Milonga
Encyclopedia
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 (see Milonga (place)
). The term milonga comes from a similar expression that means "lyrics
".
area of Argentina
and Uruguay
. It was very popular in the 1870s. The Milonga was derived from an earlier style of singing known as the payada de contrapunto. The song was set to a lively 2/4 tempo
, as are most milongas.
"Milonga is an excited habanera
." The original habanera divided into four pulses, in a standard two-four where every note was stressed. In becoming milonga, though, all four notes turned strong, as tempo was doubled. The strength of the first beat weakened the fourth giving an almost waltz-like feel to milonga: one-two-three(four), one-two-three(four).
Habanera is a slower, more explicit sounding one, two, three-four. At least one modern tango pianist believes the polka
influenced the speeding up of the milonga.
Milonga has a syncopated
beat, consisting of 8 beats with accents on the 1st, (sometimes also 2nd) 4th, 5th, and 7th beats.
[1] 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8
[1] 2 3 [4] [5] 6 [7] 8, sometimes also [1] [2] 3 [4] [5] 6 [7] 8
[1] 2 3 [4] 5 6 [7] 8
Over time, dance steps and other musical influences were added, eventually giving rise to the tango
.
By the 1890s musicians were writing in a structured form that was something more than thinly disguised milongas or tangos andaluces, and would later become the fully developed tango.
Ventura also noted the popularity of the milonga. "The milonga is so universal in the environs of the city that it is an obligatory piece at all the lower-class dances (bailecitos de medio pelo), and it is now heard on guitars, on paper-combs, and from the itinerant musicians with their flutes, harps and violins. It has also been taken up by the organ-grinders, who have arranged it so as to sound like the habanera
dance. It is danced too in the low life clubs around...[main] markets, and also at the dances and wakes of cart-drivers, the soldiery and compadres and compadritos.
Distinctive elements added from candombe
were "quebradas," improvised, jerky, semi-athletic contortions, the more dramatic the better, and cortes, a suggestive pause, or sudden break in the figures of the dance. Unlike in the then "Tango" of that group, however, where these movements were danced apart, they were now danced together. Jose Gobello suggested that the mazurka
was also altered in the districts close to the docks. This Africanized milonga-tango, as well as the habanera and mazurka, was frowned upon, and found wholly unacceptable by some sections of Argentine high society.
Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango and requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more "rustic" style than Tango.
There are different styles of Milonga: "Milonga Lisa" (Simple Milonga), in which the dancer steps on every beat of the music; and "Milonga con Traspié," in which the dancer uses Traspiés or contrapasos (changes of weight from one foot to the other and back again in double time or three steps in two beats) to interpret the music. Thus, dynamics may be danced without having to run fast or without the use of much space.
, Angel D'Agostino, Pedro Laurenz
, Villoldo
, Francisco Canaro
, Rodolfo Biagi
, Juan D'Arienzo
, Edgardo Donato
, Gabino Ezeiza
, Anibal Troilo
, Lucio Demare, Domingo Federico, Angel Vargas, Mariano Mores
, Francisco Lomuto
and Carlos Di Sarli
. These artists are from the early years and the Golden era of tango.
Kevin Johansen
is a modern Argentine rock artist who has a number of songs that combine folkloric and pop music with a milonga rhythm.
Music of Argentina
The music of Argentina is known mostly for the tango, which developed in Buenos Aires and surrounding areas, as well as Montevideo, Uruguay. Folk, pop and classical music are also popular, and Argentine artists like Mercedes Sosa and Atahualpa Yupanqui contributed greatly to the development of the...
, Uruguayan
Music of Uruguay
The music of Uruguay includes a number of local musical forms. The most distinctive ones are tango, murga, a form of musical theatre, and candombe, an afro-Uruguayan type of music which occur yearly during the Carnival period. There is also milonga, a folk guitar and song form deriving from Spanish...
