Current Tango Scholarship
1. Writings on tango argentino
e.g.:
La Historia del Tango (21 vols). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Corregidor,1976-.
Benedetti, Héctor. Nueva Historia del Tango: de Los Orígenes al Siglo XXI. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2015.
Link, Kacey, and Kristin Wendland. Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango Instrumental Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
2. Writings on tango in Western classical music
e.g.:
Wendland, Kristin. “The Allure of Tango: Grafting Traditional Performance Practice and Style onto Art Tangos.” College Music Symposium 47 (2007): 1-11.
Macchioni, Oscar. The Tango in American Piano Music: Selected Tangos by Thomson, Copland, Barber, Jaggard, Biscardi, and Bolcom. Missoula: College Music Society, 2010.
Bernstein, Zachary. “Duplicated Subdivisions in Babbitt’s It Takes Twelve to Tango.” Music Theory Online 17 (2011).
3. Some issues in current tango scholarship:
1) Dichotomy of elite/popular or national/international music culture
It contradicts the actual music scene in postmodern reality, in which the audience, with the aid of postmodern information technology (e.g., internet, social media, music software/app), could easily enjoy music product from different music (sub)cultures simultaneously, and the musicians from divergent music (sub)cultures more frequently cooperate with and make impact on each other, blurring the gap of elite/popular/folk culture and renegotiating the identity on national/international/transnational level (such musicians or music groups include Astor Piazzolla, Marcelo Nisinman, Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quartet, etc.).
2) Detachment between social/cultural approach and music analysis
While the writings on tango argentino tends to put tango, as a cultural phenomenon, into its social context, the writings on tango in contemporary classical music, on the other hand, stick to the structural analysis paradigm. However, the ideal research method should be to find a balance between these two extremes, and, to a greater extent, the balance of such disciplines as ethnomusicology, musicology, and music theory.
e.g.:
La Historia del Tango (21 vols). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Corregidor,1976-.
Benedetti, Héctor. Nueva Historia del Tango: de Los Orígenes al Siglo XXI. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2015.
Link, Kacey, and Kristin Wendland. Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango Instrumental Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
2. Writings on tango in Western classical music
e.g.:
Wendland, Kristin. “The Allure of Tango: Grafting Traditional Performance Practice and Style onto Art Tangos.” College Music Symposium 47 (2007): 1-11.
Macchioni, Oscar. The Tango in American Piano Music: Selected Tangos by Thomson, Copland, Barber, Jaggard, Biscardi, and Bolcom. Missoula: College Music Society, 2010.
Bernstein, Zachary. “Duplicated Subdivisions in Babbitt’s It Takes Twelve to Tango.” Music Theory Online 17 (2011).
3. Some issues in current tango scholarship:
1) Dichotomy of elite/popular or national/international music culture
It contradicts the actual music scene in postmodern reality, in which the audience, with the aid of postmodern information technology (e.g., internet, social media, music software/app), could easily enjoy music product from different music (sub)cultures simultaneously, and the musicians from divergent music (sub)cultures more frequently cooperate with and make impact on each other, blurring the gap of elite/popular/folk culture and renegotiating the identity on national/international/transnational level (such musicians or music groups include Astor Piazzolla, Marcelo Nisinman, Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quartet, etc.).
2) Detachment between social/cultural approach and music analysis
While the writings on tango argentino tends to put tango, as a cultural phenomenon, into its social context, the writings on tango in contemporary classical music, on the other hand, stick to the structural analysis paradigm. However, the ideal research method should be to find a balance between these two extremes, and, to a greater extent, the balance of such disciplines as ethnomusicology, musicology, and music theory.