Dearest Reader: When talking about Musical Interpretation, you’re immediately going to jump to the conclusion that what Tango Topics really means when it says “Musical Interpretation” is ‘Musicality’. No. The word ‘Musicality’ means to be music, that’s what the ‘ity’ ending of the word means. Literally, (from webster’s) “a condition or quality of ‘being’ music”. Tango Topics doesn’t know about you, but we can’t ‘be‘ music. We can listen to the music, we can write the music, we can dance to the music, but we can’t be music. Notice the action verbs there ? Listen. Write. Dance. But in this case not ‘Be’. It is physiologically impossible for something or someone to be music. Because that is the case we want to create a level of detailed and descriptive accuracy with our language, and that is to Interpret The Music. That’s what this series is all about, a way to interpret the music in such a way that no matter who you are dancing with, regardless of your role (lead or follow), that we dance in structured manner that interprets what we’re hearing into dancing format that looks exactly like what we’re hearing.
A very important tool to learn when wanting to expand our Musical Interpretation skills is to learn to execute on the beat, not behind it, not ahead of it, but directly on top of it. While this has been expressed clearly in Sections 1 and 2 of the Musical Interpretation guide thus far, it’s taken a whole new level here in Section 5b. Sections 1 and 2 deal with being on beat and ‘respecting the pauses‘, section 5 deals with the specificity, and granular control over when something is done, musically. In Section 5 we’ve only begun to explore the granular control aspects. Today in Section 5b, we’re continuing in that same vein. We’re playing with specific granular control (from a leading and following perspective), with a piece of well known and well worn piece of Tango vocabulary occurring in a very discrete place. The discrete place ? The Musical Paragraph Marker! And the vocabulary ? The Argentine Cross.
From a Musical Perspective let’s address a statement made above, that is absolutely important going forward, and that must be made clear, “there are only 4 (sometimes 5 or 6) Musical Paragraphs”.
What is a Musical Paragraph ? This is a Tango Topics construct, you will not find this anywhere else, or on youtube, nor taught by any other teacher. Put simply, a Musical Paragraph is a series of paired Musical Pauses (usually between 4 and 6 pairs in a single paragraph), that comprises one singular musical ‘idea’, or more importantly, a ‘movement’ in a song. If you stop and you analyze what you’re hearing, you’ll hear 4 distinct sections of a song (sometimes 5 or 6 depending on whether or not there is a singer), each one marked by a Type 4 Musical Pause or what Tango Topics calls “The Musical Paragraph Marker“. This type of Musical Pause serves two important functions. 1.) It is a Musical Pause in and of its own right, which means that you must respect it! 2.) It serves as the declaration between one musical idea and the next. You’ll hear this idea expressed in all 6 of the major forms of Tango Music (Tango, Milonga Porteña, Vals, Tango-Milonga, Tango-Vals, and Milonga Criolla). However the later the music within the Golden Age period the more distinct and clear it is. The earlier in the period, the more muddy it is. So how do you know that you’re hearing a type 4 Musical Pause or the Musical Paragraph ? What you’re listening for is a clear and distinct ‘bum-bum‘. While we won’t play that here for you, you’ll have to do that work on your own (or subscribe so that you can see what we’re on about), you can infer a great deal from just listening to your favorite pieces of music. However, if you were a registered user (it’s free), you would see a slightly different answer to this question here. You’d actually get an example of the Bum-Bum, but alas, you’re not so you’ll have to ‘infer’ and ‘imagine’ instead of signing up as a free user to go a little deeper. 🙂
Here’s a hint though, go listen to Juan D’Arienzo, any of his Tangos or Valses. The reason for D’Arienzo is that his are very easy to hear for the Musical Interpretation beginner,…ummm you! Oddly enough you’ve been hearing them all along. The thing is that you have just haven’t realized it. This idea is in Every. Single. Song. You’ll hear a distinct shift in ideas where the music sharply changes and goes in another direction. The melodies change, the theme changes slight. That’s the ending of one idea, and the beginning of the next or as Tango Topics calls it: The Musical Paragraph.
About The Video. This video package comes in at 32m:20s in total length in 3 Sections.
Section 5a1 – Argentine Cross – Technique – 00:08:22
Section 5a2 – Argentine Cross – With a Metronome – 00:12:19
Section 5a3 – Argentine Cross – With Music – 00:11:39