tempo in these times

[joe grohens <joe @WOLFRAM.COM>]

>Bibi asks:
>
>
>"{But what if the band interprets the music differently, so that at any
>anticipated moment, be it a melody, a beat or the transitional bridge, when
>both dancers are about to enjoy each other, the band switches their
>interpreation on the tempo; would the dancers be disappointed?  I was."}

Red Fox interjects:

>This brings up the interesting point of "anticipated moment".  Is the moment
>"anticipated" because the dancers are thinking of a recorded version of the
>song the live band is playing, and when the live band does something else,
>this unsettles the dancers?  To me this is sad.

 From the dancer's viewpoint, the "anticipated moment" is more likely to be
a predictable pulse and a logical completion of the musical phrase.

There is a tendency among many of today's tango ensembles to place a high
value on musical ritards, cadenzas, rubato sections, free-tempo pauses
after phrases, and song endings that dribble on ambiguously until the
leader says "cut".

When dancers have some familiarity with an arrangement that uses time
freely, such as in, for example, Pugliese's "Desde al Alma", then the
dancers can make good use of those moments where the musical pulse slows.
But in Pugliese, these effects are used sparingly and always in contrast to
a strong marcato rhythm. I sometimes hear people describe Pugliese's music
as typically having "tempo changes" and being full of "pauses". I think
this is a misperception. "Gallo Ciego", for instance, has moments where the
music seems to stop, yet if you count through it, there are no ritards
really. The building and subsiding effects that we associate with Pugliese
are more a matter of instrumentation than slowing or speeding up the tempo.

By contrast, Piazzolla's music does speed up and slow down, and many of
today's "tango" dance bands seem influenced by his example. Trio Pantango
and The Tango Project, to pick two sort of worst-offending examples off the
top of my head, both like sections of the music where soloists lead the
tempo as they wish (playing free-tempo in an introduction, an ending, or
sometimes even in the middle of a piece). When you go to a milonga where a
tango ensemble is playing with such tempo changes, you will see the
musicians watching each other, waiting for an eye signal for when to come
back in tempo or to end. Another thing some ensembles seem to like is
arrangements where different sections of a tango (or even a milonga) are
played at different tempos - one fast, the next slow, the next fast - with
again the musicians taking a visual cue from the leader about the tempo
change. Dancers cannot be expected to dance with the chan chan in their
hearts when the musicians are working with time in this way. And even if
one is willing to "dance the pauses", armed with firuletes and
near-stationary movements, the pauses need to be a little bit more
predictable and sparing than what is frequently done.

Why does this happen? I don't think it has anything to do with "what
sells", or aiming at listeners rather than dancers. I imagine that it has
more to do with today's musicians wanting to make the music "interesting"
from their musical viewpoint. Compared to many other kinds of music, tango
is simple both harmonically and rhythmically. It is easy for classically
trained musicians to feel like "nothing's happening" if they just play it
straight. And by convention tango does not have the challenge of
improvisation (as in jazz or rock, where the beat never changes but a
soloist can improvise on top of the rhythm section). And today's tango
bands often do not have enough members to produce sophisticated
instrumental coloring. Yet the music seems to require dramatic development
of some sort. So what are they going to work with to make it challenging,
different, moving, surprising, etc.? And how can the individual players get
the equivalent of a "solo"? Often they stretch the tempo of the melodic
line to put their stamp of personal expression on the music.

I think that's the mindset. It's too bad. It is frustrating for the
dancers, and undermines their ability to participate as a dancing couple
with each other and the music.

There should be more appreciation for the pulse. That is the main reason
why, in my opinion, many modern recordings of tango music are not good for
dancing. And why a modern ensemble can be less satisfying than dancing to a
scratchy old recording, despite the energy and excitement of being in the
same room with live musicians.

In salsa you have a related problem, where musicians sometimes make the
music interesting for themselves but at times not really that great for the
dancers. You find strings and sound effects layered in, or hear fusions
with house music or Rachmaninoff, or jazz-like explorations by the horn
sections... all kinds of inventive things that take the music away from its
roots. Dancers can still dance to this, though, because the music never
sacrifices the beat, and when you do have a tempo change, it is decisive
and governed by eight-measure sections.

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