I was surprised a while back by a beautiful tango sounding slow waltz played by a guest DJ from Argentina. Instrumentation definitely had a Buenos tango quality, but it wasn't really tango in my mind because it was in a very slow tempo and in 3/4 meter -- like a ballroom waltz, only with bandoneon and other instruments used in tango. There were 3 clear beats per measure. Since I had never experienced this kind of music at a milonga I wasn't quite sure how to dance to it. The usual tango moves didn't seem to fit.
Sorry I don't know the tune, I tried to find out, but didn't get the name of the music. When I called this to the attention of the organizer of the milonga some time later, she explained to me that it was a vals. I had to explain to her that it was definitely not a vals because it was much too slow for that. Many people, it seems, aren't able to distinguish between 4/4 and 3/4 time. I've heard ballroom dance teachers, who should know better, introduce a tune as Foxtrot (4 beats per measure) when it was actually a waltz with 3 beats per measure. Has anyone else heard a *slow* tango sounding tune with 3 very slow beats per measure? How did you dance to it? What are your thoughts? Phil Seyer www.Argentine-tango.com _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
