¿Tango?
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Case Studies for Transcription (Classical Music Tango)
1.It Takes Twelve to Tango (1984)
by Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
Commissioned by Yvar Mikhashoff and included in the Yvar Mikhashoff Collection of Tangos, 1983-1991
Primary Source: Published manuscript (New York: Edition Peters, 1993)
Transcription In Progress
Critical Comments:
The digital transcription is based on the facsimile published by Edition Peters in 1993. In this totally serialized work, Babbitt entirely abandon the idea of tonality/modality and serialize every element (pitch, dynamics, rhythm, etc.) in music. Hence, with this radical avant-garde sound, Babbitt challenges everyone with a fundamental question: Is this work still a tango?
Two observations of the facsimile need to be mentioned here:
1) Although this composition seems to be disconnected with the traditional tango sound as far as possible, in the performance instruction provided at the very beginning, the composer himself leaves a very intriguing sentence: "to maintain a sense of tango throughout". (see Figure 2)
Figure 2 The Performance Instruction of It Takes Twelve to Tango
2) One major problem for transcription in this facsimile is in measure 35 (see Figure 3). While the time signature for this composition maintains 2/4 throughout, in measure 35, the time duration seems to be doubled falsely. There are two possible reasons for this happening: Babbitt either produces it on purpose or makes a notation mistake here. So far, I would consider it as a typo, and would divide this measure into two in the digital edition.
Figure 3 It Takes Twelve to Tango, mm.34-35
2. ¿Tango? (1983)
by Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997)
Commissioned by Yvar Mikhashoff and included in the Yvar Mikhashoff Collection of Tangos, 1983-1991
Primary Source: Published piano score, from International Tango Collection, Volume 1, Elastic Roses (New York: Quadrivium Music Press, 1986), 5-14.
Transcription In Progress
Critical Comments:
Although this composition is commissioned for piano performed by human being, it is actually more suitable for the performance by the player piano due to its mechanical characteristics. One significant challenge for both performance and transcription is the frequent change and interchange of time signature among three voices (see Figure 4, Figure 5, for examples). The more challenging part is that the tempo and the bar line are assigned evenly within these three voices, accordingly, the time value for the same quartet note varies in each voice, which would be extremely difficult for any human being pianist to play.
Figure 4 ¿Tango?, mm. 1-4
Figure 5 ¿Tango?, mm. 60-64