cates taacetornd en err OE Tr) Imeem Copy ay Recordar ntl Pay Oa ie ener at od Conn her ene ere nd eee enen enced reer ee nr eerie etn pomnenontaarienenbeeniaer ren enn hs eaten recont Aer tering PO ee ee ee eee ee ee Te re) ee ee en eres a a ee eee Oe ee Tay ee ee eee eee es Pe cE eee ect eet ad en eee ee ee stage dance. ‘The inability of the great majority af dancers to red music as long been an ee a eee eee ren ene ant ee et eee a tee era eee or oe ee ees a ce eee ee een eee pee ree Se Pe re eee es Femme epee pert paratitla orpeten ean ioc en ‘Tango — Let's dance to the music! rere ‘Tango music for dancers without musical education | Book + Videos + Audio for practi 2 chapters on teaching musi o tango dancers Pen ert at asTango Let’s dance to the music! Tango music for dancers without musical education Joaquin AmenabarAmenabar, José Joaquin Tango let's dance to the music! : tango music for dancers without musical education. - la ed. - Buenos Aires : el autor 2009. 136p.+ | DVD cil; 21x17 om. Acknowledgements ISBN 978-987-05-55742 ge sae, E | SY |. Tango. |. Titulo CDD 784.188 85 Many thanks to: Francisco Alvero, Jill Barret, Andreas Benndorf, Sarah Bonnar, Werner Cassel, Published by Joaquin Amendbar Nathalie De Broglio, Fernando Diaz, Bob Dronski, Juan Elter, Paola Gallarato, Address: Cabrera 4500 PB 7 — |414 : Tim Girven, Mariana Gonzalez Alberti, Ricardo Heredia, Alexis Jalife, Tamara Buenos Ares — Argentina Juhan, Jiirgen Lembcke, Kay MacDermot, Valeria Matsuda, Jean Oclrich, Paola Palaia, Julio Parajén, Oliver Quick, Beatrix Satzinger, Heinz Schulz-Wimmer, Federico Stafforini, Lothar Staudacher, Andrea Uchitel, Antoinette Wilson, Email: info@joaquinamenaban.com.ar www.joaqu inamenabancom.ar Copyright © Joaquin Amendbar 2009 Michael Young. rirst published 2009 Dancers: The author has asserted his moral rights in the work. Fernando Diaz and Paola Gallarato Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14. This book is copyright. Except for the purposes of fair reviewing,no part of this publication (whether it be in any eBook, digital, electronic or traditionally printed format or otherwise) Michael Young and Beatrix Satzinger may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, digital or Chapters 12, 15 and 17. mechanical, including CD, DVD, eBook, PDF format, photocopying, recording, or any infor mation storage and retrieval system, including by any means via the internet or World Wide Web, or by any means yet undiscovered, without permission in writing from the publisher Infringers of copyright render themselves liable to prosecution. ISBN 978-987-05-5574-2 Cover illustration and design: Ricardo Heredia Back cover photo: Alexis Jalifecae pone wine ramets Sete penne eee Contents i Introduction Purposes of this method Parts and characteristics of the method How to use the method Chapter 1: Rhythm Chapter 2: Simple-time step Chapter 3: Double-time step Chapter 4: Half-time step Chapter 5: Melodic rhythm in tango Chapter 6: Melody without the four-beat basic rhythm Chapter 7: Melody played along with a rhythmic base Chapter 8: Dialogue between different melodies Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango Chapter 10: Syncopation Chapter 11: 3-3-2 syncopation Chapter 12; Off-beat Chapter 13: Milonga Chapter 14: The vaés criollo or tango waltz Chapter 15: The music as a starting point for planning choreography Chapter 16: Teaching tango music to dancers without musical education , Chapter 17: The music as a starting point to teaching a figure 1 13 13 19 24 26 31 35 39 41 43 45 57 63 71 74 83 88 112 119Introduction SS] his book is written for dancers who have no musical education. | think that, just as a musician in an orchestra uses his instrument to play a tango, we dancers can play the tango with the instrument that is our body. Much has been said about people dancing tango without paying attention to the music. Tango doesn’t have a fixed rhythmic pattern that is repeated throughout, as is the case in most dances. In tango there are permanent changes within different types of rhythm: simple, double and half-time steps, pauses of different lengths, different types of syncopation, rhythmic variations in the melody, etc. Therefore, following every detail of the music of tango as we dance is far from easy. Not much has been done to teach tango music to dancers and generally, when done, the musical terminology has distanced the dancer from the music rather than bringing him or her closer to it. I believe that once they have learned in a simple way and with a “dancer’s” vocabulary the elements to be found in tango music, most people who “do not listen to the music” can hear those elements much better and can follow them. ‘That is the target of this book: to present the greatest possible number of rhythmic cases in tango music in a simple way and using a dancer’s language. Present, explain and demonstrate each rhythmic case simply, without using musical terminology at all, and guide dancers in their practice, chapter by chapter, with audio and visual aids so they will become accustomed to recog- nising and dancing the different rhythmic cases in tango music. Some people, especially teachers and some advanced dancers, might find these explanations simplistic. | have been doing this work for ten years now and Pm convinced that this way of presenting the information helps people who 9Tango: Lets dance to the music! have no musical education at all to understand even the most difficult types of rhythm. I also think that when the time comes to teach music together with steps and technique, the teacher will need to find a way to put across the music information in the easiest way possible for a class of thirty or forty people of whom 90 per cent won't have any musical education. So at that moment, this method might be an example to follow for incorporating tango music in the dancers’ training. The tangos | have selected for the musical examples on the accompanying DVD are not selected according only to my own musical taste, but because they are the easiest examples to understand. Some of the recordings are very old and the quality is imperfect, but I have given priority to the didactic aspect in choosing the best examples, rather than to the quality of the recording. The music used in the exercises is only the portion of the tango that contains the rhythmic example being studied. Each one is short so that the rhythmic example can be repeated and practiced numerous times in a short period. However, in the folder “MP3” on the accompanying DVD all of the tangos used as examples can be found in their complete form. ‘The reader can copy these tangos from the DVD. ‘The title of each tango also contains the chapter number it relates to, for example “Chap 5-7-16-La Maleva’ is the complete tango that is heard in parts in the exercises in chapters 5, 7 and 16. ‘The system of writing the music for dancers that I present in this book has been registered as intellectual property and its use, totally or partially, is prohibited in books, DVDs or on websites. I have no problem, however, with teachers using it for their classes in order to illustrate the exercises they do with their students. The system of writing the rhythm of the music for dancers is fully explained in “Chapter 15: Choreographic planning starting from the music”. I’ve used the system to represent the different rhythms from the beginning of the book, so you can either go directly to Chapter 15 and read everything referring to the system of writing the music for dancers there, or you can go chapter by chapter and learn the system gradually, since I use it partially in the beginning according to each rhythmic example. Since there are already other systems for counting beats and representing the accents for tango music, in Chapter 15 there is a comparative explanation and a diagram showing different systems and their interchangeability, in case you use one of those systems, so you can transfer the illustrations to the system you are accustomed to working with. 10 Introduction the purposes of this method A: To allow dancers who have no musical training, cannot read music, and don’t know the value of notes and figures — as is the case for the majority of tango dancers — to gain a comprehension of tango music in all its richness and particularity. This is done through simple explanations and a well-struc- tured listening program of the different rhythmic cases that we find in tango music. Being a method for dancers who have no musical training, the usual musical terminology has been replaced by one that may sound odd to those dancers who are also musicians. For example, we use the term “double-time step”, a terminology that has been used for a long time in tango teaching, for the situation in which we do one more step than in the “simple-time step”. A musician reading this may misunderstand it and think it means the opposite, because in music notation, the note representing “double time” lasts half the time of that used to represent “single time”. A dancer, though, thinks in terms of the number of steps he does, and he does two steps instead of one, thus the concept of “double”. The same goes for the “half-time step”, as I call the case where we only do one step in the first of the four-beat rhythm. Written as musical notation, the note representing this “half-time step” lasts twice as long as the note representing the “simple-time step”, yet a dancer is doing half the amount of movement he would do in the “simple-time step”, and this is why I call it “half-time step”. I know the name “half-time step” can sound odd because it sounds as if you're doing a step and holding the movement in the middle of it, but we make clear it doesn’t mean that: “half” is just to put something opposite “double”, always related to the reference unit which is the “simple-time step”. B: To achieve the maximum possible connection and coordination between the music and the dancers’ movements. The aim is for a dancer to move according to elements within the music, in response to what he/she hears. Thus we change the roles in a dancing couple from: Leader <-------- > Follower Rhythmic leader: the music <-------- > Follower: the dancing couple When we dance, while the leader decides which type of figure/step to use 11Tango: Lets dance to the music! to follow the rhythm, it is the music that dictates the rhythm to which the movements will be done. : To be able to use our bodies as a musical instrument that “plays” the music just as the instruments in an orchestra do, and so enjoy the infinite possibili- ties for rhythmic improvisation that tango music allows us. : To go beyond comprehension of basic tango rhythm so the dancer becomes familiar with different rhythmic options — simple-, double- and half-time steps, syncopation, 3-3-2 syncopation, off-beat, melodic rhythms, etc. Also to understand the tango as a musical form, becoming aware of its struc- ture, phrasing, system, etc., and so allow the dancer to anticipate rhythmic changes, etc. With this comprehension, the dancer will be able to choose the types of movements that best represent all of the musical elements in the improvised dance, and obtain a close correspondence between his/her movements and the music. Also, in terms of choreography, the dancer will be able to plan and design figures that will allow the expression of all his/her aesthetic ideas, and do so in exact connection with cach detail of the music he/she is dancing to. To attain the highest level of communication possible within the dancing couple in relation to how they respond to the music. If our movements respond sensitively to the music, they will feel logical, rather than arbitrary, to our dance partner. While dancing tango, there is no better feeling than when a dancer makes a movement suggested by the music at exactly the moment when his/her partner was waiting for that same type of movement. On the other hand, there is nothing so uncomfortable as hearing something in the music urging us to move in a certain way, only to have our dance partner ignore it completely and force us to dance in a way that has no relation at all to what is happening in musical terms. Asa self-training tool for the dancer. This method consists of a written guide that describes the working process stage by stage, and a number of audio and video tracks with material that has been selected and ordered according to different melodic and rhythmic cases. The method is a working tool to improve a dancer's musical knowledge even if he or she is not an advanced dancer, and by following it you will find that you can do complex rhythmic exercises with very simple steps. So, a dancer will evolve technically and, at the same time, develop a practical musical knowledge from the very begin- ning of his experience of dancing tango. 12 Introduction G: A working tool for tango teachers. Using this method, the teacher will be able to combine the teaching of a step, or technique, with the type of music to which that step should be used, thus creating in the dancer's mind and body a close correspondence between movements and music. The teacher will find, chapter-by-chapter, types of music classified according to each rhythmic case, as well as precise teaching procedures to teach the different elements of tango music. This means that a teacher will be able to train dancers in musical and technical aspects of tango in parallel from the very beginning of the learning process. Parts and characteristics of the method This method consists of: * One book with seventeen chapters explaining all the concepts of each subject, and providing directions for the work to be done with the audio and video tracks on the DVD. * One DVD divided into chapters, with the audio and video examples related to each chapter of the book. To work with the DVD you need a DVD player or a computer. On the DVD there is a folder named “MP3” which contains the complete musical pieces from which the examples were taken. You will only see this folder when using the DVD on a computer. You can download and copy to your computer the complete pieces from that folder. the chapters of the book Chapter 1: Rhythm What is “rhythm”? What is the rhythm of a “dance”? What is tango rhythm? What is the difference between tango and other dances in the rhythmical aspect? This is probably the most important chapter in terms of concepts. I recommend that it be read more than once if necessary because it explains in detail the main characteristics of tango music and how it differs from other dances, especially in terms of tango’s “melodic rhythm”. Some of the basic concepts of tango music in this book are found in this chapter, so it is important to understand it before moving on. Chapter 2: Simple-time step Definition and practice with audio and video tracks. 13Tango: Lets dance to the music! Chapter 3: Double-time step Definition and practice with audio and video tracks. Chapter 4: Half-time step Definition and practice with audio and video tracks. Chapter 5: Melodic rhythm in tango As the tango is a very particular dance in chat it has no fixed rhythmic pattern, the way the musical phrasing and the rhythm are structured depends on the melody. Changes in rhythm are determined by the musical phrasing. For this reason, it is important to understand the principles by which the melody works. This is also a prerequisite for understanding tango and its parts as a musical form, which we go on to analyse in “Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango”. Chapter 6: Free melody without the four-beat basic rhythm Definition and practice of cases where the only rhythmic element we hear is the melody. Chapter 7: Melody played along with a rhythmic base Definition and practice of cases where there are two or more rhythmic elements. Chapter 8: Melodies dialogue Melodies that dialogue within themselves, and that give us the possibility of playing different roles within the dancing couple. Definition and practice. Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango : ‘The tango as a musical form has several parts with a precise structure of melodic phrases. These parts are organised in a system of repetitions, changes of tonality, etc. The structure of each part is built with a system of phrases that relate within themselves in a system of questions-answers and have a precise length that will be essential to determine the placing of the rhythmical changes in tango. In this chapter we will analyse this topic and practice dancing following the form and structure of tango. 14 Introduction Chapter 10: Syncopation Definition and practice of the most common cases of syncopation with audio and video examples. Chapter 11: Syncopation — 3-3-2 rhythm Definition and practice with audio and video examples. Chapter 12: Off-beat Definition and practice with audio and video examples. Chapter 13: Milonga — the milonga rhythmic pattern Single- and double-time in milonga. ‘The traspié and its different locations in the milonga. Practice with audio and video examples. Chapter 14: The vals criollo or tango-walz Single and double time in the wads criollo. Comparison with the Vienna-waltz. Practice with audio and video examples. Chapter 15: Choreographic planning starting from the music Taking the form and structure of the tango as a starting point, the choreography is worked out part by part, phrase by phrase, according to the rhythmic char- acter of each phrase. The aim is to obtain an exact representation of the music in the movements and dance steps. How to memorise figures without having to listen to the music a huge number of times. Chapter 16: Teaching tango music to dancers without musical education In this chapter teachers will find information about preparing classes, using audio tracks on the computer, the diagrams, the recorded metronomes, etc., to help them to teach music to tango dancers who have no musical education, both in groups or individually. Chapter 17: Teaching a step using the music as a starting point In this chapter tango teachers will find ideas to teach a step starting from the music, thus creating the relation “movement/ music” from the beginning of the learning process. Identifying the type of music where the figure is applied, and changing the motion of the figure with changes of the music. 