Category: Tango Technique

In the fourth part of this series I looked at a popular tune ‘Mimosa’ recorded by the Francisco Canaro Orchestra in 1929, and proceeded to break down the structure of the tango tune in some detail.

I showed how the structure broke down into musical phrases, sections, and other components, and how these components repeated with variation, and described how a dancer could predict phrases of music and better interpret a tune even if not familiar with the tune.

So for in this and future parts of the Musicality series I will start looking at other Orchestras and their musical differences. I will look at a typical tango tune, and a vals and milonga by the same orchestra (where available – not all orchestras recorded vals and milonga tunes).

So in this Part 5 I am going to look at the ever popular Carlos Di Sarli Orchestra. Carlos Di Sarli’s music is often described as romantic, lyrical, smooth, and so on, but Di Sarli didn’t always sound like this. His early arrangements for quartets, sextets and so on, were far more traditional, compared to his hey day when he had finally found his own style.

However by 1944 when he and his Orchestra recorded the tune I am going to analyse now, he had established the well known Di Sarli style. The tune is ‘Motivo Sentimental‘ written by Emilio Brameri, with the marvellous voice of Alberto Podestá singing the lyrics of Carlos Bahr.

In this post I’m not going to break down the tune using pictorial representations like last time so we can dive straight into the music.

Tango – Motivo Sentimental

Here is the entire tune to listen to first. See if you can pick out the repetition of the different sections and phrases within each section, then I’ll break it down.

The first thing to notice is that this tune has 5 sections of approx 34 seconds each, resulting in an overall tune length of 2:50 minutes. This is very similar timing to Canaros recording of ‘Mimosa’ that we looked at last time, so even though there are 15 years between these two recordings, the same basic tune structure creates the same basic tune timing.

Now what follows are the different sections to listen to.

‘Motivo Sentimental’ Section A

You’ll notice Section A has one phrase repeated twice with a slight variation in the repeat which sounds a little more staccato. Also listen out for the ‘pom pom’ at the end of the section. It is a lot softer and less obvious than in ‘Mimosa’ but it is there. Remember that the ‘pom pom’s signal a dancer that the section has finished and a different melody is about to start.

‘Motivo Sentimental’ Section B

In Section B we have a different phrase repeated with slight variation again. The repeat sounds a little more staccato as did the second phrase of Section A. This time at the end of Section B there is no obvious ‘pom pom’ but there is a little 5 note trill played on the piano that helps to signal the end of the section. At the end of Section B we are just over a minute in and no sign of singer Alberto Podestá yet, so all musicality has had to developed using the tune only so far.

‘Motivo Sentimental’ Section A variation 1

Now Alberto Podestá starts to earn his crust with his fine voice, and Section A is repeated. This time it is the singer who is carrying the melody. The Orchestra is now just accompanying Alberto. So again, although it is the singer carrying the melody, you have already heard the melody before in this tune, so for this 34 sec section, you know what’s coming even if you’d never heard the tune before. Again we have a ‘pom pom’ at the end, but very quiet and gentle.

‘Motivo Sentimental’ Section B variation 1

This is a repeat of Section B but with Alberto Podestá carrying the previous refrain. The second phrase in this section does not sound as staccato as the instrumental version in Section A, but sounds a more regular ‘tic toc’ timing. This maybe simply that the previous sharp attack on the staccato notes would not have complimented the singers voice, because Alberto holds his notes as he sings. Finally there is a 4 note trill on the piano to signify the end of the section.

‘Motivo Sentimental’ Section A variation 2

In the final section, variant 2 of Section A, Alberto stops singing in the first phrase and we go back to a more staccato arrangement. Finally we have a much more obvious ‘pom pom’ at the end of the tune to signify the finish.

Listen again to the full tune with all the sections in the correct order and imagine how you might interpret this tune in your dance expression.

Carlos Di Sarli’s recorded output was mainly tango tunes, but he did record a few Milonga and Vals tunes so we will have a listen to one of each to see if the pattern of sections (ABABA) still holds for tunes with a different tempo.

Vals – Un Momento

Lets listen to the lovely romantic Vals called ‘Un Momento‘ written by Héctor Stamponi and recorded in 1952 with the singer Oscar Serpo. Here’s the whole tune before I break it down.

As you can hear, this is typical romantic Di Sarli at his best, and if you imagine your dance interpretation to this Vals, I doubt if you would use decoration or tango movement which was too staccato. You would want to keep this dance flowing elegantly to the music.

So does the ABABA pattern still hold true for a Vals? Well first thing to note is that this Vals is nearly 2 mins 57 seconds long so only a few seconds longer than the previous Di Sarli recording. So allowing for technical factors such as turntable speed variation etc. this is about the typical length of previous tango tunes we’ve looked at.

Now what follows are the different sections to listen to.

‘Un Momento’ Section A

The first section A contains two phrases which are slightly different. Not much change there. Again no ‘pom poms’ with this Di Sarli Vals to signify the end of the section, but a three note slow trill from high to low. This makes it pretty easy to detect the end of the section.

‘Un Momento’ Section B

Section B is a new melody but the Di Sarli arrangement keeps it flowing nicely from the previous section.

‘Un Momento’ Section A variation 1

In this repeat of section A with variation we have the singer Oscar Serpo taking over the melody and the Orchestra goes into accompaniment mode providing some extra emotion with trills and runs of the open chords they play.

