Re: Astor Piazzolla on being "Oriental"...

[Joe Grohens <joe @WOLFRAM.COM>]

Rajan:

> I am with Jean-Pierre on this. But, 'gypsy stuff' comes from northern
> india as was discussed on this list before.

Astrid:

> Hey, you guys may be right. I have always wondered where the rhythm of
> Libertango comes from. Listening to it now, it faintly reminds me of that
> Indian dance (yes, dance !) music I heard and saw in performance in India
> (not the North, the middle), what's it called, "Tratak"  (Kirtak ?)? You
> know, what the girls do, wearing pants under their dress ? With the heels
> and the toes, a bit like chacarera male steps ? Man, this is can of worms...

> Astrid, making wild, excited guesses

I wish I knew more ethnomusicology to think seriously about comparisons like this.

I can offer one factoid, from Piazzolla's autobiography "A Manera de Memorias" (Natalio Gorin, ed., 1990, Editorial Atlantida).

pp 21-22:

Piazzolla talks about growing up around the late 1920s in Greenwich Village , a neighborhood populated by Italian, Irish and Jewish immigrants. Next to his house was a synagogue.

"Todo se va metiendo bajo la piel. Mis acentuaciones ritmicas, tres mas tres mas dos, son similares a las de la musica popular judia que yo escuchaba en los casamientos."

[Everything is put under the skin. My rhythmic accentuations, three plus three plus two, are similar to those of the Jewish popular music that I listened to in the marriages.]

Libertango is based on such a 3 + 3 + 2 rhythm.

As for what he meant by "Oriental" music and sensibility -- maybe he was referring to Uruguay? <joke>

Joe