Blame It on the Syncopation
Event Dates
Admission
Free
Charly Arana
Image courtesy of the artist
Charly Arana teaches this master class, with a special focus on defining and analyzing the use of syncopation in the rhythms and melodies that provide identity and a unique personality to significant and globally-recognized musical genres like American blues and jazz, Cuban son, Colombian vallenato, Venezuelan joropo, Peruvian marinera, Brazilian samba, and Argentine tango.
Through this analysis, students will assess the relevance and importance of syncopation in samba and tango, its influence on composition, arrangements, and orchestration, as well as its role in the evolution and projection of these genres.
This master class will also cover:
- Musicological analysis
- Comparison of the concepts of music and dance in Europe and Africa
- European harmony and African rhythm
- Metric feet and binarization of ternary rhythms
- Additive rhythms—timelines
- Concept of syncopation
- African influence on Brazilian music
- African influence on Argentine music
- Samba rhythm, origins, habanera, maxixe, and choro
- Rhythm of tango, origins, milonga, and candombe
- The habanera in the tango, and the loss of the syncopation
- The definition of syncopation in tango post-1930s
- "O Samba e o Tango": the stories and the content of the lyrics
- "O Samba e o Tango": dance, approaches, and comparisons
- "O Samba e o Tango": interpretation on guitar and the joint evolution of both genres