15Tango: Lets dance to the music! How to use the method In each chapter you will find: A: B: An explanation of the chapter's content. An explanation of how to proceed stage by stage with the exercises. It is important to follow each step in order to be able to do the exercises without difficulty. : Audio tracks with musical examples to work with. Each track is numbered: “Audio track 3-4”, for example, refers to audio track number 3 of Chapter 4, : Audio tracks with the same musical example accompanied rhythmically by the claves, a percussion instrument consisting of two sticks struck together to mark the exact placing of the rhythm that we want to highlight. For example, if you are working with simple-time step, you will hear a tango, or part of a tango, to which we want to do simple-time step, and the claves will be marking the first and third beat of the simple-time step. Thus, the dancer will be guided-in where to place their feet in relation to the music example being played. In those cases where you have to distinguish between different melodies, you will find audio tracks with solo instruments playing each of the parts to help you to differentiate between them. Audio tracks with the same examples but without the claves. Without the claves playing, the dancer places the accents working with the actual track, without any rhythmic assistance. : Videos of a dancing couple doing the exercises for the different thythmic examples. Thus the dancer has a visual reference to compare what he is doing with the video. The video tracks are numbered like the audio tracks: Video 2-4 refers to the video number 2 of Chapter 4. : Audio cracks of different music with the same type of rhythm as in each chapter’s exercise, so you are able to practice what you have learned with other music of the same type. The idea of this method is to create a practical working and training tool, ot a theory about tango music. Nevertheless, I do briefly write, using non-academic language, on topics I consider imperative if we are to reach an understanding of the work we're doing, to enable dancers to progress without problems. ‘Therefore, I strongly recommend that you: 16 Introduction A: Read the chapters in order, as they have been carefully considered so as to B: allow a gradual, structured learning. Carefully read each subject’s explanation before you do the practical exer- cises. If you do not understand a concept on first reading a chapter, read it again until you do. Do not go straight to the practical exercises without reading and understanding the explanation. : In each chapter we deal with a specific theme. Listen to the audio tracks concentrating only on the particular subject of the exercise. Do not try to go further because, while there may be more elements to distinguish in the music, they will probably be the subject of further chapters, and you will’ be making your work unnecessarily complicated if you try to understand all elements at the same time. For example: let’s suppose you are being asked to find the placing of the basic four-beat rhythm and the four-beat rhythm example also has a melody played in another rhythm. Just try to focus on the basic four-beat rhythm, because there will be other chapters dealing specifically with melodic rhythm. : In each chapter you will be told which steps to use with the different tracks, how to progress in recognising rhythms by ear, and then to practice walking or dancing them. Do the exercises following the instructions in each case. If you cannot manage an exercise, start the process again from the beginning and follow all the steps again until you can do the exercise. Important! While you are listening to the music and counting time or accents, do not walk or dance! Likewise, when you are dancing, do not count, just sing or “speak” the music by ear and move your body. As the difference between these activities is not clear to many people, it has often been an impediment in teaching music to dancers. Counting — rational —and moving — not rational — use different sides of the brain. For this reason it is not ideal to do them at the same time. When you are asked to tap a rhythm by hitting your thigh with your hand rather than clapping your hands, it is because clapping makes so much noise that you're unable to hear the music clearly. When you hit your thigh you feel the percussion in your body but it doesn’t make a distracting noise. : In many cases you are instructed to sing the melody or the rhythm along with the music. There are important reasons to do that when you practice and it will help enormously to achieve the goal of the exercise. Now, it 17Tango: Lets dance to the music! doesn’t make any difference if you sing or “speak” the music, since what we are working with is the rhythmic element of the melody, not the intonation. To understand what we mean when we say “sing the melody”, go now to “Chapter 16: Teaching tango music to dancers without musical education”, and in the point “4-2” you will find the explanation and also the musical example of “speaking” the melody so you can use it from the very beginning of the book. : Last but not least! Most of the music examples are very short because they are a section of the tango that contains the specific rhythmic case you are asked to work with. If you hear it once and go on, you might have under- stood it but you probably won't be able to use it while dancing the whole tango. I advise you to listen many times to the examples, and to do many times the exercise of recognising them while hitting your thigh or walking with them. When you want to work with the whole tango, rather than the isolated section with the example, you will only be able to do it if you have repeated the exercises many times. Understanding is not enough: you have to practice it! 18 Chapter 1: Rhythm SS] at is “rhythm”? What is the rhythm of a “dance”? What is tango rhythm? Whar is the difference between tango and other dances in the rhythmical aspect? These questions may sound simplistic but it is astonishing how much confusion there is about them among dancers. @ Listen to Audio I-1. Is the example in Audio 1-1 a rhythm? Before answering, let’s listen to another example: @ Listen to Audio 2-1. What is the difference between the two audio tracks? Audio 1-1 is a sequence of beats in which all the beats are the same, so you cannot establish a difference between them, and thus you cannot count them. Audio 2-1, however, has a regular accent that occurs after a certain number of beats. The example in Audio 2-1 has three beats: it is a three-beat rhythm. @ Listen again to Audio 2-1: This is indeed a complete rhythm, because there is a regular accent that occurs — every three beats, in this case. The accent is the _ element that allows us to start the count and finish with the next accent. @ Listen and train yourself to determine the types of rhythm in Audio 3-1 and 4-1, They are two-beat and four-beat rhythms respectively. 19Tango: Lets dance to the music! G® Listen to Audio 5-1, in which an orchestra plays a tango. Find the strong accent and starting from it, count to find how many beats the tango rhychm has. G Listen to Audio 6-1, in which you will hear the same recording but this time with the claves marking the principal accent, just in case you were not able to find it yourself. If you count starting from the main accent, you will find the tango rhythm is a four-beat rhythm. Now that we know what a rhythm is, let’s study what rhythm is in terms of dance. What is the rhythm of a “dance”? Not all music is dance music. When we talk about “dance”, each “dance” rhythm has two different rhythmic elements: 1: The basic count that could be a rhythm of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc., beats. 2: A fixed rhythmic pattern buile on the basic count, working on each of the beats of the basic rhythm, and giving them a particular treatment: accenting some, subdividing others, putting a rest on yet another, etc. This “fixed rhythmic pattern” will be repeated throughout the dance, and it is this element that allows us to identify a particular dance. To understand this practically, we'll analyse the rhythmic pattern of the milonga. As in all dances, we have these two elements: 1: A basic count that, in the case of the milonga, is a two-beat rhythm. 2: A fixed rhythmic pattern that is built as follows: the first time section is subdivided into two unequal parts and the second time section is divided into two equal parts. If we consider each time section as a one Euro coin, the first Euro will be divided into a 75 cents coin and a 25 cents coin. The second Euro will be divided into two 50-cent pieces. Thus, we have the following fixed rhythmic pattern: 20 & + Rhythm Two-beat basic rhythm: i 2 I L Milonga’ fixed pattern: 2 3 4 1 3 Th UW 2s £0 Cy, £0 %&% Lo ee Listen to Audio 7-1 to hear how this fixed rhythmic pattern sounds. You will hear the claves that mark the two beats of the original basic rhythm. After a while another percussive instrument that marks simultaneously the milonga fixed rhythmic pattern and then the music of a milonga. This fixed rhythmic pattern will be repeated throughout almost the whole milonga, and is the distinctive element of this dance. When we hear this fixed pattern, we immediately know that it is a milonga: we do not need to hear any special melody to recognise it, just the rhythmic pattern. If we only hear the basic two-beat count instead, we won't realise that it is a milonga, since a great deal of music has a basic two-beat count. It is the fixed rhythmic pattern that allows us to identify a particular dance. Tango is completely different! Why? In the second half of the nineteenth century, a great number of immigrants came to Argentina from Italy, especially from Naples and the south of Italy, as well as from Spain and Germany. They brought beautiful, rich melodies with them to the Rio de la Plata region (Buenos Aires and Uruguay), which had their origins in the Neapolitan “canzona’, the operas of Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, etc., “rondallas” from Spain and the “Lieder” of Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, 21Tango: Lets dance to the music! Wolf, etc. Amongst the immigrants were educated musicians who became music teachers to many young Argentine composers. ‘The milonga that already existed in Argentina was a sung poem, in which the most significant element was the lyrics, the music being a very simple melody to sustain the poem. The rhythm of the milonga is the fixed pattern that we have analysed above. People began playing the rich melodies that arrived at this time with the milonga rhythm, and this is how tango was born. This new musical form, rich in melody, but with no lyrics, had the fixed rhythmic pattern of the milonga only now with three parts, while the original milonga campera — milonga from the countryside — had an instrumental introduction and only one sung part. But the melodic and rhythmic richness of these new melodies clashed with the fixed rhythmic pattern of the milonga that forced them to be played always with the same rhythm, something that made these melodies lose their character. Thirty-five to forty years later, at some point between 1910 and 1920, the tango underwent a very important rhythmic change and as a result became the modern tango that we dance today. What was the nature of this change? The change that occurred was that the fixed pattern of milonga in early tango disappeared. The modern tango had a new rhythmic structure with the following two elements: A: A basic four-beat count. B: The melodic phrase with its own rhythmic accents that are not tied to any fixed rhythmic pattern. Each phrase has its own accents in accordance with each melody. Thus, the rhythm of tango is zota fixed rhythmic pattern anymore. This is the really important change between the original tango and the modern tango that appeared around 1915 to 1920, the tango that we dance to. NOT the change from writing it with a 2/4 rhythm or a 4/8 rhythm or a 4/4 rhythm notation, as has been said and repeated so much, We could write both types of tango, the one from the very beginning — around 1860 to 1910 — and the modern tango — starting around 1915/1920 — with any one of these three musical notations. ‘he difference is another one: it is either music with a 22 Rhythm fixed rhythmic pattern — the old tango — or it is music without a fixed rhythmic pattern, where the melody imposes its own rhythm with cach new melodic phrase. This latter model is the one to which the modern tango responds. (I mean by “modern tango” the one that starts 1915/1920, not Piazzolla, etc.) This system combining a rhythmic base of so many beats and a melody with its own rhythm, without any fixed rhythmic pattern, was taken by the tango from the classical music that all chose European immigrants brought with them at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. We have used words like “melody”, “melodic phrase”, “accents of the melody”, etc., and yet we have not explained what a melody is, what a melodic phrase is, etc. We will go on to analyse these concepts in “Chapter 5: Melodic rhythm in tango”, but before then we will work with the more basic rhythmic units: simple-time step, double-time step, half-time step — concepts that we will later use insofar as they relate to melodic rhythm. 23Chapter 2: Simple-time step Sa] G® Listen carefully to Audio 1-2. You are hearing two different elements: A: The melody. B: The accompaniment. GP Listen to Audio 2-2 to recognise the melody. @ Listen to Audio 3-2 to recognise the accompaniment that marks the four- beat rhythm. In this exercise we will follow the accompaniment. GP Listen to Audio 1-2 again and following the accompaniment, try to locate where the stronger accent is. Count how many beats there are until the next strong accent. You will find that the tango rhythm is a four-beat rhythm. If you listen carefully, you will find that there is another accent, not so strong, on the third beat. We walk with a simple-time step when we walk with these two beats, the first and third beat, which is where the accents are placed. Il ; é i bo Lo 24 bo at hom be lee dhe = ” Simple-time step Exercises @ Exercise 1: Listen to Audio 4-2, in which the claves mark the first and third beat to help you find the location of the simple-time step. Listen to the example several times without walking until you feel clearly the first and third time where the accents are. G® Exercise 2: Staying with Audio 4-2, walk with the first and third beat along with the claves, feeling the steps coincide with the accents of the music. @ Exercise 3: Once you have repeated Exercise 2 several times, return to Audio 1-2 where there is the same example but without the claves. Walk with the first and third beats without the help of the claves this time. You can return to Audio 4-2 if you still have doubts. Exercise 4: To check if you are doing the exercise properly, watch Video 1-2, in which the couple does the first exercise walking and then dancing with simple-time steps. In the following days of practice it is recommended to start doing a few minutes’ practice with Audio 4-2, which has the claves, before working with Audio 1-2, which doesn’t have them. After repeating the process several times and being sure you can identify the first and third in the accompaniment, you can practice the same exercise with Audio 5-2 and Audio 6-2. First you will hear the music with the claves playing along and immediately after you'll hear the same music but without the claves, so you can practice it without any help. 25Chapter 3: Double-time step i he double-time step is the result of adding one more step to the simple- time step. Instead of walking only with the strong beats, we walk on the strong beats, the first and third, and we add one more step in one of the weak beats: the second or fourth beat. [--- Double -- ] [ ---~ Simple ---- ] ch =< a wah. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Boo Loot You can also make two or more successive double-time steps walking each one of the four beats, for example when you dance the fast part of the variations of the tango, or when you add another step to a regular double-time step when » you change weight or for some other reason. Two successive double-time steps: { Double 1! Double ! ae 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 i I t I t L L However, the most common case is the regular double-time step, that is, adding one more step to the simple-time step whether in the second beat or the fourth beat, and this is the case we will study now. 26 a Double-time step Adding a step in the second beat: 1 2 3 4 » 2 3 4 L L L i I t l 1 Adding a step in the fourth beat: i 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 I coon bores: Mami enna Loo All the most common double-time figures, such as the cunita, ocho cortado, molinete, use this regular double-time step. As the four beats in tango rhythm are regular, while doing the exercises, you wont feel any difference between the two models — doing the double-time step with first, second and third or with third, fourth and first. This is not the case in milonga, where the four beats are not regular. Each rhythmical unit of four times, being danced with a regular double-time step, will have three steps instead of two but in the same period of time that you do two simple steps. Regular double-time step: & ee. =. i 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 1 a a Simple-time step: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 I i L Be [ tL i. Lu. It is convenient to use double-time steps when you can hear clearly in the music the four-beat rhythmic base played strongly. As we will see later, in tango 27Tango: Lets dance to the music! music this is not always the case, sometimes we hear only two beats — the first and third — and sometimes only one — the first — in which cases we prefer to use simple or half time steps instead of using double time. Exercises G» Exercise 1: Listen carefully to the example in Audio 1-3 and recognise the four beats of the tango rhythm. @ Exercise 2: Without walking, listen to the example of Audio 2-3, where you will find the first, second and third beats reinforced with the claves. @) Exercise 3: Walk with the first, second and third beats with the claves, feeling how the steps coincide with the timing of the music. Make the move as follows: first step forward, backward second and third forward. # Watch Video 1-3, where a couple dances the example, to ensure you are doing the exercise correctly. G? Exercise 4: Once you have repeated the exercise several times, return to Audio 1-3 and practice walking with double-time step with the first, second and third beat, this time without the help of the claves. Gm Exercise 5: Without walking, listen to the example of Audio 3-3 where the claves mark the first, third and fourth beat, this time until you clearly feel the location of the double-time step in those beats. G) Exercise 6: staying with Audio 3-3, walk stepping on the first, third and fourth beats with the claves, feeling how your steps coincide with the accents of the music. G) Exercise 7: Once you've repeated the exercise several times, return to Audio 1-3, which is the same music but without the claves, and perform the exercise without the help of the claves. If you feel unsure, go back to Audio 3-3 until you are sure, and then return to the track of Audio 1-3. Use the same type of step that you see in Video 1-3, a step forward, one step back and another step forward. 