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STORIES IN CHINESE TANGO
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by Yu Lu
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M.Mus in Contemporary Performance Candidate
Supervisor: Victor Mendoza
Berklee Valencia Campus
July, 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Acknowledgments………………………………………..………….i
Introduction…………………….……………………………………1

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1. Brief History of Tango……………………………………………1
2. The Tango Groove……..………………………………………….2
2.1. Milonga……………………….………………….. ….………2
2.2. Vals……………………………..……………………………..3
2.3. Tango…………………….……………………………………4
2.4. Tango Nuevo…………….……………………………………4
2.5. Neo Tango……………….……………………………………5
2.6. Alternative Tango……………..………………………………7
3. Tango as Classical Composition………………………………….7
4. Stories In Chinese Tango………………………………………..12
4.1. ⼑刀尖上的舞者/Dancing On The Blade...……………………13
4.2. 习惯/Habit...............................................................................14
4.3. 安全距离/A Safe Distance…………………………………..15
5. Conclusions………..……………………………………………..16

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Bibliography………………………………………………………..17
Appendices…..……………………………..………………….……18
Appendix A: The Mirror…………………..………………..……18
Appendix B:⼑刀尖上的舞者/Dancing On The Blade……….……32
Appendix C: 习惯/Habit................................................................42
Appendix D: 安全距离/A Safe Distance…………………..…….46

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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I would like to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my academic advisor, Victor Mendoza, who helped me with the composition and the
arrangement; to my committee member Lucio Godoy, who lent me all the Tango
recordings and other recourses; and to my committee member Gael Hedding, who
helped me a lot in analyzing electronic Tangos. I would also like to thank all the
amazing musicians, Andrea Fraenzel (Bass), Elena Ruano Teruel (Cello), and
Stephen McHale (Guitar), who helped me record all my tunes within the limited
time.

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Introduction

I was born in Tianjin, China, which is a city very close to Beijing. Like many Asian kids,
I started to play classical piano at a very early age. After high school, I moved to the US to
pursue my bachelor degree in piano performance. My goal was originally to be a concert pianist,
but was carried away by all the popular music styles and Latin music. Then I decided to come to
Berklee Valencia to further my study of popular music as well as jazz and Latin music. When I
first came to Spain, I was exposed to various styles of Latin American music and played in
different ensembles. At this point, I started to realize the importance of groove, which is the first
thing that identifies a genre of music. You could have the same harmony, but with a different
groove, two songs can sound totally different. As Argentinian Tango is one of my favorite Latin
music styles, I will talk about the Tango groove and my discoveries and research related to the
Tango groove in this project. At the end, I will include all my arrangements and lyrics in both
Mandarin and English translation.

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1. Brief History of Tango
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Tango was originated around the 1890s along Río de la Plata, which is a river between
Argentina and Uruguay. From that point on, Tango spread to both directions to Uruguay and
Argentine and developed differently in the two countries. I’ve analyzed Tango in Argentina.
Tango was first played in Buenos Aires by a combination of flute, guitar and organito, which is a
small wheel organ can be played on the street, due to its portability. The first person that made
Tango popular was Carlos Gardel, who released some of the earliest Tango recordings in the
1930s. Most of his recordings are based on guitar and voice. After Gardel, Tango came into its
Golden Age, in which featured the Orquestra tipica, the typical Tango orchestra, from 1935 to
1952. After the Golden Age of Tango, the popularity of Tango started to decrease, but Astor
Piazzolla, a Bandoneon1 player who combined jazz harmony into Tango music and created a new
Tango style called Tango Nuevo. After Piazzolla, many musicians started to find different ways
to make Tango more modern and brought up the concept of Neo Tango, which features electronic
Tango and the fusion of Tango with influences from other styles of music.

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Bandoneon is in the family of concertina, and was invented by the German. It was invented to
solve the financial problem for churches that can’t afford an organ.

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2. The Tango Groove

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When people think of Tango music, they always hear a certain rhythm groove (EX-1) in
their head. But this rhythm is actually a Habanera rhythm originated from Cuba. Habanera is a
name outside Cuba for the Cuban Contradanza. Another common mistake is that both Habanea
and Tango rhythm are originally written in 2/4 instead of 4/4. So a correct Habanera rhythm
should look like this (EX 2).