, and Southern Brazilian
Music of Brazil
The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, zouk-lambada, lambada, choro, bossa nova, frevo, maracatu, MPB, sertanejo,...
form of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
which preceded the tango
Argentine Tango
Argentine tango is a musical genre of simple quadruple metre and binary musical form, and the social dance that accompanies it. Its lyrics and music are marked by nostalgia, expressed through melodic instruments including the bandoneon. Originated at the ending of the 19th century in the suburbs of...
and the dance form which accompanies it, or to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced (see Milonga (place)
Milonga (place)
Milonga is a term for a place or an event where tango is danced. People who frequently go to milongas are sometimes called milongueros. The term "milonga" can also refer to a musical genre....
). The term milonga comes from a similar expression that means "lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
".
Music
The Milonga originated in the Río de la PlataRío 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...
area of 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 Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. It was very popular in the 1870s. The Milonga was derived from an earlier style of singing known as the payada de contrapunto. The song was set to a lively 2/4 tempo
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
, as are most milongas.
"Milonga is an excited habanera
Habanera
Habanera may refer to:*"Habanera" , an aria from Bizet's Carmen*Habanera , a 1984 Cuban film*La Habanera , a 1937 German movie...
." The original habanera divided into four pulses, in a standard two-four where every note was stressed. In becoming milonga, though, all four notes turned strong, as tempo was doubled. The strength of the first beat weakened the fourth giving an almost waltz-like feel to milonga: one-two-three(four), one-two-three(four).
Habanera is a slower, more explicit sounding one, two, three-four. At least one modern tango pianist believes the polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
influenced the speeding up of the milonga.
Milonga has a syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
beat, consisting of 8 beats with accents on the 1st, (sometimes also 2nd) 4th, 5th, and 7th beats.
- Regular 2/4
[1] 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8
- Milonga
[1] 2 3 [4] [5] 6 [7] 8, sometimes also [1] [2] 3 [4] [5] 6 [7] 8
- 332
[1] 2 3 [4] 5 6 [7] 8
Over time, dance steps and other musical influences were added, eventually giving rise to the tango
Tango (dance)
Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
.
By the 1890s musicians were writing in a structured form that was something more than thinly disguised milongas or tangos andaluces, and would later become the fully developed tango.
Dance
In a book published in 1883 Ventura Lynch, a noted contemporary student of the dances and folklore of Buenos Aires Province, noted the influence the Afro-Argentine dancers had on the compadritos, who apparently frequented the Afro-Argentine dance venues, "the milonga is danced only by the compadritos of the city, who have created it as a mockery of the dances the blacks hold in their own places".Citing Ventura Lynch, La provinciade Buenos Aires hasta la definicion de la cuestion Capital de la Republica, page 16.Ventura also noted the popularity of the milonga. "The milonga is so universal in the environs of the city that it is an obligatory piece at all the lower-class dances (bailecitos de medio pelo), and it is now heard on guitars, on paper-combs, and from the itinerant musicians with their flutes, harps and violins. It has also been taken up by the organ-grinders, who have arranged it so as to sound like the habanera
Habanera (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...
dance. It is danced too in the low life clubs around...[main] markets, and also at the dances and wakes of cart-drivers, the soldiery and compadres and compadritos.
Distinctive elements added from 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...
were "quebradas," improvised, jerky, semi-athletic contortions, the more dramatic the better, and cortes, a suggestive pause, or sudden break in the figures of the dance. Unlike in the then "Tango" of that group, however, where these movements were danced apart, they were now danced together. Jose Gobello suggested that the mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
was also altered in the districts close to the docks. This Africanized milonga-tango, as well as the habanera and mazurka, was frowned upon, and found wholly unacceptable by some sections of Argentine high society.
Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango and requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more "rustic" style than Tango.
There are different styles of Milonga: "Milonga Lisa" (Simple Milonga), in which the dancer steps on every beat of the music; and "Milonga con Traspié," in which the dancer uses Traspiés or contrapasos (changes of weight from one foot to the other and back again in double time or three steps in two beats) to interpret the music. Thus, dynamics may be danced without having to run fast or without the use of much space.
Artists
Uruguayan and Argentine artists known for their milonga compositions and interpretations include Roberto FirpoRoberto 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...