28 Double-time step # Watch Video 2-3, in which a couple uses the double time walking and then dancing on the first, third and fourth beats, to ensure you are doing the exercise correctly. Repeat the process for a few minutes several times with Audio 4-3 and 5-3, which have the claves the first time and do not have them the second time. When to use the double-time step We have said that it is more convenient to use the double-time step when the four-beat rhythm can be heard clearly in the music. When that doesn’t happen and we only hear the first and third or only the first beat, it’s preferable to use the simple-time step or the half-time step instead of the double-time step. That's why we prefer to reserve our figures or steps that contain double-time steps for the phrases where the four beats are clearly marked, especially in phrases where the question-answer system — see “Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango” — opposes phrases with well-marked four beats to phrases that suggest slow motion movements. This is not obligatory; it is simply more convenient. Let’s see in the following examples, the better places to apply the double-time step in relation to the musical phrase. @ Exercise 8: Listen to Audio 6-3. In the first phrase you can hear a strong accent on the first and third beats, which suggests dancing with a simple-time step. In the second phrase, however, the orchestra clearly marks the four-beat rhythm, which invites us to change and dance using a double-time step. @ Exercise 9: Listen to Audio 7-3, where a bandoneén and the claves, playing along with the music, mark the orchestral accompaniment in the two phrases. Walk with the first sentence using a simple-time step and with the second one using a double-time step, following the mark of the bandoneén and the claves. @ Exercise 10: Once you have repeated it several times, do the same work with Audio 6-3, where you have the same example but without the bandoneédn and the claves. 29dango: Lets dance to the music! © Watch Video 3-3, in which a couple does the exercise, first walking and then dancing, to check if you are doing the exercise correctly, 4» Exercise 11: You can repeat the process with Audio 8-3, where the first phrase is played in simple-time step and the second in double-time step. The claves will help you the first time and the second time you will do it without any help. 30 4, Chapter 4: Half-time step 7, [ Chapter 3, we saw that the double-time step results from adding one more step to the simple-time step. In tango it is also common to have one step less than the simple-time step; instead of making two steps for every four beats, walking on the first and third beats with the accents, we sometimes only do one step on the first beat. We do this when the music marks only the first beat with no accent on the other three beats. The melody may continue but without marking any other beat except the first one. As opposed to the double-time step applied to the case where we add a step, we use the name half-time step when we make one step less than in the simple- time step: that is, we only walk with the first beat. Simple-time step: 1 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 Lo. a L a a a i me Double-time step: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 fo. a Lo. 31Tango: Lets dance to the music! Half-time step: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 L Lo Lo. a You should not try to apply this reasoning to ordinary musical denomination if you are a musician, because it does not work with the same logic: in fact, it is exactly the opposite. But for dancers without musical education, it is logical to think this way, because they do double or half the amount of movements in each case, and that is why we use this denomination, and actually the names “simple-time” and “double-time” steps have been in use for many years now. Therefore, when the music is only marking the first of the four beats, we will make only one step with the first beat, which is where the main accent is placed. -_ With the half-time step you can apply figures suitable for use in the pauses: all kinds of slow motion ornamentation such as slow voleos, ldpiz, planeos, etc. ‘These pauses, which last from the first beat until the next first beat, are regular pauses and they last a period of time equal to two simple-time steps or four beats. In tango there are longer pauses and you cannot predict their length, but these are less frequent and you find them in particular periods of some orches- tras — the last period of Osvaldo Pugliese’s orchestra and some recordings of the last period of Anibal Troilo’s orchestra are two examples of this, when the orchestras performed more often at formal concerts and less often at dances. If we listen instead to Osvaldo Pugliese’s orchestra recordings of 1947, or Anibal Troilo’s orchestra recordings of 1943, the pauses are usually regular and last one half-time step. Exercises G Exercise 1: Listen to Audio 1-4. You will hear two different elements in the music: A: The melody. B: The accompaniment marking the basic four-beat rhythm of tango. 32 pete ot ee a oe pees 3 Half-time step G Exercise 2: Listen to Audio 2-4 where you will hear the melody. @ Exercise 3: Listen to Audio 3-4 where you will hear the accompaniment which is the element marking the rhythm. In this exercise we will follow the accompaniment. The accompaniment marks the four-beat basic rhythm of tango. You can walk with either simple-time step or double-time step to the four-beat rhythm, but then comes a phrase where the accompaniment only marks the first beat three successive times. For these three times you will only make one step with the first beat. After that, when the orchestra marks all four beats again, you can go back to dancing either with simple-time step or double-time step. Listen again to Audio 1-4 a few times until you can recognise the music easily. Singing or speaking the melody of the section where the half-time steps are will help you to remember where they are placed. @ Exercise 4: Listen to Audio 4-4, in which a bandoneén and the claves reinforce the beats of the accompaniment. These two instruments will help you recognise the change when the accompaniment switches from playing on all four beats to playing only on the first. : Listen carefully several times while singing or speaking the melody until you can easily recognise the changes. @ Exercise 5: Listen to Audio 4-4. Walk with simple-time step or double-time step until the phrase marking only the first beat begins. When the accompani- ment only marks the first beat, walk with half-time step, walking only on the first beat. This happens three times. After that, the music goes back to marking four beats. Notice that, though the notes of the melody continue being played after the first beat in the places where you are doing the half-time step, there is no beat marked by the accompaniment. This pause is not necessarily a complete silence: it is the absence of a rhythmic element marking the beat. @ Exercise 6: Do the same exercise with Audio 1-4, this time without the bandoneén and the claves marking the accompaniment. If you have difficulties doing the exercise, you can repeat it with Audio 4-4 until you are confident, and then start working with Audio 1-4 again. If you speak or sing the melody, you will easily remember the moment when the half-time step starts and this will make the exercise much easier. 33Tanga: Lets dance to the music! # Exercise 7: Watch Video 1-4, in which the couple demonstrates the exercise, to ensure that you are doing it correctly. The couple first walks and then dances the exercise. Exercise 8: Once you have done the exercise walking, try to dance it, first alone and then with your dance partner, taking advantage of the pauses to make orna- ments or slow movements. You can practice this several times before going on to practice with Audio 5-4, 6-4 and 7-4, . bo 34 == e 4 Chapter 5: Melodic rhythm in tango SS 5, N\, at is a “melody”? The melody is what we sing or whistle when we hear a song. When we are singing or whistling, we are reproducing only one element, one sound at a time: the string of sounds that make that song recognisable. We do not do rhythmic accompaniment to it or any other secondary voicing or similar. We sing the sequence of sounds that characterise that particular song and this allows us to differentiate the song from any other one. If you could somehow do a rhythmic accompaniment to that song, but take the melody out, you could perhaps recognise the type of rhythm but would not know which particular song it was. G® Listen to Audio 1-5. You will hear a tango played by an orchestra. @ Now listen to Audio 2-5 and you will hear only the melody of that tango, without all the other elements of the orchestral accompaniment. ‘This is just to understand what we mean by “melody”. Now, what do we understand by “melodic phrase”? The same as with spoken speech, musical speech is organised in phrases, although they do not have a meaning that we could translate with words. Melodic phrases express a certain state of emotion; it is a type of emotional speech. Also, like a spoken phrase, a musical phrase has a beginning, a development and an end, which normally produces a relief in the musical tension and sometimes even a brief pause. @ Listen to Audio 3-5, where different isolated phrases are being played, so you can learn to distinguish the beginning, development and end of a melodic 35Tango: Lets dance to the music! phrase. Also, as in a phrase of spoken speech, each melodic phrase has its own accentuation points. @ Listen to Audio 4-5, in which the violins play the melody while the rest of the orchestra does the accompaniment and the claves mark the accentuation points of that melodic phrase. In tango, the accents can be placed at different points of the melodic phrase, . depending on the musical speech of each melodic phrase. These points, where the accents of the melody are placed, will be the points where we dancers — if we dance following that melody ~ will be placing our steps or movements. We are representing these accents physically with our bodies, thus representing the melodic speech of that particular phrase. ‘This is completely different from the majority of dances, which have a fixed thythmic pattern and thus have accents almost always on the same spots; there- fore the steps are placed always on the same spots. In the great number of dances, the variation depends on the different type of figures we can do. In tango, if we follow the rhythm of the melody, the variation possibility is two-fold: A: The variation in the rhythm from one phrase to the other. As the accents are placed in different parts of the phrase, each new phrase can be a new rhythmical possibility. B: The variation of figures like in any other dance. How does the relation between the rhythm of the melody and the four-beat basic rhythm work? ‘The melody will be sounding above the four-beat rhythmic base. The accented points of the melody will coincide with some of those four beats, sometimes accenting only the first, sometimes the first and third, sometimes all four, some- times only the third, etc; always depending on where the accents of the melody of each phrase are placed, although they will not always be in the same place. This will give us an extremely rich music, in rhythmic terms, because each new phrase can be a new rhythmic proposal for the dancer. We understand, then, by “melodic rhythm” or “rhythm of the melody” the rhythm that each phrase will have according to where the accents of that particular phrase are placed. 36 Melodic rhythm in tango Let’s look at the elements that make tango different from other dances: A: If we follow the melody, each phrase can have a different placing of the accents, inviting us to place our steps and movements with those accents in a rhythmic system that will not always be the same and will depend on how each melodic phrase is accented. B: The four-beat basic rhythm is not going to be present all the time, sometimes we hear one beat, sometimes two, sometimes four, etc., sometimes we do not hear the four-beat basic rhythm at all. C: We can choose which element to follow according to how these different elements are presented in each phrase. If the melody doesn’t have the main role and the four-beat basic rhythm of tango as the most prominent sounding element, we will follow the rhythmic base. If the most prominent sounding element is the melody, we will instead follow the melody. It they are equal we can choose which one we want to follow. Exercises To understand this we will work with the following chart and the musical example of Audio 6-5. In the chart we have only marked the melody’s accents, leaving the accents of the accompaniment aside. @ Exercise 1: To be sure we recognise the melody of the example we will first listen to Audio 5-5, where a solo bandoneén will play the melody of the five phrases of the first part of the tango. Listen to Audio 5-5 and sing the melody along with the bandonedn until you can remember it. @ Exercise 2: Once you can remember the melody, listen to Audio 6-5. You will hear the following elements: A: The orchestra that plays the tango. B: The claves that mark the accents of the melody. Listen several times, following the chart and finding the agreement of the claves with the accents of the melody marked with “>” in the chart. You will see that the accents are situated in different places in each phrase. Even when two phrases have the same melody — Phrase 2 is the same as Phrase 37dango: Lets dance to the music! 1 — the placing of the accents can vary according to the way each phrase is being played. Phrase l _ > > > > t 2 3 4 t a 3 4 1 a 3 4 i 2 x 4 t L 1 L 1 . 1 A t ‘ t x L . L ‘ i ? a € a oe a é Phrase 2 > > > > > > > 1 2 3 a i 2 3 4 1 3 3 4 1 2 3 4a 1 an t . L ll ‘ t . L ‘ L on a é és « 3 é o & Phrase 3 > > > > i 2 3 & 1 2 3 4 1 3 3 + i 2 3 4 Ln boo Semen Laer nineteen aces Yeremennntinr é . 2 3 € $ é 2 & Phrase 4 >> > > > > > FS Ly 2 3 4 2 3 4 t 2 4 4 1 2 8 4 PB I to Book rel fo ‘ é a x a & eo “ Phrase $ > > > >> > > t 2 8 4 t 2 % $ 1 2 By 4 1 2 3 4 boo . £ ‘ i : t tonal : bo i 2 a € a e * & G» Exercise 3; Listening to Audio 6-5, walk while stepping with the accents of the melody following the claves. os 4» Exercise 4: Once you feel sure, do the same exercise with Audio 7-5, where the music now does not have the claves. GP Exercise 5: Do the exercise with your dance partner, first walking and then dancing with the accents of the melody. At the beginning, work with Audio 6-5 and afterwards with Audio 7-5. % Watch Video 1-5, where a couple demonstrates the exercise. First walking and then dancing, to be sure you are doing it correctly. 38 Chapter 6: Melody without the four-beat basic rhythm a= e refer in this chapter to the situation in which we only hear the main melody. It is the only sounding element and there is not any instrument of the orchestra playing the four-beat basic rhythm. In this case we dance with the accents of the melody and there is no second possibility. We will place our steps and movements where the accents of the melody are. We will not automatically do the steps with the basic four-beat rhythm because it is not sounding. Thus the melody will suggest what type of step to use — simple, double, half-time. Exercises: GP Exercise 1: Listen carefully to Audio 1-6 several times until you can clearly recognise the melody. The whole orchestra is playing the melody and there isn’t any instrument or group of instruments playing the four-beat basic rhythm. Sing or speak the melody along with the orchestra, accentuating the points where you think the accents are placed. G) Exercise 2: Listen to Audio 2-6, where the claves mark the accents in the melody. This is not the only possibility for placing the accents. It depends on how you hear the melody and not everybody hears the same thing. Sing or speak the melody along with the music and with your hands hit your thighs when the claves mark the accents. G» Exercise 3: Listening to Audio 2-6, walk with the accents, singing or speaking the melody. You do not mark anything with your hands this time. @) Exercise 4: Now go back to Audio 1-6 and walk to the music without the 39Tango: Lets dance to the music! claves, placing your steps or ornaments where the accents of the melody are. # Watch Video 1-6, in which the couple walks and then dances with the accents of the melody. What they are doing is not the only possibility; it depends on how you hear that melody. Practice walking and dancing with the accents of the melody, first alone and than with your dance partner. After you have practiced the exercise several times, you can practice with Audio 3-6 and 4-6. 