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EX-2 Habanera

EX-1 “Tango” Rhythm

2.1. Milonga

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But why do people mistake Tango rhythm and Habanera rhythm? I think the main reason
is that Habanera music was one of the main influence in Argentine when Tango came into being.
And Milonga, as one of the three main styles in Tango, received the most influences from the
Habanera rhythm. There are two subgenres in Milonga, one is Milonga Ciudadana, and the other
one is Milonga Campera. Milonga Ciudadana, which means City Milonga, is often played in a
faster tempo with a groove very similar to the habanera rhythm (EX 3). What differentiates them
is the tempo, as Habanera is often played in a medium slow tempo, and city Milonga takes a
faster tempo and has a small change in articulation in its groove. Another groove that often used
in Milonga Ciudadana is the quarter note pulse, which is mainly for music passages that have a
faster harmonic rhythm. The other subgenre, Milonga Campera, which means country Milonga.
is often played in a slow tempo, while telling a sad stories. Since it is in a slower tempo, the
subdivision can be complicated and hard to read when written in 2/4, so many composers wrote
Milonga Campera in 2/2. The basic groove for a Milonga Campera is a syncopated rhythm like
this (EX-4). You can add different accompaniment parts in the higher register to accomplish that
groove (EX-5, 6). Another groove that often used in Milonga Campera is the half note pulse,
with arpeggios or other accompaniment figures with a combination of quartet notes and eighth
notes.

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EX-3 Milonga Ciudadana!

EX-4 Milonga Campera

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2.2. Vals

EX-5 Milonga Campera with
R.H. Accompaniment 1

EX-6 Milonga Campera with
R.H. Accompaniment 2

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Another main style in Tango music is the Vals, also called the Vals Criollo, which means
Creole Waltz. The Vals in Tango is like waltz elsewhere, has a groove in 3/4, with three quarter
notes or one quarter and one half note as variation (EX-7). An alternative groove in Vals to make
the rhythm more interesting is to subdivide the 3/4 beat in 6/8 like this (EX-8).It is often used
when there are two chords in one measure. Some Tango musicians also slightly change the
melody to make it sounds like 2/4, while using the 6/8 subdivision, and go back to 3/4 after a few
measures.

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EX-7 3/4 Subdivision

EX-8 6/8 Subdivision

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2.3. Tango

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The most important style in Tango music is Tango music is Tango itself. Tango also has
two subgenres, Tango Milonga and Tango Cancion. Tango Milonga is a fast Tango and is often
used for people to showcase their dancing skills. Tango Cancion, which means Tango for
singing, is in a slower tempo and has a more lyrical melody. In both Tango Milonga and Tango
Cancion, there are three basic grooves, Tango in 4, Tango in 2 and syncope, which means
syncopation. When Tango established its groove in 4, composers start to write Tango in 4/8
instead of 2/4. With all the subdivisions and embellishment in 32nd notes, it is a little hard to
read. So some composers changed the time signature again and started to write Tango in 4/4.
Tangos that are in 4 have the quartet note groove as the main groove (EX-9), while Tangos that
are in 2 have the half note groove as the main groove (EX-10). The syncope rhythm in Tango
often combined bass note and chords together in the rhythm (EX-11). When realizing a tango
lead sheet, one often combined all three of the groove together to make the arrangement more
interesting.

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EX-9 Tango in 4

EX-10 Tango in 2

EX-11 Sincopa

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2.4. Tango Nuevo

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These are the tango grooves widely played during the Golden Age of Tango, which is
dominant by the big Tango Orquesta Tipica, approximately from 1935 to 1952. After the Golden
Age, Tango started to lose its audiences and the popularity of Tango decreased. The person who
kept Tango from death and even made it famous internationally is Astor Piazzolla. He initiated
the whole Tango Nuevo era and incorporate a lot of jazz harmony into Tango. People argued
about whether he was the hero who saved Tango, or he was the traitor who ruined Tango as he
changed Tango in many different ways. Besides the jazz influence, a typical Piazzolla
characteristic is his sincopa groove which is slightly different from the traditional Tango. Being
an Argentinian musician, Piazzolla used all the different Tango grooves I introduced earlier.
Additionally, he also constantly used a syncopated rhythm like this (EX-12). It looks like the
groove in Milonga Campera, but he used it in his fast Tango pieces. One of the famous piece that
uses a lot of this groove is Libertango (EX-13), in which he add a melody on the top of the bass
line in this rhythmic figure. This groove is also used in accompaniment, in which Piazzolla wrote
chords in another pattern to fill in the rests (EX-14).