, Angel D'Agostino, 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....
, Villoldo
Ángel Villoldo
Ángel Gregorio Villoldo Arroyo was an Argentine musician and one of the pioneers of tango. He was born south of the city of Buenos Aires. He was lyricist, composer and one of the major singers of the era. He is also known by the pseudonyms A. Gregorio, Fray Pimiento, Gregorio Giménez, Angel Arroyo...
, Francisco Canaro
Francisco Canaro
Francisco Canaro was an Uruguayan-Argentine violinist and tango orchestra leader.His parents, Italians emigrated to Uruguay, and later - when Francisco Canaro was less than 10 years old, they emigrated to Buenos Aires in the late nineteenth century. Canaro was born in San José de Mayo, Uruguay,...
, Rodolfo Biagi
Rodolfo Biagi
Rodolfo Biagi was an Argentine Tango musician who started his musical career by playing background music for silent movies, and this was where he was first discovered by a tango band leader....
, Juan D'Arienzo
Juan D'Arienzo
Juan d'Arienzo was an Argentine tango musician, also known as "El Rey del Compás" . Departing from other orchestras of the golden age, D'Arienzo returned to the 2x4 feel that characterized music of the old guard, but he used more modern arrangements and instrumentation...
, Edgardo Donato
Edgardo Donato
Edgardo Donato was a tango composer and orchestra leader, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, raised from a young age and musically trained in Montevideo, Uruguay.-External links:**...
, Gabino Ezeiza
Gabino Ezeiza
Gabino Ezeiza, nicknamed "Black Ezeiza" , was an Argentine musician.Ezeiza was invincible, the most famous in the art of payar, both in land and in Uruguay...
, Anibal Troilo
Aníbal Troilo
Aníbal Carmelo Troilo was an Argentine tango musician.Anibal Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, and bandleader in Argentina. His orquesta típica was among the most popular with social dancers during the golden age of tango , but he changed to a concert sound by the late 1950s...
, Lucio Demare, Domingo Federico, Angel Vargas, Mariano Mores
Mariano Mores
Mariano Martínez, better known as Mariano Mores , is a famous Argentine tango composer, pianist and conductor.-Biography:...
, Francisco Lomuto
Francisco Lomuto
Francisco Juan Lomuto was an Argentine Tango Pianist, leader and composer who occasionally went by the Pseudonym: Pancho Laguna....
and Carlos Di Sarli
Carlos di Sarli
Carlos Di Sarli was an Argentine tango musician, orchestra leader, composer and pianist.- Early years :Carlos di Sarli was born at 511 Buenos Aires street in the town of Bahia Blanca, located in Southern Argentina...
. These artists are from the early years and the Golden era of tango.
Kevin Johansen
Kevin Johansen
Kevin Johansen is an Argentine-American rock musician. Born to an Argentine mother, Marta Calvet, and an American father, he lived most of his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, but moved with his family to Buenos Aires at the age of 12...
is a modern Argentine rock artist who has a number of songs that combine folkloric and pop music with a milonga rhythm.
See also
- Milonga (place)Milonga (place)Milonga is a term for a place or an event where tango is danced. People who frequently go to milongas are sometimes called milongueros. The term "milonga" can also refer to a musical genre....
- ValsVals (dance)Vals is an Argentine tango style, the tango version of waltz. Unlike Argentine Tango and Milonga, there are no stopping figures. The vals is danced in a continuous movement. Not to be confused with the Peruvian Waltz, most widely known as Vals criollo....
- Tango musicTango musicTango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
- Tango (dance)Tango (dance)Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
- Argentine TangoArgentine TangoArgentine tango is a musical genre of simple quadruple metre and binary musical form, and the social dance that accompanies it. Its lyrics and music are marked by nostalgia, expressed through melodic instruments including the bandoneon. Originated at the ending of the 19th century in the suburbs of...
- ChamarritaChamarritaChamarrita can refer to two different types of music and dance, one from the Azores in Portugal and one from the Rio de la Plata littoral region in northern Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil.-Azorean Chamarrita:...