Tango ( or ; ) is a style of music in or time that originated in Argentina and Uruguay among European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has mainly Spanish, Italian, Gaucho, African, and French cultural roots. It is traditionally played on a solo guitar, guitar duo, or an ensemble, known as the orquesta típica, which includes at least two violins, flute, piano, double bass, and at least two bandoneóns. Sometimes guitars and a clarinet join the ensemble. Tango may be purely instrumental or may include a vocalist. Tango music and dance have become popular throughout the world.
Origins
Even though present forms of tango developed in Argentina and Uruguay from the mid-19th century, there are records of 19th and early 20th-century tango styles in Cuba and Spain,José Luis Ortiz Nuevo El origen del tango americano Madrid and La Habana 1849 while there is a flamenco tango dance that may share a common ancestor in a minuet-style European dance.Christine Denniston. Couple Dancing and the Beginning of Tango 2003 All sources stress the influence of African communities and their rhythms, while the instruments and techniques brought in by European immigrants in the 20th century played a major role in the style's final definition, relating it to the salon music styles to which tango would contribute back at a later stage.
Ángel Villoldo's 1903 tango "El Choclo" was first recorded no later than 1906 in Philadelphia. Villoldo himself recorded it in Paris (possibly in April 1908, with the Orchestre Tzigane du Restaurant du Rat Mort), as there were no recording studios in Argentina at the time.
Early tango was played by European immigrants in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.Norese, María Rosalía: Contextualization and analysis of tango. Its origins to the emergence of the avant-garde. University of Salamanca, 2002 () The first generation of tango players from Buenos Aires was called "Guardia Vieja" (the Old Guard). It took time to move into wider circles; in the early 20th century, it was the favorite music of thugs and gangsters who visited brothels,Tango and whores in a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914). The complex dances that arose from such rich music reflect how the men would practice the dance in groups, demonstrating male sexuality and causing a blending of emotion and aggressiveness. The music was played on portable instruments: flute, guitar, and violin trios, with bandoneón arriving at the end of the 19th century. The organito, a portable player-organ, broadened the popularity of certain songs. Eduardo Arolas was the major driver of the bandoneón's popularization, with Vicente Greco soon standardizing the tango sextet as consisting of piano, double bass, two violins, and two bandoneóns.
Like many forms of popular music, tango was associated with the underclass, and attempts were made to restrict its influence. In spite of the scorn, some, like writer Ricardo Güiraldes, were fans. Güiraldes played a part in the international popularization of tango, which had conquered the world by the end of World War I; he wrote the poem "Tango", which describes the music as the "all-absorbing love of a tyrant, jealously guarding his dominion, over women who have surrendered submissively, like obedient beasts".
One song that would become the most widely known of all tango melodies also dates from this time. The first two sections of "La Cumparsita" were composed as an instrumental march in 1916 by teenaged Gerardo Matos Rodríguez of Uruguay.ToTANGO. La Cumparsita – Tango's Most Famous Song TodoTango. Ricardo García Blaya. Tangos and Legends: La Cumparsita
Argentine roots of tango
Besides the global influences mentioned above, early tango was locally influenced by Payada, the Milonga from Argentine and Uruguay pampas, and Uruguayan candombe. In Argentina there was Milonga "from the country" since the mid eighteenth century. The first "payador" remembered is Santos Vega. The origins of Milonga seem to be in the pampa with strong African influences, especially though the local candombe (which would be related to its contemporary candombe in Buenos Aires and Montevideo). It is believed that this candombe existed and was practised in Argentina since the first slaves were brought into the country.
Although the word "tango" to describe a music/dance style had been printed as early as 1823 in Havana, Cuba, the first Argentine written reference is from an 1866 newspaper that quotes the song "La Coqueta" (an Argentine tango). In 1876, a tango-candombe called "El Merenguengué"Tango-candombe afroargentino "El Merenguengué". Jorge Gutman op. cit. became very popular, after its success in the Afro-Argentines' carnival held in February of that year. It is played with harp, violin, and flute, in addition to the Afro-Argentine candombe drums ("Llamador" and "Repicador"). This has been seriously considered one of the strong points of departure for the birth and development of tango.Museum House of Carlos Gardel "The Black history of Tango".
The first tango "group" was composed of two Afro-Argentines: "the black" Casimiro Alcorta (violin) and "the mulatto" Sinforoso (clarinet). They played small concerts in Buenos Aires from the early 1870s until the early 1890s. Alcorta is the author of "Entrada Prohibida" (Prohibited Entry),El negro Casimiro Alcorta, y su tango "Entrada Prohibida". sung by the brothers Teisseire. He is also credited with the tango "Concha sucia", which was later adapted and sung by F. Canaro as "Cara sucia" (Dirty Face).El negro Casimiro Alcorta, y su tango "Concha Sucia".
Before the 1900s, the following tangos were being played: "El queco" (anonymous, attributed to clarinetist Lino Galeano in 1885); "Señora casera" (anonymous, 1880); "Andate a la recoleta" (anonymous, 1880); "El Porteñito" (by the Spaniard Gabriel Diez in 1880); "Tango Nº1" (Jose Machado, 1883); "Dame la lata" (Juan Perez, 1888); "Que polvo con tanto viento" (anonymous, 1890); "No me tires con la tapa de la olla" (A.A. 1893); and "El Talar" (Prudencio Aragon, 1895). One of the first women to write tango scores was Eloísa D'Herbil. She wrote such pieces as "Y a mí qué" (What Do I Care), "Che no calotiés!" (Hey, No Stealing!), and others, between 1872 and 1885.
