Analysis of tango performances using computational tools

The performing style of Aníbal Troilo interpreting Mi refugio

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-6377.2020.26898

Keywords:

Performing style, Temporal patterns, Tango, Aníbal Troilo, Computational tools

Abstract

The historical performing styles in tango as a socio‐cultural construction give rise to the elaboration of the canon of the musical style that we know today. In this stylistic tradition, Aníbal Troilo is one of the relevant figures. In this work we analyze Troilo’s modes of temporal enunciation in order to find indicators of the construction of the temporal‐expressive patterns of his style. To do this we compare different interpretations of the tango Mi Refugio applying computer tools on manual beat annotations. We calculate tempo curves and compare them through correlation analysis and polynomial regression. Comparisons between different versions are interpreted through hermeneutical‐musical analysis. The results indicate a consistent use of temporal regulation patterns in Troilo’s phrasing at different expressive‐structural levels, beyond the variations in the musical surface of the arrangements. In addition, an increaseing‐decreacing resource was identified for articulatory purposes in the communication of the form.

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Author Biographies

Demian Alimenti Bel, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

Demian Alimenti Bel is Professor in music orientation musical composition at the Faculty of Arts (National University of La Plata, Argentina) and assistant of the chair Methodology of Professional Subjects at the Faculty of Arts of the UNLP. He is a guitarist, arranger and performer in various tango ensembles. He is a doctoral study fellow at the CIC (Scientific Research Commission of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina). Member and researcher at LEEM (Laboratory for the Study of Musical Experience-FBA-UNLP). Member of the research project Music, Cognition and Experience: Ways of Elaboration of Meaning in Social Contexts of Musical Practice (2018-2021) of the National University of La Plata under the direction of Dra Isabel C. Martínez.

Martín Rocamora, Universidad de la República, Uruguay

Martín Rocamora is currently an Assistant Professor in Signal Processing at Universidad de la República (UDELAR), Uruguay. He holds B.Sc, M.Sc., and D.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering, UDELAR. He was Teaching Assistant in Music Technology at the School of Music, UDELAR. His research focuses on the application of machine learning and signal processing to audio signals, with applications in machine listening, music information retrieval, and computational musicology.

Isabel Cecilia Martínez, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

PhD in Music Psychology from the University of Roehampton Surrey, UK. Professor of Methodology for the Professional Musicianship, and Aural-Perception 1-2, at the Faculty of Arts of the
National University of La Plata, Argentina. Director of LEEM (Laboratory for the Study of Musical Experience-FdA-UNLP). She leads a team of researchers in the field of Embodied Musical Cognition. Founding Partner and First President of the Argentine Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (SACCoM). Her research links aspects of embodied musical cognition, and its epistemological implications for the theory and practice of musical training. She has published and disseminated her research nationally and internationally. In 2017 she was awarded the Prize to Scientific Research from the National University of La Plata.

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Published

2021-06-21

How to Cite

Alimenti Bel, Demian, Martín Rocamora, and Isabel Cecilia Martínez. 2021. “Analysis of Tango Performances Using Computational Tools: The Performing Style of Aníbal Troilo Interpreting Mi Refugio”. Per Musi, no. 40 (June):1-26. https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-6377.2020.26898.

Issue

No. 40 (2020): Thematic Session: Computing Performed Music

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Articles in Portuguese/Spanish

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