‘Un Momento’ Section B variation 1

In this repeat section B with variation the singer is still carrying the tune and the Orchestras accompaniment goes into some fairly playful ‘punctuation’ elements. A dancer would be able to anticipate how this section is going to sound overall, because the singer Oscar is repeating the refrain from the earlier sections of the tune. However, this is the first time we hear this playful ‘punctuation’ element, so if a dancer hadn’t heard this tune before (or this arrangement) they may not be able to use this element first time out. On next hearing though, it is interesting enough that you would probably recognise the tune early enough to remember the playful elements before they start.

‘Un Momento’ Section A variation 2

In the final section we revert back to a repeat of section A but with a nice mix of the first phrase being instrumental and the second phrase reintroducing the singer Oscar Serpo to finish off the tune. Again we have no ‘pom pom’ to fish off, but we have a lovely change of tempo as the music and the singer’s voice slows down for the last long elongated note. This easily signals the end of the whole tune.

So from that we can say that (at least for these Di Sarli arrangements) this ABABA pattern broadly holds true whether for tango or vals. This is very helpful to the dancer.

Milonga – Zorzal

Finally lets listen to a milonga tune. Di Sarli didn’t seem to record too many milongas and this may have been because he seemed to like the romantic arrangement of tunes. Milongas are happy tunes but don’t lend themselves well to the ‘romantic’ type arrangement. However in 1941 Di Sarli recorded a milonga called ‘Zorzal‘ with the help of singer Roberto Rufino. It was written by Dorita Zárate.

Now we start to hear something a little interesting because the pattern has changed slightly. Before breaking this pattern down, please have a listen to the whole tune

If you listen carefully there seems to be three different basic repeating patterns not just two. The AB sections are there but this time repeated 3 times for the pair of sections in an ABABAB type pattern, but there is also something else in between the AB sections. There is a shorter intro, two interludes and an outro sections which are all basically the same melody, so the composer is playing with the ‘standard’ ABABA format to form something a little more musically complex.

Also those of you already familiar with the milonga style of music and dance will hear that we still have typical Di Sarli lyrical strings and a fairly smooth feel to this milonga tune. This might lend itself to perhaps less of a ‘traspie’ (stumble) interpretation and more of a ‘liso’ (smooth) interpretation.

‘Zorzal’ Intro

This Introductory phrase is just 11 seconds long but it introduces the dancer to the faster milonga rhythm immediately. Milongas tend to be quicker rhythms to dance to and are often a bit shorter duration than a tango tune, so you don’t want to waste the first 15 – 20 seconds trying to work out what the rhythm is! This intro gives you that information pretty much immediately. It is also repeated 3 more times in the tune.

‘Zorzal’ Part A

Then we hear the Part A section with two repeating phrases. Again a slightly faster pace and a shorter overall section, and it’s instrumental.

‘Zorzal’ Part B

With Part B we hear two different phrases just for added interest, and the overall Part B is a different melody to Part A. Still brisk, still instrumental but the first section is classic Di Sarli smooth strings.

‘Zorzal’ Interlude 1

Now the composer inserts an interlude which is basically a repeat of the intro. This acts as an anchor point for the dancer because they’ve heard it once already, plus the two sections immediately after. Now the dancer broadly knows what’s coming next (even with variations) and can better interpret the music.

‘Zorzal’ Part A variation 1

Now we have the voice of Roberto Rufino supplying the melody while the Orchestra plays accompaniment, but it’s basically the same as the previous Part A, so no great surprises here and the dancers should be able to start playing with their interpretaion of the tune.

‘Zorzal’ Part B variation 1

This Part B variation is pretty much the same as the first Part B but again Roberto Rufino carries the melody. Dancers can carry on playing with a now familiar refrain.

‘Zorzal’ Interlude 2

As the second variations come to an end, another anchor point is introduced with another familiar interlude. We’ve already heard it twice, so it tells the dancer that the second AB pair is over and another is about to begin.

‘Zorzal’ Part A variation 2

‘Zorzal’ Part B variation 2

With the final repetitions of Parts A and B, the singer continues singing, but the rhythm and melody stays the same as before. Again, no big surprises for the dancers, because if the composer threw in a dramatic change of pace, section duration, or mood of melody, the milonga is so fast that the dancers wouldn’t be able to cope with big changes quickly enough. The tune enhances the dance, by not ‘getting in the way’.

‘Zorzal’ Outro

The final outro is simply the melody of the intro and interludes repeated for a final time, but with our old friend the ‘pom pom’ stuck on the end to signify the end of the tune. Happy dancers! 🙂

So in this part of the series, we have seen that for some new tunes with a different orchestral arrangement, the ABABA pattern can still be present, but that some composers and arrangers can also play with that basic pattern by inserting interludes, intros and outros. Providing they don’t mess up the dancers rhythm too much and give the dancers chance to ‘learn’ the tune by the end of the first AB pair, then the dancers will remain happy 🙂

In Part 6 I will look at Juan D’Arienzo’s Orchestral arrangements, which are quite a different feel to Di Sarli. We will still be on the look out for the ABABA pattern but may (or may not 🙂 ) come across something different.

By the way: For those of you beginning to think

‘Well of course all these tunes are exhibiting a common pattern, Steve, because you’re selecting the tunes that fit the pattern to prove your point. What about the thousands of other tunes out there?’,

it is true that I am currently illustrating a point, but there are plenty of Argentine Tango tunes, by plenty of different orchestras, out there on music and video websites, so get listening and see if I’m basically right or not 🙂

Previous – Musicality in Tango Dancing – Part 4

Next – Musicality in Tango Dancing Part 6