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| J.S. Bach: Handing over a minuet to Francisco Canaro to add the cruzado (cross rhythm). See the smirk on his face? |
Today's musicality workshop is on the vals. It will take some concentration, unlike many blog posts aiming for an easy reading experience. If you are serious about musicality, then stick with me. Go slow. It will be worth it. Dancing the cross rhythm is like flying, and partners will love it.
Our goal in this workshop is to improve our ability to improvise away from the pulse in three, and understand the African cross rhythm (cruzado also, called criollo) that makes the tango waltz so unique and fun for dancers. Important: Many people already briefly dance the crossrhythm, and I hope this workshop will expand your ability to dance longer in this crossrhythm feeling.
History:
Thanks to Francisco Canaro, the expansion of the modern milonga includes both the vals criollo and the milonga. These "criollo" influences came from Peruvian, indigenous, and African influences in the music of South America. Few dance teachers are aware of what these influences are. As a result, we have whitewashed these African influences out of the music. The true vals criollo is not to be heard in many vals tandas at milongas, but even if the vals is clearly a Viennese waltz, one still can use the concepts we are covering here. OTV and Canaro are your best sources for the vals cruzado. Let's get into it.
A waltz or "vals" in Spanish has 3 beats per phrase, right?
Well, that is the smallest view of what the vals is.
Six beats better describes the vals crillo.
If we were to compare vals to a language, then a word is 3 beats, a phrase is 6 and a sentence is 12 beats. Just like in language, when you first went to school and learned about words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs, you were already practicing these things without knowing what they were. Similarly, you may be doing very complex steps in your vals, but perhaps it will be helpful now that you are more advanced to understand more about what you are doing. The more long-range goal is for tango dancers to construct poems and short stories that delight their partners via knowing musical phrasing. Followers can also influence this feeling; so it is not information for leaders.
Before getting into all the details, I want you to dance the melody (this is called musicality) of even a vals, something that I rarely see on the dancefloor. After the melody in the below vals, you will hear a very clear cruzado rhythm. Dance on this clear rhythm. If you don't get it, just keep listening. Feel it in your body as a child does. I see people hiding behind cool figures and endless turns to hide the fact that they are just pounding out the downbeat of the vals. So dance by yourself. Feel the cruzado before we break it down and expand your future use on the dancefloor. This is by OTV.
The European Example
The vals cruzado is a waltz within a waltz from Africa (3 beats against six), but Europe had a similar phenomenon that did not make it to Argentina: The Baroque dance and music (below) is also in danced in six-beat phrases. In the following example, if one thinks in 6, notice what happens on 2 and 6! This is a common form of Baroque dancing in which dancers bob down on the beats 2 and 6 of each phrase--clear six-beat phrases!
As I mentioned earlier, if you count in six, they are bobbing slightly down on 2 and 6. That is the typical cross rhythm of their dance. The "cruzado" (meaning cross) is a sub-rhythm of the Argentine vals that at times is found also in Baroque, but Baroque was not the "cruzado" (cross rhythm) influence -- Africa brought that influence. In Latin percussion we call this counter rhythm the "trecillo" -- a part of the Afro-clave rhythm of nearly all of the forms of music in Latin America, including tango. The cruzado started in 6/8 sacred rhythms in Africa. I will write more about that later in a blog in which I will demonstrate the African influence with instruments and the Afro-clave in other forms of Latin American music as it relates to tango.
Many people, including musicians, are not aware intellectually of this sub-rhythm; so let me explain: The vals cruzado has a waltz within a waltz. Sometimes it is very explicit, sometimes subtle, the cruzado (cross rhythm) is always there, and is the distinctive element of what makes the vals the "tango waltz," coming from its African roots. To be sure, many musicians do not seem to know this, but it is nonetheless the fact. They often feel it, but are not aware of its origins.
Percussionists (tango dancers) need to know about these rhythms. You are percussively expressing yourself, striking your instrument (the floor) as a part of the tango orchestra. So my fellow percussionists, if you think in 3, a waltz has its emphasis on the first beat of each group of three (1**/1** etc.). If you think in 6 beat phrases (as the above dancers above have to), the same emphasis is 1**4**/1**4**). You will feel he musical phrasing more easily if you feel this in six. Practice counting at times when you are listening to the vals.
