1357 Perfect tango music tempo
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 15:22:42 -0800
From: Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET>
Subject: Perfect tango music tempo
> It has a nice steady beat, somewhere around 92 bpm,
> perfect for Tango.
I think there is confusion about what the beat of tango is - 92 bpm sounds very frantic to me (some good milongas aren't even that fast). Here are some typical tango songs randomly selected with their recording year to the left and respective beats per minute to the right.
1938 Indeferencia (D'Arienzo/Echague) - 62
1938 Pensalo Bien (D'Arienzo/Echague) - 67
1936 El Flete (D'Arienzo) - 64
1940 Shusheta (Di Sarli) - 67
1941 La Torcacita (Di Sarli) - 62
1955 Don Juan (Di Sarli) - 58
1957 Bahia Blanca (Di Sarli) - 56
1956 Nochero Soy (Pugliese) - 59
1946 La Yumba (Pugliese) - 58
1944 Recuerdo (Pugliese) - 62
1941 Tinta Roja (Troilo/Fiorentino) - 66
1941 Cachirulo (Troilo) - 69
1957 Danzarin (Troilo) - 60
Average = 62.3
MODERN TANGOS (late 90's)
Zorro Gris (El Arranque) - 55
La Viruta (Sexteto Canyengue) - 62
Milongueando en el 40 (Forever Tango) - 66
Comme il Faut (Forever Tango) - 51
Dan
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 17:01:55 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
Dan,
There must be something haywire about how the bpm are being counted. I'd be curious if you have this song (or ITry by Macy Gray or I Knew I Love You Before I Met You by Savage Garden, any will work). I clicked on my clock (stupid Windows, barf), enlarged it to digital, put on Represent & counted the SLOWS of how I dance tango (Slow,Slow,Quick,S,S,S,QQ,S, etc). I counted 23 beats in 15 sec or there abouts. I'll do the same with the songs you list & see what I come up with. Its not fast at all & its a perfect tempo for Night Club/California 2 Step as well. ALL that genre of alternative Tango music work, splendidly. More later, I'm going to go play in Salmon Street Springs fountain at Waterfront Park, its HOT here (well for us natives anyway).
More later....
Rick
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 21:11:10 -0700
From: Leopoldo Betrico <iwanttotango@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
--- Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET> wrote:
> I think there is confusion about what the beat of
> tango is - 92 bpm sounds very frantic to me (some
> good milongas aren't even that fast). Here are some
> typical tango songs randomly selected with their
> recording year to the left and respective beats per
> minute to the right.
>
Hmmm..... I'm assuming that bpm stands for beats per
minute. I'm not sure how you're measuring the bpm for
the songs that you listed. I'm wondering if you're
measuring the strong beats. In tango, usually the one
and the three is accented (people refer to it as the
down beat). As a musician, I play Melena at about 120
bpm but in my head I'm just thinking about the one and
the three so it feels more like 60. If I play
everything with equal accent (no dynamics), then it
can sound pretty fast. But if I play it the way I
feel, it'll sound much slower (being that the one and
three are accented more strongly). And that's why it's
written in 4/8 and not 4/4. There's the same amount of
beats per measure, we just feel and play the phrases
as it was intended by the composer. Hope that helps.
L.
=====
Leopoldo Betrico
Buenos Aires
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 15:58:00 +0000
From: Jay Rabe <jayrabe@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
I get the same counts that Dan has. about 60 bpm. 120 if you count the
"synchopated" beats in between. I tap my fingers in time to the music. Each
beat is the same duration. Don't confuse it with tapping and counting every
accent in the music, and don't count a "slow" duration as the same count as
a "quick" duration. Each beat counted should be the same duration. Pretend
every song is a milonga (with no trespie) and you're going to count your
steps, all equal duration.
J
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 09:39:38 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
This could be my foxpox. No worries. I just made a pot of coffee & some freedom toast & was dancing around my kitchen. Hmmm...Perhaps a little slower than Orishas is perfect, for me!! I'd say anywhere in the window of 60 to 85/90 bpm. "Tango2Evora" & "I Try" prececed Orishas "Represent", both a little slower. La Luciernaga by Color Tango is faster & more like milonga tempo for me. Such beautiful songs. Anyway, no worries... Here's what I just clocked, via MusicMatch & boat-anchor Windows98 (blech).
76 bpm = "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne
60 bpm = "Tango2Evora" by Loreena Mckennit
68 bpm = "I Try" by Macy Gray
80 bpm = "I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You" by Savage Garden
68 bpm = "Dance Me To The End Of Love" by Leonard Cohen
[sensing a theme here, heh heh ;o)]
Rick
PS: I'm thinking in the non-traditional context of our Wed. night, all contemporary, high-fi music Tango dance anyway. I've been having a blast, commenting to people, who are doing all kinds of interesting, non-traditional things with there dancing: "Hey!, that's not Tango". followed by gales of laughter & fun...