40 Chapter 7: Melody played along with a rhythmic base i e analyse here the situation when a part of the orchestra — normally the piano, double bass and one bandoneén — mark the four-beat basic rhythm while simultaneously other instruments or a solo instrument plays a melody with a different rhythm. If we listen carefully to the accents of the melody, we find that they coincide with some of the beats of the four-beat basic rhythm that the rest of the orchestra is playing. This rhythmic coincidence is what allows both elements to function well together. In this case, you have two clearly distinct rhythmic elements: A: The melody’s rhythm. B: The four-beat basic rhythm. You can choose which one of these elements you want to dance to. Sometimes one of the two elements is clearly more relevant and your ear will follow it without hesitation. Sometimes both elements have the same importance and the dancers will choose which one they want to follow. Exercises G» Exercise 1: Listen several times to Audio 1-7, just to get to know the example. Try to find with you ear these two elements: A: The four-beat basic rhythm. B: A violin playing the melody. 4lTango: Lets dance to the music! GP Exercise 2: Listen several times to Audio 2-7, in which the piano, double bass and a bandoneon play the four-beat basic rhythm. Walk this example with simple-time and double-time steps. QD Exercise 3: Listen to Audio 3-7, in which a violin plays only the melody. Sing or speak the melody with the violin several times and then try to find where the accents or strong points of the melody are. The melody is being played twice, first without the claves and then with the claves. Gm Exercise 4: With Audio 4-7 walk with the melody. The claves will help you to find the accented points of the melody the first time. In the second repetition, the claves will not be there so you will practice finding the accents on your own. G® Exercise 5: After you have practiced several times with Audio 4-7, go back to Audio 1-7 and walk sometimes with the melody and sometimes with the four-beat basic rhythm that the rest of the orchestra plays. #8 Exercise 6: Watch Video 1-7, in which the couple first walks and then dances following the melody that the violin plays and make sure you are doing the same while dancing with the melody. Exercise 7: Watch Video 2-7, in which the couple first walks and then dances with the rhythmic base and make sure you are doing the same while dancing with the four-beat basic rhythm. G® Exercise 8: After you have confirmed with the video that you are doing the exercise well, go back to Audio 1-7 and dance with both elements in turns — once with the violin’s melody, then with the orchestral four-beat basic rhythm. You can dance any one of these two options. You might find it easier to dance with one of them or maybe not, it depends on each case and each particular ear. You can practice the same exercise with the melodies of Audio 5-7, 6-7 and 7-7, which have the same types of examples, first played with the claves and then without them. 42 oe oe Chapter 8: Dialogue between different melodies 7 his is the situation in which two melodies have a dialogue, and in which it is likely that we can split the roles between the leader and the follower. Exercises G> Exercise 1: Listen carefully to Audio 1-8 several times and try to find the following elements: A: The low-pitch melody of one bandoneén is in dialogue with the high-pitch melody of another bandonesn, in a question-answer way. B: The rest of the orchestra — piano, double bass and other bandoneéns — are playing the four-beat basic rhythm. G) Exercise 2: Listen to Audio 2-8 and walk following the bandoneén that plays the low-pitch melody. The accents of that melody are reinforced by the claves to help you distinguish it. Stay still in your place when the other bandoneén plays the high-pitch melody. @ Exercise 3: Walk with Audio 2-8, now following the bandonedén that plays the high-pitch melody and stay still in your place when the low-pitch melody with the claves sounds. @ Exercise 4: With Audio 1-8 try walking first with the low-pitch bandonedn, then with the high-pitch one, until you are accustomed to the dialogue between both melodies. 43Tango: Let's dance to the music! © Exercise 5: Watch Video 1-8 where the man follows the low-pitch melody and the woman follows the high-pitch one and make sure you are doing the exercise correctly. After watching it several times try doing the exercise with your dance partner. ea You can practice, first alone and then with your dance partner, starting with Audio 3-8, where you can dance some parts of the music together and some by reversing roles. Also, you can do the same exercise with Audio 4-8, The couple can reverse roles or you can dance together one part and split roles in the other part of the track. 44 Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango ST Bo explaining tango’s form and structure we'll learn why this knowledge is useful for the dancer in the everyday improvised dance, as well as for choreographic planning. We have already seen that the rhythm of tango will not always be the same and that it can change drastically according to the rhythm of each melodic phrase. If we do not hear those changes or cannot predict when they happen, there will always be the possibility that our steps and figures lose their connec- tion with the music that we are dancing to. The ideal way to predict those changes of mood and rhythm in the music would be by knowing the tango by heart, but there arc thousands of tangos and we cannot know them all. If we could be prepared and determine the spots where the rhythm changes, these changes of rhythm would not take us by surprise and our ability to adapt our dancing to the music would be enhanced. If we wanted to start a long sequence, for example, we could wait for the spot where the rhythm will change in order not to be taken by surprise in the middle of the figure by another rhythmic change. We could also be prepared to change the timing of the figure or step and adapt it to the character of the new rhythm. In this chapter we will study the “form” and “structure” of tango to under- stand how it is built, how many parts it has, how many phrases each part has, how those parts of the tango and the phrases function within themselves and when the rhythmic changes happen. Once we understand how the system works, we will be able to tell, not in a hundred per cent of the cases but in a great percentage indeed, when the 45Tango: Lets dance to the music! thythmic changes occur and adapt our dance to them. What is the form” in music? If we have bricks and cement we can build a house or a church or any kind of building. The material will be the same but what will make the difference will be the form of what we build, and as a consequence of that form, what we will do with those buildings. In music, although all the different types of music are built with the same notes — in the West at least: in the East the notes are different — the types of music differ not only in chythm but also in their “form”. That is, the different types of music have a particular number of parts, a system of repetition of those parts, a system of musical phrases, rhythmic changes within the different parts, changes of mode that produce changes of mood in the music, changes of speed, etc. The tango, after an early experimental period during which it was written with a different number of parts, finally came to be — approximately during the last years of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth century — a musical form with three parts, each one with a particular melody that we shall call, for practical reasons, Part A, Part B and Part C. These parts are played in the following order: beginning with Part A, then Part B, then Part A again, after that Part C and to finish, Part A again. The order, then, is: A-B-A-C-A This form has been used in many dances throughout the world and also in classical music, where it is called “Rondé”. Tangos are not always played in this form but this was the most characteristic way of playing them between 1895 and 1930. Sometimes the tango is played directly as follows: A-B-C-A-B-C But the traditional form is the Rondé: A-B—A—C-—A. In the late 1920s a new form appeared with only two parts, Part A and Part B, called “tango cancién” — cancién means “song” in Spanish. This form is simply played A-B once or twice. It doesn’t have Part C. This new form had lyrics so it 46 The form and structure of tango is a sung tango — the original tango was only instrumental. It did not replace the instrumental form; they coexisted from then on. Now that we have defined the “form” of tango, with its three parts and the order of repetition, let's look at the “structure” of each part. Each part of a tango has a particular melody that makes it recognisable and allows us to differentiate it from the other parts. Each part has generally — not always — four melodic phrases. I maintain that it is not always so: some tangos that we dance often today, like “Gallo Ciego”, “Quejas de Bandonedn’, “Suerte Loca”, have phrases of different lengths or parts that do not have four phrases. But most tangos have parts with four phrases each so what we shall look at here is valid for the majority of the tangos that we dance. The scheme of the form and structure of a regular instrumental tango is: Part A: ee wee eles ‘ot. in, th we ae Poof 8 dR ag Phrase? boo be bo boot i i : e ; 5 fo 2 3 4 4 2 2 4 2 2 8 4 4 2 8B 4 Parasex L L t te bo I 4 £ ‘ L t 1 2 38 4£ F 2 8 4 7 48 8 4 4 2 3 4 Prraes Eo a yo o2 8 4 4 2 3 $ 1 2 8 $ 4 2 8 4 phase? boo Be : : 3 ‘ ‘ “ ’ ; Part B: ee. we a. we. wt ile a. Wie Pog 8 ge Bg Phrase i La t A Lot eb 4 I t t : boo. 8 4 4 2 3 4 2 3 4 £ 2 3 4 phase? Loo bb i L 3 < 2 s S bo2 3 4 2 2 8 4 4 2 # 1 2 3 4 Poaed boo te Lo : > : ¢ 5 . ; 9 1 2 4 4 i 2 3 + i 2 3 4 L 2 3 4 Phased Loot owe Ld bo _ pb . +. 47| Part A: Part C: Part A: Tango: Let's dance to the music! Ld Whe. ite ate. ete ethien Fetian. rl. 1 2 3 4 y 2 3 4 4 2 a z Z 3 4 Paeset Loa bo boo 1 2 3 4 4 2 3 4 > 3 1 2 3 4 Phrase? Loot wee bt \ ut bo. ‘ I 2 3 4 t 2 3 4 t 2 3 i 2 3 4 Phrases L at Lt Lo 12 38 4 ¢ 2 3 &¢ 4£ 2 8 1 2 3 4 Phrased Eo ec et tl ll A i. we Bitte» Bie BE. Bie Bein he 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 t z 3 1 2 3 4 Phrase Le bt be a : 2 i fi 5 # ? £ i 2 a 4 1} = 3 4 1 2 & i 2 3 A Prose? Loo bo 1 2 8 4 4 2 3 4 4 2 8 1 2 3 4 praes boo Loot I a 3 4 i 2 3 4s i 2 3 i a 3 4 Poses (oo re 1 2 3 4 i 3 4 3 a 3 a 3 i 2 3 1 = 3 4 Pose! Qo Lo, r 2 3 4 1 2 3 d t 2 3 i 2 3 4 Parse? Lv __t web bo at 1 2 3 4 i 2 3 a r 2 3 I 2 3 4 Posse? boo | ‘ i 2 i g § é a i 3 3 4 1 2 i 3 I a 3 1 2 3 4 Paraea Loo ow a re | poe bt Loo i a é w 3 g é 48 The form and structure of tango Note: As the structure is regular, each phrase has a length of eight simple-time steps. ‘The italic numbers below the timeline indicate the length of the phrase measured in simple-time steps. We use that unit independently from the type of step we make in a figure, simply as a measure in order not to use any musical terms such as “bars”, “quavers”, “minima”, etc. The number above indicates the four beats of the four-beat basic rhythm. For more details, you can see the system of writing music for dancers explained in “Chapter 15: Choreographic planning from the music”. Exercises @ Listen to Audio 1-9. You will hear a part of a tango with its four phrases. First you will hear the whole part and after that each phrase separately, The claves mark simple-time steps independently of the type of rhythm of the phrase, in order to help you measure the length of the phrases and verify that they are four phrases and that each one has a length of eight simple-time steps. Count the claves’ ticks and you'll be able to verify this. Now that we have learnt about the form and the internal structure of each part and phrase in tango, let’s analyse how the rhythmic changes work and how to predict them in order to avoid surprises and adapt our dancing to the rhythmic variations. The type of rhythm of a melodic phrase — slow rhythm suitable for half-time steps, or fast rhythm suitable for double-time steps, etc. — normally will remain the same along the whole phrase, that is, a length equal to eight simple-time steps. I insist that we use this measure independently of the type of step that we use when we dance the phrase. Since we are not musicians, we do not measure the phrases with bars, quavers, minima, etc. If the phrase has started with a certain type of motion, fast or slow, in most cases it will remain with the same type of motion until the end of the phrase. Generally the phrases interact within themselves in a question-answer system. Sometimes Phrase 1—Question is answered by Phrase 2—Answer and Phrase 3—New question is answered by Phrase 4—Answer to Phrase 3. G» Listen to Audio 2-9, where you will hear Phrase 1 answered by Phrase 2, and Phrase 3 answered by Phrase 4. You will hear the whole part at the beginning and then each question-answer unit separately. 49Tango: Let's dance to the music! Sometimes, the answer to Phrase 1 is Phrase 4 and the answer to Phrase 2 is Phrase 3. @® Listen to Audio 3-9, where you will hear the model 1-4 and 2-3. First you will hear the whole part and then the isolated phrases. At other times all four phrases are the same. Normally when that happens, some of the instruments of the orchestra will play a solo with another melody opposed to the original one. G® Listen to Audio 4-9. In this example all four phrases are the same but in phrases 3 and 4, a violin plays a parallel melody that “asks” in Phrase 3 and “responds” in Phrase 4. When we dance tango, we must pay attention to when the end of the phrase is coming because very often it happens that the rhythmic changes are a distinctive element between the “question” and the “answer”. If a phrase has been played with notes that are smoothly linked, it is quite likely that in the answer the notes will be played in a short-cut way as a contrast. Thus it is good to make a short pause at the end of the phrase, at the point of the figure where we are to pay attention to the change and incorporate the characteristic of the new rhythm to our movements. The first notes will indicate to us the character of the new phrase, and depending on it, we will decide the type of step for the next seven or six simple- time steps Icft until the end of the phrase. When we do that little pause, we can do one or two simple steps instead of staying still, until we find out what the rhythm of the new phrase is. It also often happens that the “answer” has the same character as the “ques- tion”, so if there is a rhythmic change, it will come with the next phrase after, remaining the same rhythm now for sixteen simple steps. Hence, it is important, in order to be prepared for the rhythmic changes, to: A: Listen and pay attention to the end of each phrase. B: Make a short pause in the middle of the step we are doing, to be aware of our weight and be able to respond to the changes almost immediately. 50 ‘The form and structure of tango It is also important to plan where to start a “step” or sequence that is very long. If we start a step or sequence as long as eight simple-time steps or even longer when we are coming to the end of a phrase, we risk being caught by a rhythmic change in the middle of the figure we are dancing. This would make us lose connection between our movements and the music, since the changes normally happen when the music changes from one phrase to another. | ~~ begining a view igure --------- ceeneewememne BOW PER GTE CORMEUSE weennew were | | Roe ee ee ee ane Fast meio n Mugs -weenn naw newman weeene nner cet nen anna The key to dancing tango improvising to the music is to pay attention to the end of each phrase, being aware of our own weight and our partner's and making a brief pause — or a couple of steps — to find out the character of the new phrase. Once we have determined it, we will know we have seven or six more steps with the same type of rhythm. If it doesn’t change, we will have fifteen or fourteen more steps with the same rhythm. Thus we will be able to choose from our repertoire of steps the ones that respond better to the character of the music. @ Listen to Audio 5-9 and practice recognising the end of the musical phrases. These are first separate, then all together. Walk making a pause at the end of each phrase. ‘Ihen try to do it dancing, first alone and then with your dance par tner Sometimes a phrase of eight simple-time steps can be divided into a shorter question-answer structure, each of those small question and answer phrases having a length of four simple-time steps. This is the shortest unit for rhythmic 51Tango: Lets dance to the music! changes. You need to know the piece well or have practiced a Jot to respond to the changes in this smaller unit. Anyhow, in the majority of tangos the changes happen after eight or sixteen simple-time steps. If you listen to the ends of the phrases and make these little pauses you will be prepared to adapt your steps to the music. Also, if you recognise the melody of Part A, which if the tango has a regular form played A-B-A-C-A will be played three times, as soon as you hear the first notes of Part A, you will be prepared to recognise the whole part with its four phrases. It is very important to listen to the tangos that we like to dance to when we are at home, in the car, etc. Since we are not dancing, we can concentrate all our attention on the music, without needing to think about steps, leading, traffic on the dance floor, ete. Being familiar with tango music helps us to recognise the ends of the phrases. If you train yourself to find the ends of the phrases, you will be able to apply this method to other tangos even though you do not know them. Another very important thing is to classify the type of steps or movements, ornaments, etc., according to the type of music and to practise doing the same step in different timings. This will order your repertoire of steps according to the music and will allow you to adapt your steps to che music much more quickly. Let’s apply what has been explained above by analysing a tango from the point of view of its form and structure. GP Listen to Audio 6-9, You'll hear the tango “Marejada” by the orchestra of Carlos Di Sarli. We'll work with this tango for our exercises. G® Listen to Audio 7-9, A bandoneén plays only the melody. Sing or speak the melody along with the bandoneén until you can speak it or sing it alone. 