Is this dancable tango music?

TSWO

TSWO

New Member
Hi everyone, I'm a musician and recently I've written my first orchestral piece. A lot of people tell me it's a tango althought I didn't have that in mind when I wrote it - maybe Piazzola &co have gotten deeper into me than I thought.

So, this is it. What do u think? I know it sounds like a tango and it has that certain atmpshpere, but is something like this trylly dancable by an average tango-dancer?

 
Hear are my opinions, (not that there's anything special about them).

To me, it seems to have a bit of Ballroom tango in it as well as (but not quite) Argentine tango. I could dance to it, however The 3-3-2 rhythm is what dominates most of it, and that tempo is a little fast for social tango (a performer would have no issue with the tempo, IMO). I could ignore the 3-3-2 and just dance on the 1 & 5 beats which would get the tempo a little closer.

At the end of the day (at least for me), the real issue is that it doesn't quite have enough of the emotional aspects that would make me really want to tango to it. I'm fine with listening to it, though.
 
TSWO said:
..is something like this trylly dancable by an average tango-dancer?
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Hi TSWO, congrats, that´s a fine piece of music. Concerning your second question, I don't want to be disrespectful, so please excuse my straightforwardness, but the rhythm, kind of 332, is much to rigid, repetitious, mechanic. The melody is inferior and cannot cope with it. A tango is characterized by a charged relationship between rhythm and melody. The rhythmic patterns should be as rich as the melody is. There are many stylistic devices like marcato, syncopa, arrastre, ritardando that make a tango danceable. So being honest, it's not yet a tango, but perhaps will be one.
 
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Thanks guys for the time to listen to it and comment! :)

I'm starting to feel that aspect of composing and sharing what you did with people with completely different mindsets experiences and tastes: Most of the non-tango-specialists friends of mine say "oh you wrote a tango!". Tango dancers like you say "it's not a tango"... Pop people tell me it's "classical", "classical" people tell me it's "soundtrack", "soundtrack" people tell me it's not really soundtrack because soundtracks are more generic to fit the action and plot etc... But I guess that's part of the fun of composing!

@opendoor Nothing disrespectfull about what you write, on the contrary thank you for the time to write back! I can sense your love and passion for tango music and that's something I totally respect (I'm a pianist, I play a LOT of different genres, and tango is one of my favorites too). I would disagree musically speaking to many points you make - like musically speaking the fundamental thing in dance music is the consistency of the rythm... like u know.. 3/4 is a waltz, 2/4 is a march etc, and I would point that acctualy it may be the "charged relationship between rythm and melody" that makes this not easy to dance (because the melody was initially writen in 4/4 time, the 332 rythm underneath it came later precicely to make the relationship charged!)... But that's a different discusion on a different forum. If you are musically trained I can send you the score if you'd like. Anyway, thank you for the reply - that's why you ask questions: To get an answer different than your own, so nothing bad wih that!
 
To me it sounds like the rhythms and melodies you might find in an electro tango, but with classical instrumentation. But I can totally see why everyone you talk to says it's tango feeling.
 
You're right: the tempo is more milonga and the instrumentation (and phrasing) is more 'tango'. Quite a weird mix, and definitely not "tango" in a very strict sense.
 
Thank you everyone for the time you took to listen and comment. Sorry I was away for some time now. I'm still trying to figure out why the same word (Milonga) is used to describe a certain type of tango as well as the "gathering" of people to do the actual dancing...

Merry Xmas to all!
 
Milonga (the music) isn't really "a type of tango". It's certainly related but once these grew apart the mood became very different.
 
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TSWO said:
Thank you everyone for the time you took to listen and comment. Sorry I was away for some time now. I'm still trying to figure out why the same word (Milonga) is used to describe a certain type of tango as well as the "gathering" of people to do the actual dancing...

Merry Xmas to all!
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It has three meanings: a type/style of dance, a type of music, an event.

I could dance a milonga, to a milonga, at a milonga.

;)
 
TSWO said:
I know it sounds like a tango and it has that certain atmpshpere, but is something like this trylly dancable by an average tango-dancer?
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No and no.

You know there is this short story by E. Poe where many witnesses hear the murderer and one german witness says it must be chinese language, while a japanese witness says it must be austrian language and a portuguese one thinks it was some russian.

To me, among the three families of songs (tango-vals-milonga) that we usually hear when in tango places, it sounds closer to a vals.
Or if I were to consider it as alternative music, it sounds like a slower version of Copacabana

The average tango dancer will think that it's a cortina, and will sit.
I might lead it but it would only be in a performance of sorts, to try and prove that tango can be danced on anything.
 
dchester said:
it doesn't quite have enough of the emotional aspects that would make me really want to tango to it.
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Tswo, this too.
As is, it's not inspirational. The midi-alike sound does not help here. If the current state-of-the-art synths allow this, can you make it sound like actual instruments?
 
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