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EX-12 Pizzolla Sincopa Groove

EX-13 Libertango

EX-14 Piazzolla Sincopa with
R.H. accompaniment

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2.5. Neo Tango

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Tango musician didn’t stop moving forward after Piazzolla. As internet became more and
more common, it was a lot easier to check out music from other countries and regions. Also, as
technology became more advanced, electronic dance music, sampling and other technology has
been applied to Tango to experiment different sounds and timbres. We are all entering the Neo
Tango era. The name Neo Tango was brought up by Tango DJ Sharna Fabiano in 2003 in her
article The Rise of NeoTango Music. Tango musicians started to mix Tango with other music
styles, especially electronic music. One of the first Electronic Tango group is Gotan Project, who
often added a hip-pop beat underneath their original Tango tunes, and also sampled voices and
rapping on the top (MUS-1). Therefore, some people also call Neo Tango as Electro Tango, but I
would like call it Tango Fusion instead. The reason whyI prefer this are two: because there are so
many different genres of music that have electronic elements, and because electro tango doesn’t
identify the stylistic influences from other music genres in Neo Tango.
Here I want to introduce three Tango Fusion styles that I think are becoming more and
more popular. The first one is Electronic Dance Tango and the song I want to introduce is called
Amor Que Se Baila by the Spanish/Argentine group Otros Aires (MUS-2). This song is based on
a traditional Milonga, called Milonga de Mis Amores. In the song, you can still hear the basic
Milonga Ciudadana groove in the song even though they include a very dominant house beat.
And the main instrument playing the melody is the Bandoneon, which is the signature instrument
in Tango music. The second Tango Fusion style I want to introduce is Tango Pop, and the song I
choose is Shakira’s Te Aviso, Te Anuncio (MUS-3). When I went through all the pop songs that
have Tango as their title or claim that they have a Tango flavor, most of the songs are using the
Habanera rhythm as the “Tango” flavor, like Cell Block Tango from the musical Chicago, Sad
Tango by a Korean pop singer Rain, and etc. This Shakira song starts with a strong Tango groove
and a dominant bandoneon sound. It goes to a pop music feel later and the tempo is a little too
fast for Tango dance, but the bandoneon sound is there through the whole song. Although the
song is not “Tango” the whole time, but after all it is a pop song with a little Tango flavor and I
would say it is already better than those ones that mistaken the Habanera rhythm as Tango. The
third style I want to introduce is Tango Jazz, and the song is Uno+Tres by an Argentina Jazz trio
Tango en Tres (MUS-4). The Tango groove is very clear in the head with a bandoneon playing
the melody, and we can hear a strong jazz influence when the solo section starts.

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Just like Piazzolla’s Tango Nuevo, Neo Tango is also a very controversial style. People
argued if you can still call Neo Tango a type of Tango with the addition of all the the electronic
beats from House, Hip-pop, and etc. In this modern era, a lot of songs have been originally

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written in one style, but then have been arranged to another totally different style. The boundary
between genres is getting more blurry and I think to identify whether a song is Tango or not has a
lot to do with the arrangement. Looking though the history of Tango, there are some elements
that are always present in Tango. I think a song or a piece with most of the Tango elements,
although it might also incorporate other musical influences or technology, can still be called
Tango. For me, some of the most important elements are: (1) It has to have one of the basic
Tango grooves I explained earlier; (2) it has to be in a tempo range that is good for Tango dance;
and (3) it has the signature bandoneon or string sound with the articulation in Tango music.

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2.6. Alternative Tango
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As Tango has taken the influences from other music genres, Tango DJs and Tango
dancers also discovered that Tango can also be danced to other genres of music. So, another
subgenre of Tango was created, called Alternative Tango, which is also known as Non-Tango.
Non-Tango is music that is not Tango but used for Tango dance. They were either rearranged as a
Tango piece, or simply used in their original form to dance Tango to. One of the famous Tango
arrangement for Non-Tango music is Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana (MUS-5). The
arrangement was made by the Mandragora Tango Orchestra. Another example of Non-Tango
music is Tom Waits Tango til They’re Sore (MUS-6), which doesn’t have a Tango arrangement,
but people love to dance Tango to it.