4 Listen to Audio 8-9. You will hear Part A with its four phrases. Try to define the characteristic of that music: agile, fast motion that invites us to use double- time steps, or slow, smooth motion that invites the use of simple-time or half- time steps. The form and structure of tango @ Listen to Audio 9-9. Part A is played along with the claves, which mark the accents. Listen to it while you look at the following graphic of the four phrases. *~ ~*~ - = wa - i 2 3 4 t o2 3 4 ee) 4 1 2 3 4 Phrase ub L t L l t £ t L t i t L L L 4 i 2 2 2 a “ é wh, he ote. ee lt . ; i 2 3 4 1 2 a 2 3 Phrase2?h ok eb tw. a i 2 3 a § ? & i -~ oh. h wv. > } 2 3 4 + 2 4 y 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Phrase 31 1 LL 4 I ‘ L { ele 1 I 4 L. 1 i * 3 a F & 9 g 1 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 j 2 3 4 1 2 i 4 PoraseAh oy a web web d 2 3 ¢ > g 7 sg @ Once you can recognise the spots where the accents are, walk while listening to Audio 9-9, placing your steps on the points indicated in the graphic with the help of the claves. Afterwards do the same exercise with Audio 8-9, which doesn’t have the claves. # Watch Video 1-9. A dancing couple walks and then dances Part A according to the graphic. G@» Listen to Audio 10-9. The orchestra plays Part B with its four phrases. @ Listen to Audio 11-9. A solo bandoneén plays the first and second phrase of B. Sing or speak rhe melody along with the bandonedén until you can speak or sing it. Iry to define what type of music it is, whether it is better for slow motion or fast motion movements. @ Listen to Audio 12-9. The claves mark the accents of the melody in the first and second phrase of Parc B. Look at the graphic with the placing of the accents. 53Tango: Let's dance to the music! Part B: ‘wt... rf Be. Be Win Bie et. Wie Bh. Pop eT Bk Phraset LL. 4 tt bt is wb z 4 ; ¢ é Win, Cro. ween. Wife. =. wie Peo a gg 3 4 Phrase2 Lo. I L | | | L ‘ a a 3 4 3 é & & Once you can recognise the placing of the accents easily, walk following the claves with both phrases. GP Listen to Audio 13-9. You will hear phrases 3 and 4 of Part B. You will find two different elements here. A violin plays a melody that is not the same as the main melody. It is slow and romantic, good for simple and half-time steps. Meanwhile, the rest of the orchestra plays the rhythmic accompaniment of well- marked four beats that invites us to dance with fast movements, more likely to be danced with double-time steps. G® Listen to Audio 14-9, in which a solo violin plays the melody of phrases 3 and 4 of Part B. Sing or speak the melody with the violin until you can remember it well. Try to find where the strong points of the melody are. G® Listen to Audio 15-9, in which the orchestra plays phrases 3 and 4 of Part B. The claves mark the accents of the melody played by the violin. Walk with the accents. You can see the placing of the accents in the following graphic. Watne | ate whe. Co th. Po? 8 a4 2 gg Tg Phrase 3 Low 1 La bow é a s 4 é ; e aad we. oe... ee. whe w,. eh. me. mth. to 238 4 1 3 3) 4 — 2 37 4 oP o>! 4 Phrase4 bow GP Listen to Audio 16-9. The accompaniment is reinforced to help you to find the four-beat rhythm. Walk following the accompaniment with double-time i steps. 54 | ' The form and structure of tango @ Listen to Audio 10-9. Walk with the four phrases of Part B. In phrases 3 and 4 walk once with the violin and a second time with the accompaniment. This is just for practising. You can choose which one of the two elements — violin melody or orchestral accompaniment — you want to dance with. # Watch Video 2-9, in which the couple walks and dances Part B and follows the violin in phrases 3 and 4, to check if you are doing the exercise well. ® Watch Video 3-9, in which the couple walks and dances Part B and follows the orchestral accompaniment in phrases 3 and 4, to check if you are doing the exercise well. @ Listen to Audio 17-9, You will hear Part C with its four phrases. @ Listen to Audio 18-9. You will hear Part C with its 4 phrases and the claves marking the accents of the melody. In the following graphic you can see the placing of the accents. Part C: ae e, ot. wlen. a ‘ln t 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 1 3 4 Phraset Luo. 41 web bow : i 2 a a a : & ie When Willen a ot. ete. wh. wen whe wh. roo} en a a a Oe Phrase 2 Lov at Ek wen ‘lien Ea wi. = ee. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 I 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 Phrase 3 L_._1 | | L t Lo. at. : : 3 Z 5 6 ? ‘ Willie inane Wi Wl wl ak, ein tl Gi Sie Wien roo2 3 i 2 3Clah Dg Phrase4 Lo. 4 0. UE nd : i i 3 $ é g Walk along to Part C, helped by the claves. Once you feel secure, dance Part C, first alone and then with your dance partner. # Watch Video 4-9 and compare what you are doing with what the dancing couple does while walking and dancing Part C. 55Tango: Lets dance to the music! GP Listen to Audio 19-9. You will hear the whole tango with the claves, which mark the accents of the melody. Remember that the form of the tango is regular and played in the traditional way, A-B—A—C-A, thus Part A is being played three times. Practice the tango all the way through, first walking and then dancing. GP Listen to Audio 6-9. You will hear the whole tango without the claves this time. Walk: it and dance it, first alone and then with your dance partner. # Watch Video 5-9 where the dancers improvise to the music dancing the whole tango according to the form and structure analysis we did through the chapter. Walk and then try to dance the entire tango yourself, first alone and then with your dance partner. There are also irregular structures where the tangos can have different numbers of phrases in their parts and also where the phrases can be longer or shorter than eight simple-time steps. As already noted, there is also another form, called “tango cancidn”, that has lyrics, with only two parts, Part A and Part B. You can recognise it because there will normally be a singer singing the tango, while the other form, the three-parts Rondo, is instrumental. The music will maintain the type of rhythm along the whole phrase. The rhythmic changes will I normally appear with a new phrase or after two complete phrases. It is also a rule for the great number of tangos that if one of the parts is in major mode — happy, transparent or triumphal feeling — the other part will be in minor mode ~ sad or nostalgic or tragic feeling. Knowing the “form” and “structure” of a tango is not only important for improvised dance, but also for planning a choreography. We will study how to apply this to choreographic planning in “Chapter 15: Choreographic planning from the music”. 56 Chapter 10: Syncopation qa n this chapter we will use a simple graphic description to allow us to under- Reo and recognise the most standard syncopation in tango music without getting tangled in the complexities of its musical definition. We'll compare it with the milonga rhythm, which we have already looked at in “Chapter 1: Rhythm”, and which is the inverse case of this syncopation example. In Chapter 1 we studied the definition of what a fixed rhythmic pattern is, and we analysed the milonga’s fixed rhythmic pattern. We saw that it is a thythmic pattern built on a two-beat rhythm in which we subdivide the beats as follows: The first beat is divided irregularly and the second one is divided regularly. We have represented it with coins, saying that if we consider each one of the two beats as two euros, the first euro was divided into a coin of 75 cents and another one of 25 cents, while the second euro was divided into two 50 cent coins. See the description of milonga’s rhythm in Chapter 1. Milonga i 2 3 4 PE To understand the most common syncopation case in tango, we will invert the two coins in the first half. We will have first the 25-cent coin and then the 75-cent coin. So, the second beat will come almost immediately after the first beat. 57Tango: Lets dance to the music! Now, let’s adapt this explanation to the tango four-beat rhythm. If we look at the four-beat scheme, the syncopation beat comes exactly between the first and second beat of the four-beat basic count of tango rhythm, and is accented as the first beat is. Let’s look at the model: 1 and 2 3 4 IL boi [.2Sets}][------ 75 -cts-----][---50-cts--][---S0cts.--] Both the first beat and the syncopation beat are accented. The second beat of the four-beat rhythm is not normally played when there is syncopation. The third beat is accented as it normally is. In this case of syncopation — it is not the only one, but it is the most common — we have three accents: on the first beat, on the syncopation beat (which is placed between the first and the second beat), and on the third beat. . Ifwe watch the comparison between this case of syncopation and the double- time step, we'll see that syncopation is NOT a double time because: A: It is twice as fast as a double time. B: Along the four-beat rhythmic unit, you will have three accents: two accents in the beginning — the first beat and the syncopation between the first and the second — and a third accent on the third beat. C: The added step of the double-time is placed on a non accented beat, the second or fourth beat. In the syncopation, the extra step or ornament will be done on the syncopation accent. So, we must not mistake “double-time step” with “syncopation”. We must also not mistake milonga and syncopation. If we look at the compara- tive graphic below we see that the milonga-habanera rhythmic pattern is not a syncopation. Observe that the syncopation is the inverse, since the irregular subdivision is inverted: 75 per cent—25 per cent in the milonga-habanera: 25 per cent~75 per cent in the syncopation. 58 Syncopation Syncopation 1 and 2 | 3 4 es on | I L [2 5ets}[------ 78 -cts-----] [---50 cts--][---50cts.--] Double Time Step ee 4 L. \ L L [--- 30 cts--] {--- $0 cts--][--- 50 cts--][--- 30 cts--] Milonga Regular Traspi¢ _ —~ > 2 po Ly nec eee FSects ----] [2 Sets] [--- $0 cts --]f----50 cts---] Milonga Irregular Traspié a. =. ise 1 2 3 4 4 | 1. | ane eee 75 ets ----][2Sets] [--- 30 ets --][----3Gets.--] This is not the only case of syncopation. We can also have syncopation on the third beat: 1 2 3 and 4 fo Cd 59Tango: Let's dance to the music! And we can have continuous or successive syncopations on the first and third beats: ttn Ge wa. Z.. oh. wh. L and 2 3 and 4 1 and 2 Lt bau tf be UU Hearing exercises: recognising syncopation Gm Exercise 1: Listen carefully to Audio-track 1-10. Claves mark the four beats and a bandoneon plays the syncopation. G® Exercise 2: Listen now to Audio-track 2-10. The orchestra plays a phrase with syncopation and the claves mark the spot of the syncopation to help you recognise it. . a G» Exercise 3; Listen to Audio-track 3-10, which has the same example but without the claves. @ Exercise 4: Listen to Audio-track 4-10, in which there is a series of successive syncopations on the first and third beat. Repeat exercises 1 to 4 to be sure you recognise the syncopation. How do we express syncopation while dancing? The syncopation produces an increase of energy when we take a step with it, because it has two accents one after the other, the one on the first beat and the one of the syncopation. We can express the syncopation with our bodies just by making the step with more energy, or we can add a step or ornament on the second accent (which is placed between the first and second beats). In our four-beat counting system, if we want to count the syncopation we will simply say 1- and ------ Becnnnee , ‘and” being the point of the syncopation’s accent. G Exercise 5: Listen to Audio-track 5-10 and you will notice the increasing energy effect when the syncopation appears. You will be able to hear the change from the first phrase, which has a peaceful and soft character, to the second phrase where the syncopation creates a more energetic character. So in the dance, 60 Syncopation T can express the syncopation simply by adding more energy while taking the step where the syncopation is, or make an extra step or ornament with it. It’s not uncommon to see on the dance floor or in choreographies this attitude of increasing energy used in parts incongruous with the music, and thus it looks exaggerated. We should spend more energy while taking the step in the points where the energy of the music increases, This type of syncopation is one of those points of increasing energy, though not the only one. It depends on the style of the orchestra. These points of increasing energy could be placed on the simple-time steps, the first and third beat, such as happens with Osvaldo Pugliese’s orchestra of the late 1950s. Exercises @) Exercise 6: Listen to Audio 6-10. A bandonedn plays the syncopation rhythm. Hit your thigh with your hand along with the bandonedn to recognise physically the syncopation. GP Exercise 7: Listen to Audio 7-10, in which the syncopation in the original recording is reinforced by a bandoneén to help you find it in the music. @ Exercise 8; Listen to Audio 8-10, in which you will hear the original recording, now without the bandoneén reinforcing the syncopation and hit your thigh to mark the syncopation. # Exercise 9: Watch Video 1-10, in which the dancers, when they are walking, take the first beat with more energy when the syncopation comes, and go back to a softer way of moving when the syncopation is gone and the music goes back to the basic four-beat rhythm. Following this example, imitate what the couple does. Work with Audio 7-10 and after that with Audio 8-10, trying to do the step with that increase of energy that you bear in the music. w Exercise 10: Watch Video 2-10, where the couple now does an extra step to the syncopation, and copy what the couple dance when they are walking the example. Then do the same exercise with Audio 2-10, walking normally until the syncopation appears. At that point, do the same step that the couple does in the “walking” part of the video. When the syncopation is over, go back to walking in simple time. After that, repeat the same exercise with Audio 3-10. 61Tango: Lets dance to the music! Repeat exercises 6 to 9 several times. Once you feel secure, do them with your dancing partner. After that try to dance, not only walk, the syncopation. You can copy what you see in the video or try any other step. You can practice the same exercises with Audio 9-10 and 10-10, where the syncopation is played by the double bass, first helped by a bandoneén rein- forcing the syncopation, and after that without the bandoncén. 62 Chapter 11: 3-3-2 syncopation SS he 3-3-2 is another case of syncopation. It is a fixed pattern that we find in tango and milonga. To study this rhythm we will start from a rhythm of two beats as the basic rhythm from which we'll build the 3-3-2 fixed pattern. Now, instead of subdividing these two original beats with the irregular and regular “coins” system as we did in the milonga’s fixed pattern — see “Chapter I: Rhythm” — we will subdivide these two original beats into four equal beats each. As a result we will have eight beats of equal duration. Two-beat basic count: ] 2 ee Subdivision of each beat into four parts: 1 2 3 4 3 $ 7 & ~ Lott tt iP of ft Now, let’s take these eight beats resulting from the subdivision of the two original beats and accent them every three beats. We obtain two groups of three beats and one of two beats — and this is where the name “3-3-2” comes from; it is the number of beats after each accent — when the accents are placed on the first, fourth and seventh beat of the subdivision. 63Tango: Lets dance to the music! Placing the accents ( > = accent ) > > > 1 2 3 4 § é 7 8 bot & .... 3 beats---- DE -- 3 beats---- 9 2 beats> The result of this accenting of the eight beats of the subdivision is an irregular rhythmic pattern — the third group is shorter than the first and second groups. Also, instead of having two accents as the basic four-beat basic rhythm in tango, it has three accents, on the first, the fourth and the seventh beat of the subdivi- sion. ; Let’s look at the following graphics: . ... : fo Two-beat basic count: l 2 ee Each beat divided by 4 = 8 beats: i 2 3 4 3 é ? $ Lo Placing the steps on the accents: > > > ] 2 3 4 3 § ? $ Loo Lo & .