Online Encyclopedia
Tango music
Argentine Tango music is traditionally played by an orquesta tipica, which often includes violin, piano, guitar, flute, and especially bandoneon.
| Tango | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | Mixture of numerous African and European styles, including polka, milonga, habanera, flamenco, mazurka, contradanse and candombe |
| Cultural origins: | Late 19th century Buenos Aires |
| Typical instruments: | Violin, piano, guitar, flute and bandoneon |
| Mainstream popularity: | Major, first Latin dance craze in Europe and North America in 1930s and 40s |
| Subgenres | |
| Neo-tango - Tango-canción - Tango nuevo | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Tango-rockéro | |
| National scenes | |
| Dodompa (Japanese tango) | |
| Other topics | |
| Tango (dance) | |
| Contents |
The beginnings
Early tango was the street music of immigrants. By the end of the 19th century, this blend of salon, european, african and native american music, was heard throughout metrpolitan Buenos Aires. It took time to move into proper circles: in the early 20th century it was the favorite music of thugs and gangsters who visited the brothels, in a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914). The complex dances that arose from this rich music reflects the habit of men to practice Tango together in groups, expressing both machismo and sexual desire, leading to the disctinct mix of sensitivity and aggressiveness of the form. The music was played by 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 instrument 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, the tango was associated with the underclass, and the better-off Argentines tried 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 the tango, which had conquered the world by the end of the first world war, and wrote a 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".
The 1920s and 1930s, Carlos Gardel
Tango soon became the first of many Latin dance crazes to gain popularity in Europe, beginning in France. Superstar Rudolph Valentino soon became a Censored page who brought the tango to new audiences, especially in the United States due to his sensual depictions of the dance on 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, a Frenchman born in Toulouse, became especially associated with the transition from a lower-class "gangster" music to a respectable middle-class dance. He helped develop tango-canción in the 1920s and became one of the most popular tango artists of all time. He helped inaguarate the Golden Age of tango, which ended after his death from a plane crash in Colombia.
Gardel's death was followed by a division into movements within tango. Evolutionists like Troilo and Di Sarli were opposed to traditionalists like Rodolfo Biagi and Juan D'Arienzo.
The "Golden Age"
The "Golden Age" of tango music and dance is generally agreed to have been the period from about 1930 to 1945, roughly contemporaneous with the big band era in the United States. Some of the many popular and influential orchestras included the orchestras of 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.
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 bandoneon, 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.
Stephen and Susan Brown have a website with extensive information about Golden Age tango recordings at http://www.tejastango.com/tango_music.html.
Tango nuevo
The later age of tango has been dominated by Ástor Piazzolla, who became famous after appearing in Carlos Gardel's El dia que me quieras was released. During the 1950s, Piazzolla consciously tried to make a pop form of tango, earning the derision of purists and old-time performers. The 1970s saw Buenos Aires developed a fusion of jazz and tango, alongside tango-rockéro , mixing tango with rock and roll. Litto Nebbia and Siglo XX were especially popular in this development.
The so-called post-Piazzolla generation (1980-) includes musicians such as Dino Saluzzi , Rodolfo Mederos , Enrique Martin Entenza and Juan María Solare. Piazzolla and his followers developed Nuevo Tango, which incorporated jazz and classical influences into a more experimental style.
Appearances of Tango in Pop Culture
Shakira released a song - Te Aviso, Te Anuncio (Tango) - which starts with a tango-like part (and also features some seconds of tango dancing in its video). The musical Chicago by John Kander and Fred Ebb was recently made into a film and also features a tango; the Cell Block Tango; where murderers or, at least, accused murderers from a women's prison in Chicago greet newcomer to the gaol Roxie Hart in their own way. The soundtrack of Waking Life features tango music prominently; the feature track is called The Twenty-First Century Tango. Another movie featuring a good tango scene is Moulin Rouge to a fusion of the Police song Roxanne with Mariano Mores' "Tanguera" - creating "El tango de Roxanne".
Current Developments: Neo Tango
Tango development has not stopped here. The following examples are not filed under "Tango Nuevo" as the filing is usually done in behind-sight rather than when still under development...
These recent trends can be described as "electro tango" or "tango fusion", where the electronic influences are available in multiple ranges: from very subtle to rather dominating:
Carlos Libedinsky is a good example for the subtle use of electronic elements. The music still has its tango feeling, the complex rhythmic and melodious entanglement that makes tango so unique.
Gotan Project is a group based in Paris, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal, Edouardo Makaroff and Christoph H Muller. They formed in 1999. Their first release was "Vuelvo al Sur/El capitalismo foráneo" in 2000, followed by the album La Revancha del Tango . Its sound features electronic elements like samples, beats and sounds on top of a tango groove. Tango dancers around the world enjoy dancing to this music, although many more traditional dancers regard it as a definite break in style and tradition. Still, the rhythmic elements in Gotan Project's music are more complex than in some of the other "electro tango" songs that were created afterwards. Gotan Project is currently (June 2004) back in the studio creating a new album. Out-takes were aired on Gilles Peterson's show "Worldwide" aired on BBC one in May 2004.
The collection album "Bajofondo Tango Club" (Underground tango club) is another recent example which has a much more electro feeling than Gotan. Its beats are more regular, more dominant. The rhythms are less complex - but the tango feeling is still there.
Other examples can be found on the CDs "Tango?", "Tango Crash" (with a major Jazz influence), "NuTango". "Tango Fusion Club Vol. 1" by the creator of a milonga called "Tango Fusion Club http://www.tangofusionclub.de " in Munich, Germany.
Sharna Fabiano has a website dedicated to Neo-Tango recordings at http://www.neotango.com.
See also
- Tango (dance)
- Music of Argentina
- Dodompa (a Japanese style of tango music)
- tango music online http://www.todotango.com
- Two selections from the same Argentine tango piece in Tango for You. The first http://www.ilovemusic.com/romantic-bandeon.wmv is slow, sweet, and romantic. In the second http://www.ilovemusic.com/exciting-bandeon.wmv the bandoneon comes to an exciting conclusion.