Now let's add the African influence, also called the trecillo, by dancing on 1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.* You must feel this first before being able to eventually feel the upbeat of this. I call this the upbeat cruzado).
For those used to watching young, flashy dancers, the following clip with very few views on YouTube will not be immediate appealing. However, this older couple are truly dancing 3 against six many times. I found this video clip because I was looking for someone dancing to Anibal Troilo's "Un Placer." I discovered Héctor and María Eugenia, dancing in this clear example of a very explicit cruzado rhythm in the vals. Check this out!
Now, go back and start a little before the 1-minute 30 mark. Here you will see how Hector performs not only the cruzado against what she is doing, but he has a very nice poetic pause in the middle of it all. Wonderful! Then keep going until the end of the song which ends with the cruzado being slammed out by the orchestra throughout the whole last phrase.
Okay, one more?
Here is a wonderful example of this within a vals with "percussionists" Julio Balmaceda and Corina playing the dance floor. Please focus again, just for this workshop, on counting in six. If you pay attention, you will observe many times when they both dance this cruzado, the cross-rhythm, together or when one does and the other stays with the bass (1**4**/1**/4**).
I recommend that you go back and look at watch him at the 56-second mark stay in the cross rhythm (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) for a long while as she stays in the normal vals rhythm (1**4**/1*34**/1**4**/etc.).
This weekend, if you are out dancing, pay attention to the Saints watching over the dance floor -- all the dead musicians that have made your world of dance and music so enjoyable. Among the many friendly spirits will see many great Argentine musicians. Behind them you will see a guy wearing a really cheesy wig. That's Bach. And if you really pay attention, when he watches vals cruzado he is smiling a lot more than usual. Among the friendly spirits, please pay attention to the African drummers who are playing the cruzado rhythm -- the three African beats playing against the six European beats of the vals cruzado!
___________________________________________
*Musicians only: The cruzado rhythm came to Argentina via Peru. The val cruzado's other feature was also borrowed at first by Canaro, and copied by others, which was to have two singers with a statement and response. I am not a musicologist, but I sense that the vals cruzado came first from Africa to Peru before being imported to Buenos Aires via Canaro. But the Africans and indigenous peoples of South America have Bach and Mozart and so many others also discovering the "organic" cross rhythm. In Europe it is called the "hemiola," a European concept of the same thing. The Peruvian cruzado is often an upbeat crossing rhythm 3 against 6 beats. The downbeat cross rhythm is (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) and the upbeat cross rhythm is (*2*4*6/*2*4*6). The reason this upbeat cross rhythm is so danceable is that the downbeat lands on 4. The regular rhythm hits on 1 and 4: (1**4**/1**/4**). Extremely wonderful genres of dance music have these elements: Reggie uses exactly the same upbeat curzado feel) but in 4/4 time (3/3/2 on upbeat *2*/*2*/*2).
Others are examples:
Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach.jpg
Many people, including musicians, are not aware intellectually of this sub-rhythm; so let me explain: The vals cruzado has a waltz within a waltz. Sometimes it is very explicit, sometimes subtle, the cruzado (cross rhythm) is always there, and is the distinctive element of what makes the vals the "tango waltz," coming from its African roots. To be sure, many musicians do not seem to know this, but it is nonetheless the fact. They often feel it, but are not aware of its origins.
Percussionists (tango dancers) need to know about these rhythms. You are percussively expressing yourself, striking your instrument (the floor) as a part of the tango orchestra. So my fellow percussionists, if you think in 3, a waltz has its emphasis on the first beat of each group of three (1**/1** etc.). If you think in 6 beat phrases (as the above dancers above have to), the same emphasis is 1**4**/1**4**). You will feel he musical phrasing more easily if you feel this in six. Practice counting at times when you are listening to the vals.
Now let's add the African influence, also called the trecillo, by dancing on 1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.* You must feel this first before being able to eventually feel the upbeat of this. I call this the upbeat cruzado).