--- 3 beats---- de -- 3 beats---- 3 2 beats> The numbers 1 and 2 are the two beats of the original two-beat rhythm that we divide. The eight marks in the line below are the result of subdividing each 64 3-3-2 syncopation original beat by four, thus eight beats of the subdivision. On the line below, the thicker marks are the ones that are accented and where we will place our steps while dancing the 3-3-2 syncopation, and the shoes represent those steps. G Looking at the preceding graphic, listen carefully to Audio 1-11, where you will hear: A: ‘Two beats that represent the original two beats to be subdivided. B: The subdivision of those original two beats into four parts each, as a result we hear eight beats in total. C: The accents placed on the first, fourth and seventh beat of the subdivision. D: Music with the 3-3-2 rhythm, so you can hear the rhythm we are analysing with the music. Listen to this example several times until you can clearly recognise the placing of the accents before you go on. Now that you can recognise the 3-3-2, we will start to practice it. To assist us we'll work with a system that uses the words Panama, Panama and Cuba - dancers of salsa might be familiar with this system, which is used to dance the rhythm of the claves, because the rhythm of the claves in salsa is a 3-3-2 rhythm in its first part. In salsa the words used are normally Panama, Colombia and Cuba, but in English, Colombia is divided into four syllables so it creates problems, thus we'll use Panama, Panama and Cuba. Pa-na-ma has three syllables and Cu-ba has two. We'll say these three words accenting the first syllable of each one of them. Important: A: All the syllables must be said at the same speed and have the same length, because if one is pronounced for longer than the other the system will not work. B: Do not separate or make any pauses between the end of the word Cuba and the beginning of the word Panama. Pa — na — ma — PA — na— ma— Cu'— ba— Pa- na— ma-— Pa-— na-—ma-—Cu — ba ~ Pa— na-—ma.....ete. 65Tango: Lets dance to the music! We ele Pi«na- ma. Pai. na- ma- Ca- ba - Pa= na- ma- Pai- na - ma- Cu- ba Exercises : cas : 4G» Exercise 1: Standing on the spot, listen to the music of Audio 2-11 and following the claves, hit your thigh with your hand on the first, second and third accent, saying the words P4-na-ma-P4-na-ma-Cu-ba-Pa-na-ma-Pa-na-ma- Cu-ba...etc., making the first syllable of each word coincide with each beat of your hand on your thigh. : We have to insist here that you must accent the first syllable; ‘that al the syllables of the words must last the same and that there is not any pause between the last syllable of the word “Cuba” and the first syllable of the word “Panama”; otherwise the system will not work. GP Exercise 2: When you feel confident in placing the accents, walk saying the words Pa-na-ma, etc., aloud with Audio 2-11. Make one step forward when you say the syllable “Pa” of the first word Panama, make another step forward with the syllable “Pa” of the second word Panama and place your feet together and change your weight to the other foot with the syllable “Cu” of the word Cuba. GP Exercise 3: Do the same exercise with Audio 3-11. Although the voice on the recording stops saying the words you should keep on saying them. # Watch Video 1-11, in which a dancing couple does the exercise, just to be sure you are doing it correctly. G® Exercise 4: Once you've done exercises 2 and 3, do the same work with Audio 4-11, which has both musical examples, one after the other, but this time without the claves. The words Pa-na-ma, etc., will be heard only at the beginning, to help you find the beginning of the word series. Although the words disappear in the audio example, you must keep on saying them while you do the exercise. 66 3-3-2 syncopation @ Exercise 5: Once you can do the exercise well, practice it with your dance partner using Audio 4-11. If you do not feel comfortable, go back to Audio 2-11 and 3-11, where the claves will help you to place the accents and start working with your dance partner. Start with the claves and when you can do the exercise well go on working without them. # Watch Video 1-11 again, to be sure that you're doing the exercise well. @ Once you have finished the work, repeat exercises 1 to 5 with Audio 5-11 and 6-11, which have tango examples, first with the claves and then without them, in order to apply what you have learned. ‘Ihe word Panama will sound at the beginning to help you find the beginning of the series of words, but will disappear after some repetition. Although the voice disappears you should keep repeating the words during the exercise. In Audio 6-11 you can also follow the bandoneén melody if you feel it closer to your ear than the 3-3-2 rhythm. You should always work alone first and only when you can do the exercises well, start working with your dance partner. Only when you have done these exercises go on with the 3-3-2 in traditional tango. The 3-3-2 syncopation in traditional tango Recognising the 3-3-2 syncopation in traditional tango is more difficult because it is only one phrase or a half phrase long — eight or four simple-time steps — so it is quite difficult to dance it unless you already know the tango. NS @ Exercise 6: Listen to Audio 7-11 several times until you are familiar with the music. The 3-3-2 syncopation is played by the double bass and the piano the first time, and by the violin beating on the wood of the instrument — quite common in tango orchestra playing — and the double bass the second time. @ Exercise 7: To recognise the double bass well, listen now to Audio 8-11, in which the double bass does the 3-3-2 rhythm, first with the claves and then without. Simply listen to it several times. @ Exercise 8: Listening to Audio 8-11, hit your thigh with your hand in time with the claves, recognising the 3-3-2. With steps on the spot, mark with your 67Tango: Let's dance to the music! feet the points of the accents, saying the words Pa-na-ma etc along with the voice on the audio-track. After some repetitions the voice will disappear; you should keep saying the words without help now. You only have to mark with your feet on the spot the accented points. G» Exercise 9: With Audio 8-11 walk along with the music where the 3-3-2 is — it is marked with the claves — saying the words Pa-na-ma etc. To do this exercise, use the same type of walking that the dance couple does in Video 1-11: One step with Pa, another step with Pa and close your feet and change weight with Cu. Once you have done exercises 6 to 9 and have checked with the video that it is well done, do the same work with Audio 9-11 and 10-11. Once you have done these exercises, you can dance, improvising with Audio 8-11, 9-11 and 10-11. Watch Video 2-11. The couple improvises with 3-3-2 syncopation, dancing a traditional tango. . The steps Almost every tango figure or step can be danced to the 3-3-2 syncopation thythm. We only need to adapt it to different timing. In “Chapter 3: Double-time step”, we saw that in the regular double-time step we take three steps for every unit of the four-beat rhythm. It can be done on beats one, two and three or on beats one, three and four, but they are three steps. Since the 3-3-2 syncopation has three accents, all the steps and figures for double-time steps like ocho cortado, cunita, molinete, etc., can be done with the 3-3-2 rhythm. Try to do these steps that you normally use for the double-time step with the 3-3-2 rhythm. Say the words P4-na-ma, etc., with each one of the steps. Not only these steps can be done to 3-3-2 rhythm; almost any figure can be adapted to that rhythm, although very slow figures are less likely to fit. A little bit of history: origin of the 3-3-2 syncopation in tango music ‘The so called “3-3-2” rhythm is a fixed rhythmic pattern that we find in all kinds of music throughout the world in many different cultures and times of history: 68 3-3-2 syncopation in Arabic music, in the music of the Balkans, etc., and it is very difficult — if not impossible — to tell its origin. We can, however, follow the track it took into tango music. It started with the Arab invasion of Spain around the second half of the seventh century, which carried that rhythm into Spain together with the milonga-habanera rhythm. @ In Audio 11-11 you will hear the 3-3-2 rhythm in Arabic music. @ Listen to Audio 12-11, which contains Flamenco music with the 3-3-2 rhythm. After 800 years in Spain, this rhythm travelled to the American continent with the Spanish invasion at the end of the fourteenth century. We can find it in different musical forms in Central and South America, like in the “clave” of the salsa — the clave fixed pattern has two halves, the first half is the 3-3-2 —in the candombe and many others. In Argentina we find it in the rasguido doble, which is a genre from the north- east of Argentina, and in the milonga campera, first antecedent of the tango and the milonga portena. The milonga campera is music of the countryside, of the Pampa, and, as mentioned previously, has an instrumental introduction and then one sung part. The most important element is the poem that is sung. The music is very simple, just a base to the words of the poem. The instrumental introduction and the sung parts are played one after the other until the poem is finished. In the instrumental introduction often the two basic beats of the milonga basic rhythm, instead of being subdivided into the milonga-habanera fixed pattern, are subdivided in eight beats that are accented with the accents of the 3-3-2 syncopation. @ Listen to Audio 13-11. The music is a part of the introduction to a milonga campera and you will find the 3-3-2 rhythm in the strings of the guitar. This is the most immediate antecedent of the 3-3-2 in tango. As we can hear in the sample track, the 3-3-2 only lasts one or two phrases. When the sung part begins, the rhythm is milonga-habanera. So it is, also, in traditional tango, where it normally lasts one phrase or sometimes even half of a phrase. Around a hundred years after the Spanish reached the Americas, slaves began 69Tango: Lets dance to the music! to be brought to Rio de la Plata — Buenos Aires and Uruguay — from Africa. At this point the milonga began to be played with percussive instruments, different sorts of drums, etc., playing the milonga rhythm and the 3-3-2 and other subdivisions simultaneously, since the new immigrants already knew the 3-3-2 from Africa. This mix of different rhythms in the percussion is the origin of “candombe”, but that is a later phenomenon: the milonga rhythm and the 3-3-2 arrived in America with the Spaniards at the end of the 1400s and the Africa immigration didn’t begin until 1588, and not seriously until after 1600. Carlos Vega, a very important musicologist from Argentina, wrote about this rhythm and further information is quite easy to find in Argentina. ‘The tango is the result, as we saw in Chapter 1, of the fusion of the milonga campera and the music brought from Europe by the second immigration in the second half of the nineteenth century. : a The 3-3-2 passed from the milonga to traditional tango. In tango it is a rhythmic variation to the regular four-beat rhythm that, as said before, is not longer than one phrase and sometimes only half a phrase — a length of eight or four simple steps. @ In Audio 8-9 and 10-11 you hear traditional tangos with 3-3-2 syncopa- tion. Astor Piazzolla also used the 3-3-2 in the traditional way with his first orquesta tépica in 1946. Later he used it as a fixed pattern that lasts for a great part of the music, for example in “Libertango” or “Meditango”. This rhythm is characteristic of a period of Piazzolla music — the 80s — which is why many people think it is his invention but, as we have seen, we find it in tango from the very beginning of tango history. 70 aang - a a a - te Og gp ig rar Chapter 12: Off-beat ay he off-beat is a rhythmic case that we find in all kinds of music and of course also in tango, although in tango it doesn’t occur so often. In the off-beat the accents move from the first and third beat to the weak ones, the second and fourth beats, which are now the accented beats. Normally in the off-beat there aren’t any notes of the melody in the first and third beats or if there are, they are not accented. It can happen that either the absence of sound in the first and third beat is complete or that the melody doesn’t have any sound on the first and third beat but the accompaniment plays the first and third beat and the melody only plays the second and fourth beats, now accented. In the case that the first and third beats are played by the accompaniment and the second and fourth are accented by the melody, we can walk with the accompaniment and mark the melody accents with some ornament, or vice- versa, dancing both elements. We can also walk directly on the second and fourth beat only with the melody. Off beat: A: We walk on the strong beats with the accompaniment and we make orna- ments with the off-beat accents of the melody. ( @ = ornament ) 71Tango: Lets dance to the music! B: We walk with the accents of the melody on the second and fourth beat. ' ' It is important to dance the off-beat when the music is doing it. If you want to walk the off-beat when the music is not doing it, it is not only very difficult but also it doesn’t make any sense to do it, since you are going against what the music is proposing. The idea is to recognise the parts of the tango where the music does the off-beat and to be able to dance it exactly where the music does it. Often the off-beat is mistaken with the double-time step and with syncopa- tion. If we compare it with the double-time step, when we walk the off-beat with the accents of the melody, we are walking on simple-time step but placing the simple-time steps on the second and fourth beat. If the accompaniment is marking the strong beats and the melody is accenting the weak ones, and we dance representing all four beats, still the distance between each step is a simple-time step and the distance between each ornament is also ~ a simple-time step. @ ei @ @ _ 5 _ g ane 4 _ q Poo a @ = ornaments In syncopation (see Chapter 10) there is a subdivision of the accented beat — first or third beat — and both parts of the subdivision are accented. In the off-beat there isn't any subdivision at all. Also, in syncopation there isn’t any accent on the second and fourth beat, but in the off-beat those are precisely the beats where the melody has the accents. Exercises @® Exercise 1: Listen to Audio 1-12, in which the melody does the off-beat, the first time with two different claves marking the off-beat and the second time without the claves. 72 oot pap Loo aoe Off-beat @ Exercise 2: Watch Video 1-12. The couple walks with the first and third beat that the musical accompaniment is marking, making an ornament with the accents of the melody on the second and fourth beat. Doing the same type of walking-with-ornament that the couple is doing, walk with Audio 1-12, doing the steps on the first and third beat and the ornaments with the off-beat of the melody on the second and fourth beat. # Exercise 3: Watch Video 2-12. Now the couple walks with the accents of the melody on the second and fourth beat. To do this exercise, watch the video, counting as follows: [--------- on-beat---------- ][------- off-beat------ ][------- on-beat------- ][---off-beat] 1--3--1--3--1-2 --4--2--4-1--3--1- -3- -1-2- 4 ene. Notice that when you get in and out of the off-beat you do two beats together: 1-2 and 4-1. # Watch the dance couple and try to do the same exercise. Exercise 4: With Audio 1-12 do the same exercise, counting as explained. @ Exercise 5: You can repeat the same exercise with Audio 2-12 and 3-12, first doing the ornament and after that walking with the off-beat. When you feel secure doing both exercises try to do them with your dance partner. Watch Video 3-12, in which the couple improvises dancing to the off-beat. ‘Try to dance the off-beat, either doing some type of ornament with the off-beat or walking it. If you cannot place your steps with the off-beat, do the walking on time and some kind of ornament that would mark the off-beat. 73Chapter 13: Milonga 7 s we have seen in Chapter 1, the difference between the rhythm of most ances and the rhythm of tango lies in the fact that most dances have two rhythmic elements: A: A basic rhythm of two, three, four or more beats. B: A fixed rhythmic pattern built on that basic rhythm, which is the result of subdividing or modifying those two basic beats in a particular way. That fixed rhythmic pattern will be the characteristic rhythm of that particular dance. The milonga belongs to this category of music. Thus, it has these two elements: A: A basic rhythm of two beats B: A fixed rhythmic pattern as a result of subdividing those original two beats as follows: Two-beat basic rhythm: i 2 Lk Milonga’ fixed pattern: 50 % 50% Loy Loe 74 ft ncn Milonga As we can see, the fixed rhythmic pattern resulting from this particular subdi- vision has two parts: the first beat is irregularly divided and the second beat is regularly divided. If we use the example of the two coins, the two initial coins of 1€ each are divided as follows: the first 1€ coin into two coins of 75 cents and 25 cents The second 1€ coin is divided into two 50-cent coins. SO YW G Listen to Audio 1-13. You will hear the claves playing the basic two-beat rhythm and then a second sound of claves playing the milonga-habanera fixed rhythmic pattern according to the subdivision in the above illustration. If we dance the milonga with simple-time step, that is, with the first and third beat of the fixed pattern, we do two steps that have the same duration; the irregular subdivision of the first half doesn’t affect us. If, however, we do double-time steps, often referred to in milonga as sraspié, there is a difference between doing that double-time step in the first half where the subdivision is irregular, to doing it in the second half where the subdivision is regular. Let’s look at each particular case: First Case Traspié or double-time step on the second half where the subdivision is regular — 1€ divided in two 50-cent coins: 3 4 1 2 Po [--------- TScts ----|[25cts] [--- 30 cts --][----S50cts.--] In this case, the feet coincide exactly with the third and fourth beat of the 75Tango: Let's dance to the music! regular subdivision. Feet and music play 1€ — 50 cents and 50 cents. G) Listen to Audio 2-13. A bandonedn plays the milonga’s rhythm and the claves sound on the first, third and fourth beat, where you would place your steps if you were doing the double-time step. Second Case Traspié or double-time step in the first half — irregular subdivision. The second beat of the claves — your feet — will sound before the second beat of the music, thus producing an off-beat sensation, which you can only feel if the milonga is slow. You can see here that the feet are doing a regular subdivision — 50 cents-50 cents — while the music is doing an irregular subdivision — 75 cents-25 cents. 