga and candombe and made them
popular. Uruguay is a small country, and Argentina is one south american giant...
so Argentina has weight enough to make them known...

Talking about musicality, candombe and milonga are definitely "folk music",
popular, a creation of many people, so there are not musical rules to define
"this is milonga", "this is milonga candombada", or "this is candombe". The most
you could do is to establish a kind of "trends" for each one, more or less as
Leonardo did. Definitely there are wide "gray areas" in the possible definitions
that we could try about milonga, candombe and mixes...

When you see a label on a CD "milonga candombada", or any other, that's the
feeling of the author about his job, that's not a strict definition... only a
feeling, as in many folk music...

In tango it is different. If it is true that in the first origins it was
absolutely popular, tango was deeply studied by many professional musicians who
agreed and established a series of rules for the music, starting from the
original "trends". These rules are now accepted by most of tango musicians and
composers, and you can recognize those rules in every tango you hear...
basically that rules are : musical phrases ruled on "multiples of 4 times,
starting in 8". You can find also phrases of 12 and 16 times and more... very
rare 16 or more, but they exist...  here is the origin of that definition of
tango "the rythm of 2x4" (i.e.: 2x4=8 times... or beats)

Saludos

Jose A. Contreras
http://sites.netscape.net/jac2165