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 13:39:39 -0700
From: Farkyu Uptabut <farkyu_uptabut@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
Hi,
Maybe sincse I am not from your culture, I don't understand the humor in
this. Couds you explain it to me?
Is it something about tango, or does it have to do with the apparent
misspelling of "there" (their)??
Is therre really a "non-traditional context of our Wed. night, all
contemporary" , or is that part of the
joke?? In my plodding way, my thinking is that since Tango is a traditonal
dance, if you want to dance
Tango, you dance it pretty much traditionally, and if you want to be
non-tradiitonal, you dance
whatever you want - but why call it tango or even refer to tango???
Sorry I don't get the joke - please help.
Farqyu from Turkey
>From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
>PS: I'm thinking in the non-traditional context of our Wed. night, all
>contemporary, high-fi music Tango dance anyway. I've been having a blast,
>commenting to people, who are doing all kinds of interesting,
>non-traditional things with there dancing: "Hey!, that's not Tango".
>followed by gales of laughter & fun...
>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 14:24:01 -0700
From: Leopoldo Betrico <iwanttotango@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
--- Jay Rabe <jayrabe@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> I get the same counts that Dan has. about 60 bpm.
> 120 if you count the
> "synchopated" beats in between. I tap my fingers in
> time to the music. Each
> beat is the same duration. Don't confuse it with
> tapping and counting every
> accent in the music, and don't count a "slow"
> duration as the same count as
> a "quick" duration. Each beat counted should be the
> same duration. Pretend
> every song is a milonga (with no trespie) and you're
> going to count your
> steps, all equal duration.
>
What I meant with my post was that when listening to
tango, most dancers count only the one and three, the
accented beats. I was postulating that Dan was doing
the same. (Postulating - am I using that correctly? -
English is not my native language). When you say
"syncopated beats in between", those aren't really
syncopation, not in the musical sense. They're
actually the two and four, and if you listen to Biagi,
he'll sometimes accent those :) Anyways, I think that
most recored music are in the range of 100 - 120 bpm
(for tango that is).
Best,
L.
=====
Leopoldo Betrico
Buenos Aires
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 15:45:14 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
Farqyu,
Thanks so much for making an effort to communicate in English. I like most Americans, am monolingual. I'm going to mull this one over for a while. I've seen some really ugly things done in the name of "traditional Tango", whatever that is. In the meantime, here's some more questions:
Why not call it Tango?
What exactly is Tango, is there a universal definition?
What is THE REAL TANGO?
Rick
Aussies: Dislike being mistaken for Pommies (Brits)when abroad.
Canadians: Are rather indignant about being mistaken for Americans when
abroad.
Americans: Encourage being mistaken for Canadians when abroad.
Brits: Can't possibly be mistaken for anyone else when abroad.
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 22:34:42 -0700
From: Bruno <romerob@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
<What exactly is Tango, is there a universal definition?>
Some words from Discepolo on Tango
You can write Tango with one finger and yet with the the soul
A tango is intimacy which hides itself
It is the cry which rises up naked
It is in the air like the air itself
In the curved flight of the birds
In peeling walls showing the scab of bricks
You will find it in the farthest corner
and in the angle formed by your heart and mine.
This an excerpt taken from the Tango documentary "Tango Mio" circa 1989.
Regards,
Bruno
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 08:56:01 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Perfect tango music tempo
Gosh, what a beautiful morning. Birds singing, going to be 95 today, time scheduled to play in the fountains downtown with lots of children, pot of coffee brewing, 80 min of beautiful, high-fidelity contemporary Argentine Tango & Alternative Tango music playing in the background, liberty toast cooking & big blocks of freedom kissing coming soon with my sweetheart. I miss her so much, more than I can say right now... ;o)
Mr. F UpDaButt raises some interesting points.
What I know for sure about our all-high-fidelity-contemporary Tango & alternative Tango music dance on Wed nights. Its real to me & to the really nice, fun friendly open-minded people that show up to really enjoy each other, dancing Argentine Tango & indulging in an experience that's really good for the soul. Tantrum-throwning Golden-Age music fundamentalists, who say & do really mean ugly things, haven't been making it for some reason? We really don't miss them.
Rick
PS: Oprah has a great thing she says quite a bit: When people show you who they are, believe them. They give you info all the time about who they are.
PPS: With my electronic-DJ idea, with many channels of music available, beamed to individual dancers, no way is everyone listening & dancing to the same music.
PPPS: Life, people, nature, folk activites, I see as organic, changing. Not frozen, static, humidifed stuffed away in a museum somewhere, never changing.
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: [TANGO-L] Perfect tango music tempo
> Mr. F UpDaButt raises some interesting points.
>
> What I know for sure about our all-high-fidelity-contemporary Tango &
alternative Tango music dance on Wed nights. Its real to me & to the really
nice, fun friendly open-minded people that show up to really enjoy each
other, dancing Argentine Tango & indulging in an experience that's really
good for the soul. Tantrum-throwning Golden-Age music fundamentalists, who
say & do really mean ugly things, haven't been making it for some reason? We
really don't miss them.
> Rick