1 | 2 3 4 Eo 75 Cts 24cts 30 Cts 80 Cts @ Listen to Audio 3-13. A bandoneén plays the milonga’s rhythm and the claves play the double-step representing where your feet would be placed if you do the double-step on the first half where the subdivision is irregular. Third Case ho a uf Tiaspié or double-time steps on the first half, but feet and music do the irregular subdivision — 75 cents-25 cents. Doing this type of éraspié is only possible if the milonga is really slow because the lapse of time between the second and third beat is too short to be done if the milonga is fast. wh. Bt. Wm. 2 3 i 4 Eo [--------- TS cts ----][2Scts] [--- 50 cts --]f----SOcts---] @ Listen to Audio 4-13. A bandonedn plays the milonga’s rhythm and the claves, representing your feet, beat the first, second and third beats. Feet and music go together in the irregular subdivision this time. 76 ce eg + i ' ~ Milonga Exercises @ Exercise 1: With Audio 5-13 walk with the first and third beat of the milonga’s rhythm following the claves. You will see that the step’s duration is regular. The irregularity of the subdivision doesn’t affect you because you are walking on simple-time step, that is with the first and third beat — walking 1€ at a time, you havent got into the “cents”. GP Exercise 2: With Audio 6-13 repeat the exercise, walking milonga with simple-time step, this time without the claves. Exercise 3: Watch Video 1-13. A couple first walks and then dances milonga with simple-time step. Do the same as the couple does: first walk and then dance the milonga with simple-time step with Audio 5-13 and then with Audio 6-13. Once you feel confident repeat the same exercise with your dance partner. GP Exercise 4: Double-time step on the regular subdivision; 1-3-4. 1 2 3 4 Po 75 Cts 235Cts 50 Cts 50 Cts With Audio 7-13, standing on the spot, mark with your feet the first, third and fourth beat of the milonga rhythm following the claves. Say the words “one” “three” “four”, etc. Notice the coincidence between what you say, the claves and your feet. This is because your feet and the music are doing both the regular subdivision: that is, in the third and fourth beat. Exercise 5: Watch Video 2-13. A couple walks and dances with the sraspié on the regular subdivision — third and fourth beat. The claves mark the traspié, representing the placing of the feet. Watch the feet of the dancing couple and you will see that they coincide with the first, third and fourth beat of the music. Do the same exercise that the dance couple does, first with Audio 7-13 and then with Audio 8-13. Once you feel confident with the exercise, you can do it with your dance partner. 77Tango: Lets dance to the music! @ Exercise 6: Double-time step in milonga: Placing the traspi¢ in the irregular subdivision: 1—2-3. _— =, 20.3. 4 Co 75 Cts 25Cts 30 Cts 50 Cts Listening to Audio 9-13, without walking, hit your thigh with your hand, following the claves. This time, the claves are doing the same regular subdivision that your feet do but the music doesn’t, since we are placing the double-time step on the irregular subdivision — 75 cents-25 cents. If you can, say “one”, “two”, “three” with the music while you hit your thigh in time with the claves. You will find that the word “two” doesn’t coincide with the second beat of your hand against your thigh. Look at the illustration again: your hand and the claves are represented by the shoes while the music has the beats placed where the numbers 1, 2 and 3 are. @ Exercise 7: With Audio 9-13, working on the spot, mark with your feet the claves’ beats. If you can, say the numbers of the beats with the music, “one”, “two”, “three”. Your number “two” will arrive later than the second step of your feet. You will possibly feel a different rhythmic sensation than when you do the traspié with the regular subdivision. It is not critically important to feel this difference. Some dancers feel the difference while others don’t; it depends on each dancet’s perception. Both cases of traspié are perfectly all right. It also depends on the milonga and the orchestral version we are dancing to. In fast milongas you wont feel this difference at all. Do the same exercise with Audio 10-13, which doesn’t have the claves. ® Exercise 8: Watch Video 3-13, in which the couple does the exercise. The claves mark the place where the feet of the couple do the steps. Observe that the dancers’ second step does not coincide with the second beat of the milonga rhythm that you hear in the music. That is the difference compared to the regular subdivision. Once youre confident doing it alone, try it with your dance partner. 78 Milonga This case of ¢raspié is more difficult and can be uncomfortable for some dancers. It is NOT an important target to do it. We do this exercise mainly to understand the difference between one case and the other and to understand why we could have some problems while doing some zraspié figures where the two systems are mixed into the figure. On the contrary, some dancers like to feel this off-beat sensation, this mis- encounter between the foot and the second beat of the rhythm. That is absolutely personal. G Exercise 9: Double-time steps or ¢raspié on the first half: feet and music do the irregular subdivision — 75 cents-25 cents. rns _— wa 4 Ly to {---------7 5 cts ----][ Z3cts] [--- 56 cts --]{----S0 cts---] @) With Audio 11-13 hit your thigh with your hand, following the claves. This time the claves and the bandoneén play the irregular subdivision of the first, second, and third beat of the milonga’s rhythm. Say the numbers “one”, “two” and “three” in loud voice. You will see that this time your hand coincide with the numbers that you are saying. After doing this for a whilc, do the steps on the spot with the claves. [hen walk, doing the irregular zvaspié as the dance couple does in Video 4-13. Once you feel confident, repeat the exercise with Audio12-13, which doesn’t have the claves. # Exercise 10: Watch Video 4-13. The claves play the irregular subdivision of the first half of the milonga’s rhythm. You can hear now that the second beat of the music coincides with the second beat of the claves, which represents what your feet will do. Both music and claves are doing the same irregular subdivi- sion: first, second, and third beat of the milonga pattern. Try doing the same as the dance couple does, first alone and then with your dance partner. ‘This irregular traspié is only possible if the milonga is slow. If not, the time between the second and third beat is too short to make a step. 79tango: Lets dance to the music! the “corrida” This is a subdivision of the two beats of the basic rhythmic count of the milonga in four or eight regular beats. It is normal to see dancers doing this fast regular movement on the dance floor but not always on the point where the music does it. GP Exercise 11: Listen to Audio 13-13. The corrida is played first marked with the claves and then without them. Walk with the music and do the subdivisions walking to the side with short steps, marking the subdivisions of the corrida. # Watch Video 5-13. A couple dances the corrida. Do the same as the couple does, first alone and then with your dance partner with Audio 13-13. You can practice milonga with simple-time step and double-time step with Audio 14-13, in which the claves play along with the music the first time and do not the second time. You can dance with regular #aspié and simple-time step with this example. You can practice the irregular traspié, placing your feet with the irregular subdivision on the first, second and third beat with Audio 15-13. The milonga: form and structure Evolution of the milonga. The milonga-habanera rhythm came to the American continent via the same route as the 3-3-2 rhythm. It arrived in Spain with the Arabic invasion around 670AC and from Spain was brought to the American continent at the end of the 1400s with the Spanish invasion. 4» Listen to Audio 16-13 where the example illustrates the relation between the milonga-habanera rhythm and Arabic music. 7 ” In Andalucia the milonga is a poem accompanied by a guitar that plays a free improvisation. In Argentina, the milonga campera has the form of a sung poem accompanied by the guitar, which usually plays the 3-3-2 syncopation in the instrumental introduction and the milonga-habanera rhythmic pattern in the sung part. In Argentina the milonga campera — country milonga — is a typical music of La Pampa, the province of Buenos Aires, and also of Uruguay. 80 Milonga It has two parts: an instrumental introduction and a sung part of a very simple melody where the most important element is not the music but the lyrics of the poem. Normally that poem related the life of the gaucho in the Pampa, and is usually literature of the gauchos’ everyday life and deep reflection. When in the second half of the 1900s, the second wave of immigration brought the new melodies from Europe, these melodies merged with the milonga and a new form appeared, an instrumental form, with more parts but with the milonga fixed rhythmic pattern: the tango. These melodies were a new type of music that was of great interest to the musicians and composers of the times. The melodies came from classical music, opera, the German “Lieder”, the “canzona Napolitana’, the Spanish “rondalla”, etc. This new form, the tango, displaced the milonga. Once the tango finally adopted its three-parts form and moved from the fixed rhythmic-pattern system to the melodic rhythmic system, the milonga reap- peared again but with a new form: the milonga portena “puerto” means “harbor”, and in Argentina a “portefia’ is someone from the harbor city of Buenos Aires) as opposed to the milonga campera — from the country. This new form milong portena had the instrumental introduction like the original mélonga campera, but it had two sung parts — remember that the mlonga campera only has one sung part — which, as in tango, had a difference of mode within them: if Part A is in major tune, Part B normally is in minor tune (sce the definition of major and minor modes in Chapter 9). This is a clear indication of the influence of tango in milonga. ‘This is the milonga that we dance today: the milonga portena. It has three parts: an instrumental introduction, then a Part A that is sung, and after that a Part B that is also sung. They are played in a circular form: instrumental—intro- duction—Part A—Part B—Instrumental—Introduction—Part A—Part B-—Instru- mental—Introduction. This three-part cycle is normally played twice, although this is not fixed. ‘The structure of the phrases is the same as in tango: cach regular phrase is eight simple-time steps long, although we can say that in the great percentage of milongas, there aren't irregular phrases and that in almost a hundred per cent of the cases the phrases will be eight simple-time steps long. It is not so critical to consider the form and structure of the milonga for dancers in respect of the possible rhythmic changes that can occur with the new phrases, since the fixed rhythmic pattern of milonga is played all along the piece 81Tango: Lets dance to the music! and makes the rhythm more stable. There can be changes, though, to the type of traspié to use, due to the different ways of accenting the fixed rhythmic pattern that the melody invites, or parts where it will be better to dance milonga lisa — that is, simple-time step without the traspié. But there won't be drastic changes from simple-time step to the half-time step, double, etc., or long pauses, as in tango. 82 Chapter 14: The vals criollo or tango waltz Gq he vals criollo or tango waltz is not different, from a rhythmic point of view, from a Viennese waltz. They both have a three-beat rhythm. The only difference is the speed: the music of the tango waltz is faster than the Viennese waltz. It is only for this reason that, whilst in the Viennese waltz one steps on every beat, in the tango waltz, we normally step on only the first of three beats — if not we would be dancing too fast. Simple-time and double-time steps in waltz We can also make double-time steps in tango waltz as we do in tango, but there are differences: 1: While doing double-time steps in the waltz, we add one more step in addition to the simple-time step, but duc to the fact that vals rhythm is a three-beat rhythm, the double-time step cannot be in the middle of the simple-time step, because you can’t divide “3” exactly in the middle. When we make a double-time step in waltz, we step on two out of three beats, and there are two possibilities: after stepping on the first beat, you can step on the second, or on the third beat. Waltz simple-time” step: , ~ ~ i 2 3 i 2 3 1 2 3 | a | Lo 1 I i l 83Tango: Lets dance to the music! Waltz double-time step, on the first and third beats rie Cod wee 1 1 1 i 2 bo Double Simple Double Simple Waltz double-time step, on the first and second beats tit, tats, fi is ‘ates Blew 1 2 3 1 i 3 4 2 3 a 3 Poh nnbnnmnnmnnl cbmc ce en ell bee Double Simple Doable Simple 2: In the waltz, we often alternate between simple-time step and double-time step, the same as we do while doing a regular double-time in tango — sce “Chapter 3: Double-time step”. A group of three beats can be in double time, and the next in simple, but there is not necessarily an order — a double time can be followed by a simple time, or a double time can be followed by another double time, while in tango, the phrase tends to maintain the same rhythmic characteristic throughout all its length. Some melodies invite us to make a double time, and may suggest which timing is better (first and second, or first and third), but it will not be necessarily the same throughout the whole phrase, as it is in tango. Neither the melody nor its accents regulate the changes of time like in tango. Waltz is more regular because you can always hear the three-beat basic rhythm. ‘The count of the three-beat basic rhythm functions also as a fixed rhythmic pattern. Listening exercise: locating the double time in the melody G® Listen to Audio 1-14, in which you will hear part of a waltz. Listen to it several times. The claves mark some possibilities of the simple- and double-time step rhythms as suggested by the melody. This is one possibility. You may hear others. Remember that the three-beat rhythm in waltz is constant, and for this reason the melody has less influence on the rhythm than in tango, and has more diverse forms of interpretation. Half-time step As we saw in “Chapter 4: Half-time step”, when stepping on the half-time step, we only step on the first beat out of four. While doing simple time step in waltz 84 The vals criollo or tango waltz we are already walking only on the first beat. Therefore, there is no half time in waltz. There can be pauses, but in general it is only at the end of a group of four phrases, and doesn’t have a fixed duration. Each case is different, and open to the interpretation that each orchestra makes of the musical piece. Form and structure of the waltz The tango waltz can have two or three parts and those parts may repeat in different modes of repetition, depending on the composition and according to the interpretation of each orchestra: A-B-A-B, or A-B—C-—A-B-C, or A-B-A-C-A (rondé form), and other models. In general, the parts change in mode: if A is minor, B will be major and vice versa — you can see more about major and minor mode changes in the “Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango”. Like in tango, each part in waltz has four phrases of eight simple-time steps in length, if the ‘forn’ is regular. There are irregular forms and structures in waltz as in tango, but not so often as in tango. With a rhythm of three permanent beats throughout the entire waltz, the ‘form’ does not have the same importance for dancers as it has in tango, because ic will not substantially change the timing of the dance. The waltz will always maintain the three-beat rhythm, with the possibilities of simple- or double-time more or less equal in the whole waltz. In the tango, however, the changes in rhythm appear with new phrases, and understanding the form and structure of each tango is very important in order to anticipate these changes. We have seen in the tango that the phrases are structured in a system of questions and answers. In the tango, the phrases can be organised as a “ques- tion” of eight simple-time steps, “answered” by a phrase of eight simple-time steps. It can also be a “question” of four simple-time steps and “answer” of four simple-time steps, within the same phrase. There can also be questions of two simple-time steps answered by a two simple-time-step-long answer. The fact that this last model — two simple-time-steps-long question answered by a two simple-time-steps-long answer — happens very often in waltz has created a 85Tango: Lets dance to the music! confusion amongst some dancers and tango teachers, who believe the difference between the vals criollo or tango waltz and the Viennese waltz lies in the fact that the tango waltz has a rhythm of six beats and the Viennese waltz a rhythm of three beats. This is not so. They both have a rhythm of three beats. I believe this is a problem of confusing the rhythmic unit — three beats — with the structure of the phrase when the phrase is structured on a two simple-time- step-long question-answer system. These questions and answers are two simple-time steps in length, equal to six beats each, bur that is a structure element; the rhythm is always a three-beat rhythm. The same thing occurs in the structure of a phrase in a Viennese waltz, there- fore this is not a characteristic that differentiates the Viennese waltz from the tango waltz. eee Also, as we have seen, this is not the only model of the structure of a phrase in a waltz — there are many tango waltz and Viennese waltz with phrases built with questions and answers of four simple-time steps, lasting half a phrase each. Also sometimes the question and answers are eight simple-time steps long, without any smaller structure inside them. Exercises @ Exercise 1: Listen to Audio 2-14 and try to find the accent on the first of the three beats of waltz rhythm. @ Exercise 2: Listen to Audio 3-14, with the claves marking the first beat. Mark each first beat where you would take a simple-time step by hitting your thigh with your hand. Then walk with the first beat with simple-time step. Once you feel confident, do the same with the second part of the Audio-track where the music does not have the claves. Watch Video 1-14, where a dancing couple walks in simple time, to check youre doing the exercise correctly. Exercises for double-time step GP Exercise 3: Listen to Audio 4-14, which has the claves marking the first and second beats. Hit your thigh with your hand in time with the claves, on the first and second beats. After some repetitions, wall with the first and second beat 86 The vals criollo or tango waltz that the claves are playing. Once you are confident, do the same with the second part of the Audio-track that does not have the claves. # Watch the Video 2-14, where the dancers walk with double-time steps on the first and second beats. @ Exercise 4: With Audio 5-14, now walk stepping on the first and third beats. The claves are there to help you find the beats. Once you feel confident, do the same with the second part of the Audio-track that does not have the claves. ® Watch Video 3-14 where the dancers make a double-time step on the first and third beats. Once you have done the exercise, walk and dance trying to apply the double- time steps that you normally use to the waltz rhythm. You can use Audio 4-14 where the claves mark the first and second beat and 5-14 where the claves mark the first and third beat. Some will adapt better than others, depending on the step. You can work with Audio 6-14 and 7-14, in which the claves mark the simple-time steps or double-time steps according to what the melody suggests but, again, this is personal, you might well hear a different proposal from the music. Listen several times to the music before you start walking and dancing. 