On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 10:28 AM, Vince Bagusauskas <[email protected]> wrote: >>There are dances called 'bailes' where less than 70% of the >>music is tango (milonga and vals). A 'milonga' will play no more than >>30% of these other rhythms (to which tango is not danced). > > Fascinating. Was this generally known before I posted the law extract a few > days ago? > > Which begs the question, if foreigners are to be true to the culture of the > portenos and Argentine tango should there be an expectation that up to 30% > non-tango music be played at milongas? >
In Buenos Aires milongas, the non-tango music played is typically swing (jazz, rock n' roll), cumbia, and chacarera, i.e., music for dancing dances other than tango. Tango is only danced to traditional tango music, either Golden Age or, rarely, a more modern recording in the style of the Golden Age. With respect tot eh percentage of non-tango music played at a milonga, that varies somewhat. The most I recall hearing was at a Saturday night milonga at Glorias Argentinas, where the music program followed the format TVTO TMTO, where O represents the other, non-tango rhythms played, so about 25% non-tango music. In contrast, at El Beso there could be as little as 2 tandas of non-tango music in 4 hours, so something like TTV TTM TTV TTM O, i.e., less than 10% non-tango music. Most other milongas are somewhere in between. However, I do believe I have been to a few milongas in Buenos Aires where no 'other rhythms' have been played. Perhaps I wasn't there long enough. My subjective impression is that there is more non-tango music on weekends, perhaps because weekend milongas appeal to an audience with a wider diversity of dancing experiences, but still no tango fusion or non-tango music to which tango is danced. La Viruta and La Marshall are apparent exceptions to this. (I didn't hear tango fusion or non-tango music when I was at La Viruta in 2007. I have not been to La Marshall.) Ron _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
