History of Tango
Encyclopedia
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
(Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
); and years later in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay; the area of the Rio de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
.
Etymology
There are a number of theories about the origin of the word "tango". One of the more popular in recent years has been that it came from the Niger–Congo languages of Africa. Another theory is that the word "tango", already in common use in AndalusiaAndalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
to describe a style of music, lent its name to a completely different style of music in Argentina and Uruguay.
Origin of the dance
The dance form derives from the Cuban habaneraHabanera (music)
The habanera is a genre of Cuban popular dance music of the 19th century. It is a creolized form which developed from the contradanza. It has a characteristic "Habanera rhythm", and is performed with sung lyrics...
, the Argentine milonga
Milonga
Milonga can refer to an Argentine, Uruguayan, and Southern Brazilian form of music which preceded the tango and the dance form which accompanies it, or to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced...
and candombe
Candombe
Candombe is a musical genre that has its roots in the African Bantu, and is proper of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil .Uruguayan Candombe is the most practiced and spread internationally and has been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity...
, and is said to contain elements from the African community in Buenos Aires, influenced both by ancient African rhythms and the music from Europe.
Even though the present forms developed in Argentina from the mid 19th century, there are earlier written records of Tango dances in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Spain, while there is a flamenco Tangos
Tangos
Tangos is a flamenco palo closely related in form and feeling to the Rumba. It is often performed as a finale to a Tientos. Its compas and llamada are the same as that of the Farruca and share the Farruca's lively nature. However, Tangos is normally performed in the A Phrygian mode.Tangos is...
dance that may share a common ancestor in a minuet-style European dance. All sources stress the influence of the African communities and their rhythms, while the instruments and techniques brought in by European immigrants played a major role in its final definition, relating it to the Salon music
Salon music
Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or...
styles to which Tango would contribute back at a later stage, when it became fashionable in early 20th century Paris.
In Argentina, the word Tango seems to have first been used in the 1890s. In 1902 the Teatro Opera
Teatro Opera
The Teatro Opera is a prominent cinema and theatre house in Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Overview:The Opera Theatre was developed in 1871 by Antonio Petalardo, a local businessman who foresaw a need for popular theatre catering to the city's booming population in subsequent years...
started to include tango in their balls
Ball (dance)
A ball is a formal dance. The word 'ball' is derived from the Latin word "ballare", meaning 'to dance'; the term also derived into "bailar", which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for dance . In Catalan it is the same word, 'ball', for the dance event.Attendees wear evening attire, which is...
. Initially tango was just one of the many available local dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theatres and street barrel organ
Barrel organ
A barrel organ is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated...
s spread it from the suburbs to the working-class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants. The development of the Tango had influences from the cultures of several peoples that came together in these melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
s of ethnicities. For this reason Tango is often referred to as the music of the immigrants to Argentina.
During the period 1903–1910 over a third of the 1,000 gramophone records released were of tango music, and tango sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
sold in large quantities. In 1910 the bandoneon
Bandoneón
The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...
was introduced to Buenos Aires from Germany and it became linked inextricably with tango music from then on. In 1912, Juan "Pacho" Maglio was very popular with his recorded tangos featuring the bandoneon accompanied by flute, violin and guitar. Between 1910 and 1920, tango featured on 2,500 of the 5,500 records released.
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
travelled to Europe and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland. These exported versions of Tango were modified to have less body contact ("Ballroom Tango"); however, the dance was still thought shocking by many, as had earlier been the case with dances such as the Waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
. In 1922 guidelines were first set for the "English" (international) style of ballroom tango, but it lost popularity in Europe to new dances including the Foxtrot
Foxtrot (Dance)
The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
and Samba
Samba (ballroom)
Among ballroom dances, samba is a lively, rhythmical one. It is related to the traditional samba styles of Brazil, but differs from them considerably. Its music is in 2/4 or 4/4 time.-Origins:...
, and as dancing as a whole declined due to the growth of cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
.
As the dance form became wildly popular with upper and middle classes around the world, Argentine high society adopted the previously low-class dance form as their own. In 1913, tango began to move from the dark side of town to elegant dance palaces. In 1916, Roberto Firpo
Roberto Firpo
Roberto Firpo was an Argentine tango pianist, composer and leader.Firpo was born in the Flores district of Buenos Aires, where his father owned a grocery store...
, an extremely successful bandleader of the period, cemented the arrangements for standard tango sextet: two bandoneon
Bandoneón
The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...
s, two violins, piano and double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
. Firpo heard a march by Uruguayan Gerardo Matos Rodríguez
Gerardo Matos Rodríguez
Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodríguez Montevideo, Uruguay, also known as Becho, was a Uruguayan musician, composer and journalist.-Background and early career:...
and adapted it for tango, creating the popular and iconic La Cumparsita
La Cumparsita
"La cumparsita" is a musical piece written by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, an Uruguayan musician, in 1916. It is among the most famous and recognizable tango songs of all time....
.
In 1917, folk singer Carlos Gardel
Carlos Gardel
Carlos Gardel was a singer, songwriter and actor, and is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. He was born in Toulouse, France, although he never acknowledged his birthplace publicly, and there are still claims of his birth in Uruguay. He lived in Argentina from the age of two...
recorded his first tango song Mi Noche Triste, forever associating tango with the feeling of tragic love as revealed in the lyric.
Classically-trained musicians weren't associated with tango music until Julio De Caro
Julio de Caro
Julio de Caro was an Argentine composer, musician and conductor prominent in the Tango genre.-Life and work:...
, violinist, formed an orchestra in 1920 and made the tango more elegant, complex and refined, as well as slowing the tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
somewhat. With Pedro Laurenz
Pedro Laurenz
Pedro Laurenz was a bandoneon player, director and composer of Argentine tango music.He was born on October 10, 1902, and died on July 7, 1972....
on bandoneon, De Caro's orchestra was famous for over a decade.
In Argentina, the onset in 1929 of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and restrictions introduced after the overthrow of the Hipólito Yrigoyen
Hipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Irigoyen Alem was twice President of Argentina . His activism became the prime impetus behind the obtainment of universal suffrage in Argentina in 1912...
government in 1930 caused Tango to decline. Its fortunes were reversed as tango again became widely fashionable and a matter of national pride under the government of Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
. Tango declined again in the 1950s with economic depression
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
and as the military dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
ships banned public gatherings, followed by the popularity of Rock and Roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. The dance lived on in smaller venues until its revival in the 1980s following the opening in Paris of the show Tango Argentino The Broadway musical Forever Tango and in Europe Tango Pasión followed.
A big tango boom started all over the world. After over 20 years being closed the historical Café de los Angelitos where in 1917 Carlos Gardel has signed his contract with Odeon reopened on 19 June 2007 with the show named "El Tango" by Nicole Nau
Nicole Nau
Nicole Nau is a dancer of Tango Argentino and Argentinian folklore.- Life :After studying graphic design Nau first worked for advertising agencies before she settled in Argentina to be formally instructed as a professional dancer...
& Luis Pereyra
Luis Pereyra
thumb|Luis PereyraLuis Pereyra is a dancer and chorographer of Tango Argentino and Argentinian folklore.- Life :...