87Chapter 15: The music as a starting point for planning choreography 7 [ all choreography, the tight relationship between the music and movement is one of the keys to a successful result. The rhythm of tango music is very variable, and can have extreme contrasts from one phrase to the next, so this principle of the relationship between the music and the movement takes on even more significance. In the previous chapters, we have come to understand the form and structure of tango, its changes, the duration of the phrases, etc. We will rake, then, the music of the piece to be choreographed, its “form” and “structure”, and all the thythmic details of each musical phrase to be danced as the starting point to design its choreography. Our main objective here is that the choreography, apart from the aesthetic beauty of the movement and figures, represents the dynamic of what we hear in the music. We should be able to “see the music” we hear. The design of the figures will derive from the music they must be danced too and not vice versa, since the music is the fixed element. Thus, the music will determine the rhythm to which the figures are danced, the contrast between the figures themselves as a consequence of the contrasts within the musical phrases, the repetition of the parts, etc. The choreographer will have to consider all these elements before selecting the movements or steps to be danced. The rhythmic and musical rules of the choreography will then be a given element. The design of the figures as aesthetic construction will be within the domain of the choreo- graphic criteria. In this chapter, therefore, we will study the following subjects: 88 The music as a starting point for planning choreography 1; Analysis of the music for which the choreography will be designed. Defining the outline of the form and structure of the phrases and parts of the tango, the system of repetition of the parts, quantity and length of phrases in each part. 2: Creating audio sections for each part of the tango according to its form: A~-B-A-C—A, or A-B—A-—B-A, or others. A system of writing music for dancers and its use in choreographic planning. Writing the graphics to work with. Creating the claves-voice sound track for practicing without the music. A system for memorising choreography — learning and practice. Dancing the choreography. Let’s look at each of these points in detail: 1. Analysis of the music to design the choreography. Definition of the form and structure of the phrases, parts within the tango, system of repetition of the parts, quantity and length of the phrases of each part. To analyse the form and structure, we use a computer program that allows us to work with the soundwaves: to section them, separate parts, create new audio files for each part, and work to learn and perfect the choreography in sections. We will use a computer program that allows us to see the soundwaves on- screen. It could be the program “Audacity” or something similar; the specific characteristics of the program are not too important. Whichever program you use, however, it is important that it allows you to see the soundwaves and edit the audio. Some of these types of programs are offered free on the Internet, others can be purchased by the same means. “Audacity” can be downloaded free from the following website: hetp://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ We have already worked with the form and structure of a regular tango in “Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango”, so we will work here with a tango that has an irregular form and an irregular structure. The irregularity of the form consists of the order of repetition that is not A-B-A-C-A, and in the structure that some phrases are not eight simple-time steps in length. The tango we will use in this example for choreographic planning will be Pablo, in the version by the orchestra of Anibal Troilo. ¢/-1: On your computer, create a folder called “Pablo” in “My Documents” or any other directory. Put the DVD Tango: Lets dance to the music! in your computer, open your browser and you will find the tango Pablo in the folder 89tango: Lets dance to the music! called “MP3” under “Cap 15-Pablo.mp3”. Create a copy of the -mp3 file and save it into your new “Pablo” folder. You will save all tracks you create of the different parts of the tango into this folder. * 1-2: Access the website: http:// audacity.sourceforge.net/download/, and download and install the Audacity program on your computer, following the installation instructions. The following instructions are specific to using Audacity, as it is a free download program, but you can use any type of audio editing program and do the equivalent operations indicated here in your own program. ° 1-3: Open Audacity. In the “File” menu choose “Open”. This will open an explorer menu that will show different folders on your computer. Open the Pablo folder, and then select the audio Pablo.mp3 that you have already saved from the DVD and click “OK”. File Edit View Project _ New cae Save Project As..: — Tita Verde- DI: Tinta Verde- Di: Track 06 Don Ju Recent Files... ¢ 1-4: This opens the file with the tango music to be used. Rewind Racord Stop Mute | Play Pause | Forward | i I : L I | File Edit | View) Project | Genérate| Effect Analyze i oo t = i i . Rg ’ Bono Phaw back time Select the “Play” button to play the music. Sing or speak the melodies, trying to memorise them before continuing. Even though you might already know this tango, listen to it several times, just listen, and sing the melodies along with the recording. It is very important in this part of the work to sing the principal melodies, because the ear memory will tell us which phrases are in each part, 90 The music as a starting point for planning choreography and when they are repeated. Remember: if you can't sing, speak the melodies rhythmically so you record the rhythm of each phrase in your memory. * 1-5; When you have sufficiently familiarised yourself with the music, listen again, trying each time to determine which are the phrases and parts of the tango. Follow the time-line located immediately above the soundwave to mark the passage of recording time in minutes and seconds so you can establish exactly the minutes and seconds of the beginning and end of the phrases and parts. Write down on a piece of paper where each phrase starts and finishes, and do the same for each part of the tango, and determine the length of each phrase, measuring them in simple-time steps. Don't listen to the whole of the tango at once. Put your cursor at a starting point, and selecting “Play”, listen to the part of the tango or phrase that you are working with, select “Stop” to stop at the end of the part you are working with. Repeat the operation a number of times just to be sure your notations are exact. When you are very familiar with the phrases, their duration, each part and their beginning and end and have clearly determined which is Part A, which is Part B and which is Part C, determine what is the system of repetition of parts: A-B-A-C-A, or A-B-C-A-B-C or another model in the construction of the version of the tango. If you are unsure about the phrases, the parts of a tango, the systems of repetition etc, re-read “Chapter 9: The form and structure of tango”. When you have concluded this work, compare the results of your annotations with this diagram of the form and structure of the tango Pablo. Irregular form: A~-B~C-A-C Part A first time: Start min 0:00 Finish min 0:31 Phrase 1 min 0:00 to min 0:09 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 2 Min 0:09 to min 0:165 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 3 min 0:165 to min 0:24 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 4 min 0:24 to min 0:31 length: 8 simple-time steps Part B: Start min 0:31 Finish min 0:585 ete Phrase 1 min 0:31 to min 0:37 length: 6 simple-time steps Phrase 2 min 0:37 to min 0:43 length: 6 simple-time steps Phrase 3 min 0:43 to min 0:51 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 4 min 0:51 to min 0:585 length: 8 simple-time steps 91Tango: Lets dance to the music! The phrases 1 and 2 in B are irregular, and are 6 simple-time steps long instead of 8. Part C first time: Start min 0:585 Finish min 1:29 Phrase 1 min 0:585 to min 1:06 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 2 min 1:06 to min 1:135 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 3 min 1:135 to min 1:215 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 4 min 1:215 to min 1:29 length: 8 simple-time steps Part A second time Start min 1:29 Finish min 2:00 Phrase 1 min 1:29 to min 1:37 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 2 min 1:37 to min 1:44 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 3 min 1:44 to min 1:52 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 4 min 1:52 to min 2:00 length: 8 simple-time steps Part C second time Start min 2:00 Finish min 2:30 Phrase 1 min 2:00 to min 2:07 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 2 min 2:07 to min 2:15 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 3 min 2:15 to min 2:23 length: 8 simple-time steps Phrase 4 min 2:23 to min 2:30 length: 8 simple-time steps 2: Creation of the audio tracks for each part of the tango To work on the choreography it is recommended to create an audio-track for each part (A, B or C) with their phrases. These units of work are short — about 30 or 35 seconds — and much easier to memorise and concentrate on when practicing. ¢ 2-1: Place the cursor just before the start point of the part you want to isolate, and click the mouse to set the cursor at that point. Pressing the left mouse button, drag the mouse to select the portion of the soundwave that contains the four phrases of Part A, and the first phrase of Part B. The selected part is marked in darker color. 92 The music as a starting point for planning choreography ¢ 2-2: In the “Edit” menu, select “Copy”. In the “File” menu, select “New”. This will open a new window in Audacity. File Edit View Projec File Edit View Project (T= Undo Import Lea ce Oprtn... sau Cut > Close comant ‘Saeveo,« 5 Seeect az te ee ee Save Project As... ; . © Trim Recent Files... ¢ 2-3: In the “Edit” menu choose “Paste”. The waveform of the isolated parts P you have selected will appear in the new file. ; File Edit View Project Undo New Track EPI Cars he — “ Trimbs Fog Delete ¢ 2-4: To save the file of the part you just created, go to “File” > “Save As”. Choose the Pablo folder you created, and save the new file as “Pablo Part A first time”. File Edit View Proj New Open... — Close Save Project Save Project As... Recent Files... Repeat the procedure, making and saving a new file for each of the parts of the tango. Important: Note that each audio file of a part that you create must start some seconds before the starting point of the part and must include the part you want to create plus the next phrase after that part. While putting the whole choreography together, this overlapped portion will function as a link to your ear and will allow you to get into the new part without feeling any kind of cut in your memory, because your body memory as well as your ear memory will have the new part incorporated as a part of the one before. 93Tango: Lets dance to the music! The parts to create are: Part A first time — Audio 1-15 on the DVD Part B — Audio 2-15 on the DVD Part C first time Audio 3-15 Part A second time — Audio 4-15 on the DVD Part C second time — Audio 5-15 on the DVD Listen to Audio 1 to 5-15, to verify that you have correctly calculated both the beginning and end of each part. Remember that each part includes the first phrase of the following part, except Part C second time, as it is the end of the tango. Please note: The saved Audacity files are saved into two different files: one is. “data” and the other is “.aup” When you want to open the file again, use “File” > “Open” and in the Audacity folder you'll find two files named “Pablo Part A first time.data” and “Pablo Part A first time.aup.” You must open the .aup file. Do not delete the .data file and leave only the .aup or you will not be able to open the files you have saved. 3: Musical notation system and description of the choreography Referring to the graphic on the following page, the levels of representation are: * 3-1: Space to describe the step In this space, you can describe the figures and steps of the choreography. The description will vary from one dancer or choreographer to the next. You can use whatever system you find most convenient to describe the steps. What is important is that it is clearly comprehensible to you and the dancers you work with. Try to keep the description of the steps and figures vertically aligned with the corresponding step on the timeline. As an example: [-nvnnenenenn ocho cortado turning------------- | [-----eeeeeeene Forward ocho, woman starting turn moving to the right of the man---------------- ] a KR Ne nn 2 2 4 2 3 ‘ 1 > 3 ‘ l Ll \ t ‘ t \ l a l ‘ t min 1:05 , min 1:14 94 atc. ete. Ad A aw Musical notation system for dancers min 1:14 min 1:05 Ss Low bp DdTango: Lets dance to the music! * 3-2: The mans (or leader’) timing The man’s shoes are placed over the beats where the leader will make his steps or movements. For example, if the man steps on the first and third beats, a man’s shoe is placed above the first and third beats. If the choreography is a 1-2-3 double-time, the shoe will be above the 1-2-3 beats. This does not represent the figures to be danced but beats to be danced with whatever step you could use. Above the shoes there is the description of which foot has the weight: right or left. For example, if the first and second steps are simple-time steps, the third is a double-time step, and the fourth is a simple-time step, it is represented like this: L R L oR oL ae _ > eo wh. -- 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 | | a I t Lt I ue min 1:05 i 2 3 4 + You could use a metal board and make the pieces with magnets or find another system so that you can easily place and change the position of the shoes. * 3-3: The womans (or follower’) timing The woman's shoes are located on the beats where the woman steps. For example, if the man is dancing simple-time steps and the woman is dancing double-time, it is represented like this: ~ a 4 a a a 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 I I | LL I min 1:05 1 2 3 4 The music as a starting point for planning choreography ° 3-4: The four beats of tango The numbers above the time-line represent the four-beat basic rhythm we hear in tango. 3 4 Po Other systems use different counts that we will explain in the next section but we use a count of four to represent the four-beat basic rhythm because those are the beats that we hear while listening to tango music. * 3-5: Graphic of the point of articulation and duration of the beats 1 2 3 4 l | L | The vertical short lines lying on the horizontal line represent the articulation point of each beat — first, second, third and fourth beat. The thickness and height of each vertical line marks the difference between the accented and non accented beats. The first beat is the strongest therefore the line marking it is thicker and higher than the others. The third beat is an accented beat but not so strong as the first one, therefore the line is slightly thinner and shorter. The second and fourth beats are much thinner and very short since they are not accented. The horizontal line is the line of time that flows with the music; hence the horizontal line between each vertical line is the lapse of time between the articu- lation of each beat. Ic is important to differentiate between the first and third beats, the accented ones, not considering them as equally accented. Making this difference you can easily locate the double time if it is on the first, second and third beat or if it is on the third, fourth and first beat. Depending on the case, sometimes the melody clearly shows a differentiation and invites using one or the other while placing the double-time step — first, third, forth or first second, third. Also, in some orchestral versions, the third beat is a very weak accent with respect to the first, and it is important to know where you are in respect to the music, just by looking at the graphic. Another important reason why we should differentiate 97