Evening star., 1949-06-08
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Traceipeu

vital principle in the peoples music has
been discovered by Latin America.
All of these countries, In, their popular
music. have much the same basic rhythmic
patterns. but the Brazilians probably have
surpassed them all.
The samba. characteristic song and dance.
embodies this principle to q point where.
once heard enough to like It, the average
person tends to find more orthodox popular
music rather boresome.
The vital principle may be called activism,
or basic urge.
1t is heard In the Cuban rumba and other
dances, In the Argentine tango, but not so
pointedly In the more sophisticated French
tango. Some 10 other dance forms con-
tain 1t.
The vitality is due to the constant move
ment In the bass. The rhythm sections leave
no second unoccupied by q sound
In this way they make a fabric of noises
on which the melody notes float.
This basic support of the melody is not the
same as the uplift given in orthodox West
ern music by the bass sections Of a great
orchestra.
The world is full of people who like music.
but some like 1t much better than others.
and 1t is these persons who are most sensi-
tive to the sense Of living fabric Of music In
motion.
They understand how the conventional
bass upholds the rest of the music. but they
know. too. how the Latin-American bass pat
tern, with its rustic and rumble. its clack
and click. its surge and everlastingness COM
pletes the whole musical fabric, supporting
and at the same weaving itself into the COM
pleted tapestry Of the musical form.
It is easier to understand this when one
tries to play q Latin-America bolero, for
instance. on the piano. or listens to 1t in a
conventional fox-trot arrangement.
1t is not the same.
The very life, the spirit. has gone out Of
it. This Is the reason so many people say
they do not like music from south of the
border.
Deprived of its fundamental basis, such
music IS pale, attenuated, and even the
unSympathetic listener realizes it. although
he may not know exactly what is the matter.
Many fine dance bands have committed
the same desecration. Just humping on the
drums won't do 1t.
Latin-American music is great deal more
than tub humping.
The humping is just part of 1t, and
relatively minor part; the real reason for
being comes In the constant rustic and
movement, the incessant varied Thythms
The latter seem to be the despair Of con-
sCAtlVttdAAy tA0i1iCu uhkIC MAd3kCtMAiS. 1n6N
never get" it at all. They fail In the very
place the South American music liz good
Instead of throwing themselves into the
spirit. such bemused musicians try to make
up for their lack of understanding by order
ing the trap drummer 10 exert himself
1t isn't done that way. The essence OF this
music lies in that basic fabric, done as the
result Of desire to give their music some
thing no other music possesses. And they
have succeeded. So well, In fact. that after
listener becomes bathed in its tide OF
sound. all other music, even some very great
music, tends to be boresome For here Is
life. life as lived by the Spanish, the Indians
and the Negroes.
I have wondered how this music's won-
derful urge could be combined with our
own basic song patterns so that we might
have something OF theirs and at the same
time keep firm hold on the good Of our own
popular system. In the end. one comes
to the conclusion that it cannot be done.
The urgency. the surge Is basic 70 their lives.
Our lives have been different. Even the
basic Negro musical devices and patterns.
and melodies. as Incorporated into cur
popular muSic-making sometimes seem
stilted and angular against the flowing river
of that Latin American urgency. whereby
they blow both hot and cold. slow and fast.
sad and triumphant at the same time. One
would have to be Brazilian to understand
how they do It.