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Contents
Preliminary Remark
This article is about feelings, but only those that are triggered by music and not for example feelings of „connection“ that can arise from physical proximity and shared movement. In order to better understand the topic of „music and feelings“, I have studied music psychology and psychoacoustics. I found the book Das wohltemperierte Gehirn: Wie Musik im Kopf entsteht und wirkt („The Well-Tempered Brain: How Music Creates and Works in the Head“) particularly stimulating. All quotes that are not otherwise marked are from this book.
This is not about the so-called “episodic memory”: “You connect the music with episodes from your own life. The brain links what we hear again with the situation in which we heard a piece of music for the first time. […] Since all regions of the brain are active when we listen to music, we experience the situation at that time, its specific atmosphere and our state of mind at that time again with all our senses” (source) .
When I speak of “dancers”, I mean exclusively those who at least try to dance “musically” and not those who do not care at all about accented beats, musical phrases, pauses, etc. and who just do whatever they want.
And when I say “Pugliese”, I mean pieces like A los artistas plasticos and not comparatively easy pieces like Recuerdo, where you can still (although often only with difficulty) recognize phrases or dance to them (like in this video).
Music and Emotions
We now understand quite precisely how music creates emotions. We know that certain areas of the brain (such as the amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, etc.) take on specific tasks and what role certain neurotransmitters play (for example see here). And we can also explain why particularly „emotional“ pieces such as „Hallelujah“ by Leonard Cohen, „Yesterday“ by the Beatles, „Someone Like You“ by Adele or Pachelbel’s „Canon in D“ have such a strong effect. What all of these pieces have in common is that they are based on catchy harmonies and/or melodies and simple rhythms.
How easy it is to play on the keyboard of human emotions can be seen particularly well in film music. Hollywood composers like Hans Zimmer always work with the same chord sequences to express sadness, love, awe, etc. (see this video). Dissonances can only be found in „danger“ and „tension“, all other chords are based on our western system of harmony, ie they are „catchy“ and correspond completely to our expectations and listening habits.
Tango and „Great“ Feelings
Tango is always about „great“ emotions. It is a mystery to me how such a sound can generate any positive feelings. I find it even more puzzling, however, that the complex music of Osvaldo Pugliese is supposed to evoke intense emotions when hardly anyone can dance to it. Some say a Pugliese tanda is „the highlight of a milonga for many dancers“ (source). How can it be that music that is consistently described as „complicated“, „challenging“, „not easy to dance to“ etc. does not lead to frustration in dancers but, on the contrary, to elation? An example of countless similar statements: „While being able to dance well to Pugliese’s music is the mark of a truly accomplished dancer, his music is very challenging for new dancers“ (source). (I would replace new dancers with also for advanced dancers.)
Characteristics of Pugliese’s Music
Let’s look at what makes Pugliese’s music so difficult:
“While di Sarli’s music was easy to dance to, Osvaldo Pugliese’s approach to tango music was much more experimental, with a rich, complex and discordant sound that prevented easy dancing” (source).
“There are long pauses, surprising restarts, and this power, an impressive strength that tears and takes us. […] The rhythmic basis of Pugliese perfectly fits a calm and intense walk, while more complex interpretations require sudden speed or intention changes. He provides a large and extreme emotion range, from a soft violin crying glissando to canyengue rhythmic games, and through the bandoneon anxiety, stretching with dissonance…” (source) .
“The rhythmic accentuation of his orchestra lies on a superposition of sonic layers which form a subtle and polyrhythmic mechanism, in which different instrumental sections move in a variety of styles and effects. And from this, apparently anarchic, rhythmic disposition, the different themes are expressively translated into the peculiar way of saying the soloists of the orchestra had” (source).
Pugliese and Piazzolla
Dissonances, discordant sounds, sudden tempo changes, anarchic or polyrhythms – all that is very reminiscent of Piazzolla. Why do most people find Piazzolla’s music „undanceable“ while they are enthusiastic about Pugliese’s music, even though it is so similar (apart from Piazzolla’s squeaking, scratching and creaking)? Both Pugliese and Piazzolla played (albeit at different times) in Anibal Troilo’s orchestra and most music historians see a direct development from Troilo via Pugliese to Piazzolla.
Melody and Harmonies
So what has neuroscience discovered, for example with the help of brain scans? Let’s start with the importance of melody: It is the „basis of musical experience“. The vast majority react sensitively to dissonances. The „ability to perceive complex harmonies“ is „very rare“. The „auditory cortex“ (= all areas of the brain involved in processing sounds) signals „discomfort“ when expectations of harmonies are not met. Basically, there is only a „low openness to new things“. Only „trained listeners“ can anticipate complex compositions because they have stored the structures of pieces they have already heard in their „auditory long-term memory“. Applied to dancers, this means that you would have to have heard complex pieces very often in order to be able to dance to them with pleasure. But Pugliese’s music is of course rarely played in normal classes and at milongas there is typically one tanda late in the evening. The number of people who listen to Pugliese on their way to work or in their free time is likely to be very limited. In other words, the majority of dancers would normally have an emotionally negative reaction simply because of the unfamiliar sound.
Pulse and Tempo Changes
An even bigger problem for „musical“ dancers, however, is the lack of a regular basic beat („pulse“) and constant changes in tempo: „A temporary change in tempo brings a hint of emotion for a moment, but at the same time it contradicts the expectations about the rhythmic progression that keep a piece going. If there are too many deviations in tempo, the listener loses the feeling for the underlying meter and can no longer properly anticipate the coming beats.“ For dancers, the rhythmic „predictability“ is one, if not the decisive criterion for the „danceability“ of a piece. Precisely because it is usually difficult or even impossible to anticipate the further progression, Pugliese’s and Piazzolla’s music creates (measurable) stress.
How to Dance to Pugliese?
Unsurprisingly, there are only a few videos that give concrete tips on how to dance to Pugliese’s music. In this video, you get the curious advice to make „smaller steps“ and dance more „circularly“. As to musicality, the advice is to „hang back behind the music“ and „do the opposite of what the song does“. To me, that’s a euphemism for: „Forget the music, it’s far too complex for you – just do anything.“ And that’s exactly what almost everyone does.
In this video, at least, it is not recommended to do the opposite of what the music suggests, but to move slowly in passages with an „adagio feeling“ – a rather obvious tip. In more energetic passages, however, you should dance a demanding combination of „Molinete and internal gancho“. Looks great, but unfortunately almost nobody can do it – so pretty useless.
And in this video at least “pulse” and “strong beats” are addressed and demonstrated using a simple step sequence. What is not addressed, however, is the crucial point, namely that in Pugliese’s music there is very often no (at least consistent) “pulse” and the “strong beats” often come completely unexpectedly and randomly.
Conclusion
Psychoacoustics and neuroscience cannot explain why Pugliese’s music should evoke „great“ emotions. They can, however, explain very convincingly why his music (like Piazzolla’s) evokes emotional rejection in most people. The alleged intense emotions are probably in many cases a mixture of self-delusion, aesthetic conformism and supposed gain in prestige. If „aesthetic authorities“ demand that you should feel intense emotions even though you are just stumbling around helplessly, then of course you want to belong to the „knowledgeable elite“ and stand out from the ignorant plebs on the dancefloor.
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