The first recorded musical score is "La Canguela" (1889). The first copyrighted tango score is "El entrerriano", released in 1896 and printed in 1898 by Rosendo Mendizabal, an Afro-Argentine. As for the transition between the old "Tango criollo" (Milonga from the pampas, evolved with touches of Afro-Argentine candombe, and some Habanera), and the tango of the Old Guard, there are the following songs: Ángel Villoldo - "El choclo", 1903; "El Pimpolla", 1904; "La Vida del Carretero", 1905; and "El Negro Alegre", 1907 Gabino Ezeiza - "El Tango Patagones", 1905 Higinio Cazón - "El Taita", 1905
Moreover, the first tango recorded by an orchestra was "Don Juan", written by Ernesto Ponzio. It was recorded by the orchestra of Vicente Greco.
1920s and 1930s, Carlos Gardel
Tango soon gained popularity in Europe, beginning in France, thanks to the work of artists such as Enrique Saborido, Carlos Vicente Geroni Flores, Celestino Ferrer, Vicente Loduca, and Casimiro Aín. Superstar Carlos Gardel soon became a sex symbol who brought tango to new audiences, especially in the United States, due to his sensual depictions of the dance in film. In the 1920s, tango moved out of the lower-class brothels and became a more respectable form of music and dance. Bandleaders like Roberto Firpo and Francisco Canaro dropped the flute and added a double bass in its place. Lyrics were still typically macho, blaming women for countless heartaches, and the dance moves were still sexual and aggressive.
Carlos Gardel became especially associated with the transition from a lower-class "gangster" music to a respectable middle-class dance. He helped develop in the 1920s and became one of the most popular tango artists of all time. He was also one of the precursors of the "Golden Age of Tango". His Spanish-language films for Paramount Pictures in the early 1930s were also a major influence on the emerging Argentine sound film industry, whose productions drew heavily on tango music and performers during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema. In turn, Argentine tango films, such as those starring Libertad Lamarque, became international hits that helped spread tango throughout Latin America.
Gardel's death was followed by a division into movements within tango. Evolutionists like Aníbal Troilo and Carlos di Sarli were opposed to traditionalists like Rodolfo Biagi and Juan d'Arienzo.
Golden Age
The "Golden Age" of tango music and dance is generally agreed to have been the period from about 1935 to 1952, roughly contemporaneous with the big band era in the United States. Tango was performed by orquestas típicas, bands often including over a dozen performers.
Some of the many popular and influential orchestras included those of Mariano Mores, Juan d'Arienzo, Francisco Canaro, and Aníbal Troilo. D'Arienzo was called the "Rey del compás" or "King of the beat", for the insistent, driving rhythm which can be heard on many of his recordings. "El flete" is an excellent example of D'Arienzo's approach. Canaro's early milongas are generally the slowest and easiest to dance to; and for that reason, they are the most frequently played at tango dances (milongas); "Milonga Sentimental" is a classic example.
Beginning in the Golden Age and continuing afterwards, the orchestras of Osvaldo Pugliese and Carlos di Sarli made many recordings. Di Sarli had a lush, grandiose sound, and emphasized strings and piano over the bandoneón, which is heard in "A la gran muñeca" and "Bahía Blanca" (the name of his home town).
Pugliese's first recordings were not too different from those of other dance orchestras, but he developed a complex, rich, and sometimes discordant sound, which is heard in his signature pieces "Gallo ciego", "Emancipación", and "La yumba". Pugliese's later music was played for an audience and not intended for dancing, although it is often used for stage choreography for its dramatic potential, and sometimes played late at night at milongas.
Eventually, European bands adopted tango into their dance repertoires. Non-traditional instruments were often added, such as the accordion (in place of the bandoneon), saxophone, clarinet, ukulele, mandolin, electric organ, etc., as well as lyrics in non-Spanish languages. European tango became a mainstream worldwide dance and popular music style, alongside foxtrot, slow waltz, and rumba. It somewhat diverged from its Argentinian origin and developed characteristic European styles. Famous European band leaders who adopted tango included, to name a few, , Marek Weber, Oskar Joost, , Jose Lucchesi, , , Paul Godwin, Alexander Tsfasman, as well as famous singers Leo Monosson, Zarah Leander, Rudi Schuricke, Tino Rossi, , Mieczysław Fogg, Pyotr Leshchenko, and others. The popularity of European tango precipitously declined with the advent of rock-n-roll in the 1950s–60s.Jürgen Wölfer Jazz in Deutschland – Das Lexikon. Alle Musiker und Plattenfirmen von 1920 bis heute. Hannibal Verlag: Höfen 2008, Michael H. Kater: Gewagtes Spiel. Jazz im Nationalsozialismus. Cologne 1995, .Schnoor, Hans: Barnabás von Géczy. Aufstieg einer Kunst. Dresden: Verlag der Dr. Güntzschen Stiftung o.J.(um 1937) mit Diskografie B.v.G. auf Electrola-Schallplatten.Драгилёв, Д. Лабиринты русского танго. — СПб.: Алетейя, 2008. — 168 с — Bruce Bastin, notes to "German Tango Bands 1925–1939", Harlequin CD HQCD-127
Tango nuevo