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3. Tango as Classical Composition

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Like many non-Argentinian people, I started to like Tango with listening and playing to
Astor Piazzolla. After I played several pieces by Piazzolla when I was in college, my piano
teacher gave me a CD of a New York based Tango quartet. They did arrangement for traditional
“Tango standard” and I immediately fell in love with it. So I went back to listening to traditional
Tango from the Golden Age and discovered that I like traditional Tango best. Therefore, when I
first started my Tango project, I wanted to write Tango in a the form of a Tango quartet emulating
traditional Tango from the Golden Age.
The first Tango piece I wrote is a cello piano duo in sonata form with a totally classical
composition manner. The piece is about a princess that was in love with a prince, but the prince
cheated on her and went away with another princess, so she went to learn witching, including a
mirror dance and came back to kill him. The piece starts with a slide on the cello that mimic the

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sound of opening a old wooden door, as if the witch sneaks in (EX-15). The first theme in the
exposition is in 3/4, which represents the witch mirror dance (EX-16). The second theme is in
4/4 with a combination of the different Tango grooves I introduced earlier (EX-17), which
represent the memory of how prince and the princess met each other on a Tango dance party and
how he abandoned her. The main melody is repeated in the second theme, but getting more and
more intense, and eventually leading to a peak, which represent that the princess turned into a
witch (EX-18). Then comes the development of the sonata, which is in a major key with a sweet
melody (EX-19). The development represents the sweet moments with the prince in the memory
of the princess. The second part of the development goes non-tonal and adds more dissonance,
which represents that witch's bad memories come back and lead back to witch dance in the
recapitulation (EX-20). In the first theme of the recapitulation is the same as the exposition, but
in a different key (EX-21), which represents the witch mirror dance to set up the final kill. The
second theme is the same as the exposition and represents the dance between the prince and the
other princess. The music becomes more and more intense and eventually leads to the peak,
where the witch finally kills the couple. Then the music goes really quiet and tries to mimic the
scene with two dead bodies on a bloody floor while the witch flies away (EX-22).

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EX-15 The Mirror

EX-16 The Mirror

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EX-17a The Mirror

EX-17b The Mirror

EX-17c The Mirror

EX-17d The Mirror

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EX-18 The Mirror

EX-19 The Mirror

EX-20 The Mirror

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EX-21 The Mirror

EX-22 The Mirror

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4. Stories In Chinese Tango

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After this piece, I started to listen to Tango before the Golden Age, so I listen to a lot of
old Carlos Gardel records and gradually started to listen to more Tango with vocalists like
Roberto Goyeneche and similar artists. Most of their songs have very descriptive lyrics and focus
on story-telling. At the same time, I realized that if I make a Tango project emulating Tango from
the Golden Age, I don’t really add any contribution to the Tango world and any records from that
era could potentially be more relevant than mine. For this reason, I finally decided to add my
own artist identity in my project, where I have a vocal singing in Chinese with a quartet of piano,
bass, guitar and melodica as the accompaniment. My songs keep most of the traditional Tango
elements, like the groove, instrumentation and story-telling, but with a pop vocal over it. I wrote
three songs for the project and each of them has a story behind. I called my project Stories In
Chinese Tango. The names of the three songs are ⼑刀尖上的舞者 (Dancing On the Blade), 安全
距离 (A Safe Distance) and 习惯 (Habit).

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The main focus of my Tango songs are story-telling, therefore how to adapt Chinese
lyrics into Tango rhythm became the most important topic to discover and research when I wrote
my songs. The process of my songwriting clearly shows my progress in lyric writing capability.
The first song I wrote is Dancing On The Blade, which I wrote the lyrics first, and then
experimented with different melody to fit the words. After putting the melody and lyrics together,
I did an arrangement with Tango features and elements. After the first song, I noticed that it takes
a long time to create a Tango melody with words that don’t rhyme in the right Tango rhythm. So,
when I wrote my second song, Habit, I first composed the melody, then divided a phrase into
even smaller sections according to the groove (EX-23). For example in EX-23, I divide the first
phrase into 4 sections, which are 3-note, 3-note, 2-note and 4-note. Then I found phrases in
Mandarin that have the exact number of syllables as the notes in each small section. I put those
small phrases in Mandarin together in a way that they still make sense. The third song was
written with an intention of writing a Tango in the form of a 12-bar blues and I wrote the lyrics
while composing the melody. The verses came out pretty fast, but when I wrote the chorus, I
always feel the melody for the chorus is not strong enough for people to remember or to hum
with. So I changed the chorus melody 4 times, which means I also shaped the lyrics four time
accordingly.

