Tell me about the tango

Hello!

I have just started composing a string quartet in which the first movment will be a tango. As i have never written a string quartet (although i have written a fair amount for strings/orchestra) nor a tango before and hence, i need to do some investigation first! :-)

I need to know rhytmic formation, common chord patterns etc which would be used in writing a tango.

The piece will not be a conventional tango and may even utilise a extremly carefully chosen 12 tone pattern for the main melody. The harmony and melody at the end of the day should be quite removed from convention but first i need to know the conventions and how they apply.

So if anyone could offer advice, links to scores, etc i'd be greatly thankful!

Chris :-)

I would suggest listening to Piazzolla's music. He combined classical and jazz and tango in a unique way.

Good luck with your quartet!

Tell me about the Tango....

It sounds like the name of some 80's tune....

Good luck, I've never heard an orchestral tango before.

~Kal

YouTube - Astor Piazzolla Verano Porteño

YouTube - Astor Piazzolla - Milonga del Angel en Holanda

YouTube - Astor Piazzolla - ADIOS NONINO (Live)

YouTube - Astor Piazzolla Verano Porteño

YouTube - Astor Piazzolla - Milonga del Angel en Holanda

YouTube - Astor Piazzolla - ADIOS NONINO (Live)

YaY:D Accordian Tango

That's actually not an accordion but what we call a "bandoneon" down here. It is not exactly an accordion. If you notice it has buttons instead of keys, and is sounded by extending rather than compressing the air chamber. It's an instrument of German folklore origin brought here by the German immigrants to the River Plate region (Uruguay and Argentina, where tango is from), and pretty much obsolete in other fields. It became absorbed into tango, and is sort of a signature instrument of the style. I don't know too much about tango since i am not too attracted to the style, but it has a kind of spirit which is unique to this region of the world. It is very rhythmic, usually in 2/4 meter, often paired with dance. Piazzolla is one of the great experimenters of it, Carlos Gardel the most adored singer. The single most recognizable tango is "La Cumparsita" (which is Uruguayan, NOT Argentinian), which you have probably heard before. It is the typical representation of the style.

Praeludium, perhaps the word you're searching for is concertina?

Praeludium, perhaps the word you're searching for is concertina?

No, bandone

I would recommend you not to listen to Piazzolla if you want to know the real traditional tango. Although Piazzolla made beautiful music modernizing the style, he was very criticized by the traditionalists of his time, mainly because most of his pieces weren't good enough for dancing. And the tango is, after all, a dance. You know, he studied in Ney York and had a classical background, taught by Nadia Boulanger and so... but he was a great bandoneonist!

In this moment I'm not remembering orthodox tango names, maybe Anibal Troilo (also known as "Pichuco"), Carlos Gardel (just performer until what I know), and some traditional tango songs such as "La Comparsita", "Manuela", "El Choclo", etc...

However, tango has nowadays tons of wings, it will be hard for you to inovate. Good luck!

Argentinians had a saying, apparently; "Everything changes in Argentina but the tango." (something along those lines)

Actually Piazolla's first encounter with Boulanger is quite a story, because although he did have classical training he began as a tango musician while pursuing strictly classical composition on the side. I think Boulanger is to be blamed for convincing him to combine his background with his formal training. :P

"When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: “It's very well written.” And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: “Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bart

Piazzolla is great, I love his music, he is a genius, but that is not tango really.

If you are willing, healey, to get rid of the Tango harmony on your piece, you will probably want to keep the tango rhythms, to keep the style. Listen to Piazzolla though, since you may want to use his rhythm patterns, but those are far away from real tango.

As regards harmony, Tango is really similar to jazz, only that the bass line is use like in classical music: you will never see a walking bass line in Tango. The use of chords is really similar to jazz.

Take a look at my attachment, and try to find those rhythm patterns in tango songs. You will see that many of them are used within one song. Use these patterns and you will get the tango style on your composition. Oh, and by the way, Tango is written in 4 by 4, not 2 by 4, most of the time.

Todo Tango <-- you can listen to a lot of Tango on that site, make sure to listen to classics like Caminito and La cumparsita.

Cheers! Enjoy the attachment

On 6/18/2007 at 11:52 AM, robinjessome said:

No, bandone

 

They have there similarities. For one they both are free reed instruments that use bellows.