Re: tempo in these times

[clayton beach <akumushi @ONEBOX.COM>]

       I'd like to add a to the subject of the "pulse" that Joe described,
and another cause of it's disappearance in many of the modern tango groups.

First, the pulse is what makes the tango for me.   It may subside to
a murmur, but it always has that life.  It's like a heartbeat, and it
lets the music tap into our emotions and stimulates the passion and zest
for life that we lose when we're caught up in the rat race of society.
 I think the beauty of the music lies within it's simplicity.  It is
not music that I want to challenge my mind with an intellectual dissection
and advanced music theory.  If that s what I m craving, I ll listen to
some good Jazz like Thelonious Monk or Charles Mingus.  The tango is
music of emotion, of melancholy, longing, and pain, but also of joy,
passion and zeal for life.  It's like the blues, which was originally
created by people with no formal education in music.  It was a simple
expression of the woes in life, and a cathartic experience for the underprivileged
that created it.
When I listen to tango I get an intense energy and it gives me a drive
that is quite unique.  I feel that the bandoneon is the main component
of this pulse.  The piano, bass, even the violins all mimic its characteristic
oomph.
        I think that the second development that took the drive out of
the tango lies within the contributions of Astor Piazzolla. I don't presume
to guess what was in his head, but I do see that one thing was clear.
 He wanted to move the tango beyond popular music and bring it into the
world's concert halls.  I think he wanted bring the tango to a sophistication
at the level of musicians like Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Bartok.
In his renewal of the tango, the first thing Piazzolla did was remove
the bandoneon from the role of the primary rhythmic instrument, and place
it in the forefront as the primary soloist.  His incredible contributions
to the bandoneon, in effect, ripped the heart out of the tango.  It took
out the primary creator of the pulse, and changed it's style to a slow,
drawn out and complexly melodic instrument.  I think the most characteristic
style of his music is that long, drawn out use of the bandoneon.  Instead
of taking quick, short huffs and having the melody broken into short,
rhythmic fragments, he made the instrument take long, deep sighs, moving
fluidly across the melody, and using more complex, less regular rhythms.
 If your heart had the pulse of Piazzolla's tango, you would be in some
serious need of defibrillation.
If you listen to modern tango, you will hear the bandoneonists playing
like Piazzolla.
The rest of the musicians also want to show their skill by carrying complex
melodies, and so you get beautiful music without the drive.  Very few
modern tango musicians sit back and maintain a solid, regular drive while
their fellow musicians explore.  If they do, then they mark the rhythm
with a plodding even beat that doesn t have the drive of the older tango.
The music has all the passion and emotion of the former tango, but it
is limpid and uninspiring from my standpoint as a dancer.  It just doesn t
have the punch, the oomph that the older music has.
       If you listen to the older music, you ll notice that when the
bandoneon is doing long, drawn out notes then one of the other instruments
is taking care of the oomph.
A perfect example is Di Sarli s use of strings.  On many songs, it sounds
like there isn t even any bandoneon, except for a little of the melody.
 A good drive and rhythm is sustained by his peculiar use of the violins.
 Pugliese was a master at keeping that drive in the bass notes of the
piano.  Even the bass can keep that oomph, alternating from a long, bowed
note accented on the full beat, and a sharp, pizzicato note on the half
beat.  This was actually perfected (in my opinion) by Hector Console,
playing with Piazzolla s quintet.  The few tracks that I find interesting
to dance to are the ones with that particular style bass or a more rhythmic
use of the bandoneon.  (Contrabajisimo after the solo, and tanguedia
III)
       I don t think that the tango has to have a particular rhythm to
be tango.  The vals criolla, milonga and candombe all generate a tango
feel for me.
What defines the tango to me is a regular, driving rhythm that propels
the music forward. What creates this drive for me is the drawn out, approach
to the first accent, which is accented sharply with a staccato counter
beat.  This drawn out entry and explosive of tension is what drives the
music along.  It has an incredibly sexual connotation, and is what gives
the tango it repressed sensuality.  Tango is a music that teases its
listeners more than anything else does.  The next note is always anticipated,
and the release of tension in fleeting at best.  This is why it just
feels good just to step with the music, and why the dance is such an
emotional and sensual thing.  I think it is similar with the  swing
that jazz musicians used and dragged Americans onto the dance floors
in droves.
       Piazzolla has songs with unique rhythms that sustain a tango feel
and drive, like libertango or tanguedia, but those are exceptions rather
than the rule.  For the most part, Piazzolla s music simply lacks the
drive that I feel in tango music.  It is so refined that I would say
that it is more classical than tango.  The majority of it is unique to
Piazzolla.  I equate Piazzolla and tango to George Gershwin in jazz.
 Much like Gershwin s Rhapsody in Blue is classical music with a jazz
flare and playfulness, Piazzolla made classical music with tangos emotions.
 They both made operas based on the popular forms of music that they
began with.  Both are unique musicians, whose works don t fall well into
any category.  To define Piazzolla s music as tango is to underscore
its unique place in music history.  If you wish to call it tango for
lack of a better definition, that s fine, but I d prefer to just call
it  Piazzolla.
       I would like to see modern musicians take the wonderful contributions
Piazzolla made to the use of the bandoneon, as well as the melodic and
harmonic possibilities within the tango, and move beyond them.  I m waiting
for someone to take the new and old tangos, reconcile their differences,
and create a modern tango that is infused with the vitality of the old,
and the sophistication of the new.
--
Clayton Beach
akumushi @onebox.com


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