For those used to watching young, flashy dancers, the following clip with very few views on YouTube will not be immediate appealing. However, this older couple are truly dancing 3 against six many times. I found this video clip because I was looking for someone dancing to Anibal Troilo's "Un Placer." I discovered Héctor and María Eugenia, dancing in this clear example of a very explicit cruzado rhythm in the vals. Check this out!
Now, go back and start a little before the 1-minute 30 mark. Here you will see how Hector performs not only the cruzado against what she is doing, but he has a very nice poetic pause in the middle of it all. Wonderful! Then keep going until the end of the song which ends with the cruzado being slammed out by the orchestra throughout the whole last phrase.
Okay, one more?
Here is a wonderful example of this within a vals with "percussionists" Julio Balmaceda and Corina playing the dance floor. Please focus again, just for this workshop, on counting in six. If you pay attention, you will observe many times when they both dance this cruzado, the cross-rhythm, together or when one does and the other stays with the bass (1**4**/1**/4**).
I recommend that you go back and look at watch him at the 56-second mark stay in the cross rhythm (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) for a long while as she stays in the normal vals rhythm (1**4**/1*34**/1**4**/etc.).
This weekend, if you are out dancing, pay attention to the Saints watching over the dance floor -- all the dead musicians that have made your world of dance and music so enjoyable. Among the many friendly spirits will see many great Argentine musicians. Behind them you will see a guy wearing a really cheesy wig. That's Bach. And if you really pay attention, when he watches vals cruzado he is smiling a lot more than usual. Among the friendly spirits, please pay attention to the African drummers who are playing the cruzado rhythm -- the three African beats playing against the six European beats of the vals cruzado!
___________________________________________
*Musicians only: The cruzado rhythm came to Argentina via Peru. The val cruzado's other feature was also borrowed at first by Canaro, and copied by others, which was to have two singers with a statement and response. I am not a musicologist, but I sense that the vals cruzado came first from Africa to Peru before being imported to Buenos Aires via Canaro. But the Africans and indigenous peoples of South America have Bach and Mozart and so many others also discovering the "organic" cross rhythm. In Europe it is called the "hemiola," a European concept of the same thing. The Peruvian cruzado is often an upbeat crossing rhythm 3 against 6 beats. The downbeat cross rhythm is (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) and the upbeat cross rhythm is (*2*4*6/*2*4*6). The reason this upbeat cross rhythm is so danceable is that the downbeat lands on 4. The regular rhythm hits on 1 and 4: (1**4**/1**/4**). Extremely wonderful genres of dance music have these elements: Reggie uses exactly the same upbeat curzado feel) but in 4/4 time (3/3/2 on upbeat *2*/*2*/*2).
Others are examples:
- Traditional jazz in 4/4 time: (1**4*6/1*4**6/1**4**/etc.). The down beat (1) is played, but the 2nd beat is clearly in the feeling of jazz. The above rhythm is the cymbal rhythm of the drummer. (You must count fast to get the sense of this rhythm, but start slow.)
- The jazz walz is full of these cross rhythms on the downbeat or upbeat cross rhythm. I will give you an example I immediately found on YouTube, with the sheet music notation! Please notice that since the piece is written in 3/4 it takes 6 beats (two measures) for the cross rhythm to be represented. The cross rhythm (on downbeat) example starts at measure 41 and is a regular theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3KTlZND0uc&list=RDP3KTlZND0uc&index=1
- Hip-hop and Kizomba are the down-beat cruzado rhythm (changed to the 4-beat feel, called the "trecillo" in Spanish. Tango dancers know this as the 3/3/2 rhythm, which they rarely danced but dancers have heard of it. (If you don't believe me that dancers do not dance it, watch what happens when Di Sarli, D'Arienzo, Troilo, or Pugliese play 3/3/2 rhythms (often on the upbeat 3/3/2) but no one, even professionals stomp out the pulse.) Let's not fool ourselves--tango's great African rhythms have been whitewashed or "gentrified." There are wonderful but rare exceptions. Play this tanda from Troilo and watch what happens on the dancefloor with experienced dancers. It doesn't have to be this way, but teachers have refused to learn and teach rhythms, unlike tap dancers and many African and Latin American teacher-dancers.
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