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EX-23 Habit
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4.1. ⼑刀尖上的舞者/Dancing On The Blade (MUS-8)
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The song was written in the style of Tango Cancion. The story talks about a spy, who has
been living a dangerous life since she was born. She has struggled for friendship and trust, and is
looking for salvation. In the verse, I used the groove from Milonga Campera to create a sad story
atmosphere (EX-24). In the chorus, I used the Tango groove in 4 to create a descriptive scene of
a dancing female spy playing with her enemies and victims (EX-25). The bridge goes to a quite
and sweet feeling, while the lyrics talk about how she thinks that she will finally find her
salvation (EX-26), but the song goes back to the chorus because her salvation is just her
imagination and she still needs to deal with her tasks.

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EX-24 Dancing
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EX-25 Dancing
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4.2. 习惯/Habit (MUS-9)
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EX-26 Dancing
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The song was written in the style of Tango Milonga. The song was inspired by the
Sherlock Holmes show on BBC. It talks about Sherlock Holmes’s feeling towards John Watson,
which are non-romantic but more intimate than friendship. It is a emotion that is hard to explain
and the whole song was written from the perspective of Sherlock. The whole song was written in
the Tango Groove in 4, but with different patterns on piano and bass for the verse and chorus.
The verses use has a steady beat for story-telling (EX-27), while the lyrics talk about what is
happening at that point in their life and the fact that John is leaving Sherlock because he is
getting married. In the choruses, I use a piano effect on the left hand and percussion on bass, to
create a more intensive atmosphere (EX-28), while the lyrics talks about how Sherlock feels
about John’s marriage and his moving-out.

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EX-27 Habit

EX-28 Habit

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4.3. 安全距离/A Safe Distance (MUS-10)

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The song was written in the style of Milonga Campera. The song keeps the sad storytelling manner and the story is based on my own experience. I once had a crush on a man, who I
couldn't even try to approach and my emotion was affected a lot by our daily interaction. The
song was written when I was depressed about the situation. The three verses of the song iare
talking about our daily interaction and his reactions towards it. It uses one of the basic Milonga
Campera accompanying groove in a form similar to a 12-bar blues (EX-29). The chorus still
takes the basic groove from Milonga Campera, but with a more complicated bass line on the left
hand and more dramatic harmony (EX-30). The lyrics were more like a conclusion saying that I
have no chance to approach to him as he always keep a safe distance from me.

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EX-29 A Safe Distance

EX-30 A Safe Distance

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5. Conclusion
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The project Stories in Chinese Tango is a coincidence of two important classes I had in
Berklee. One is the contemporary performance forum class where I need to present a short
performance at the beginning of the school year. Another is the music production class where I
need to come up with a one-minute elevator pitch to summarize my artist identity. In the forum
class, I performed a Chinese song I composed in the style of Tango. Later, when I tried to come
up with a unique artist identity for the production class, I had the idea of combining Tango and
Chinese lyrics together. While finishing this project, I’ve read many books about Tango history,
Tango arrangement and techniques for different instruments, as well as the articulations and
grooves of Tango. I did all my arrangements according to all the information from reading and
listening to recordings. However, I realized that it is not enough to be a good Tango musician
without playing with real Tango musicians. I believe that it is essential for me to also establish
my piano performance in Tango other than just composing or arranging. Therefore, my next step
after is to finish this project and to play and record it with Tango musicians.

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Bibliography

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Roberto Farris Thompson. The Art History of Love. New York: Randon House, Inc. 2005
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Gotan Project. Lunatico: Mi Confesion. XL Recording, 2006
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Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll. Laundry Service: Te Aviso, Te Anuncio. Epic Records, 2011
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Otros Aires. Otros Aires: Amor Que Se Baila. OTROTONO Records, 2004
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Mandragora Tango. Let's Have Dinner and Go Dancing!: Smells Like Teen Spirit. 2005
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Tom Waits. Rain Dogs: Tango till They’re Sore. Island Records, 1985
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Tango en Tres. Legado: Tres+Uno. Buenos Aires, 2009
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Appendix A

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Appendix B

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Appendix C

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Appendix D

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