Tango Music Development - Essay Example

Tango Music "While I was doing my research on the various styles of the Golden Age I would ask dancers that I met who, apart from themselves of , was the best dancer of the style. In the north of the city the answer always came back "Portalea". I would ask why, and I was always told that it was the way he interpreted the music that made him the best. One evening someone told me that Portalea was in the room, so, very excited, I scurried off to watch him dance. And I looked at him in amazement, because I simply could not work out how what he was doing had anything to do with the rhythm of the music at all. And that, of course, was my mistake. He wasn't dancing the rhythm of the music. He was dancing the phrase." (Christine Denniston) The Tango is Argentina's cultural and national contribution to the European world. It has come to show the soul and personality of Latin style. The music emphasizes themes of passion and desire, despair and loneliness, jealousy, and its spiritual and emotional dance moves are memorable for their pictures of intertwined limbs and Latin machismo. There are differing points of view on the origins of the word tango but all researchers agree that it was used in America to help gathering of the black population for social aims. Jorge Novati in "Antologia del Tango Rioplatense" carries these meetings to the late 18th century in Buenos Aires. Alejo Carpentier in "La Musica en Cuba" says that the tango was in Cuba also. Around 1880, in the gambling houses and bars, lonely men spent time drinking, socializing, gambling, and looking for a little romance in the company of women of bad repute, trying to step to the music. This gave rise to the new dance, tango. This proximity of the bodies in public was considered to be impossible and scandalous. The black population in America used and adapted European forms for their entertainment, tradition and rituals. That is why the music and choreographic was transformed by the addition of rhythms and some other elements which were typical for African culture music and dance. One of the most influential genres in the rise and finding its individuality of the early tango was the Cuban habanera. Using the materials of historian and writer Alejo Carpentier, the habanera developed in Cuba from the mixture of African rhythmic influences and the French contredanse. The habanera became a real sensation and was transported back into Spain, where it was known as tango Americano. The habanera came to Buenos Aires in the late 19th century and became very popular there. Musicologist Jorge Novati, who continued the work of Carlos Vega, tells us, that the habanera had two versions: very popular and lascivious and another, more decent, which existed in late 19th century Buenos Aires. The popular version was danced by the African-American population at their gatherings, called tangos. The more acceptable version, meanwhile, was danced in the salons. By the last decades of the 19th century, a distinct dance form of dance was developed, which gathered the inventions of the Afro-Argentines: the corte and quebrada. The corte refers to a sudden stop in the general walk of the dance. During this stop the dancers would show different figures that added to a new vocabulary of dance. The quebrada was an undulation of the hips, and gave erotic character to the dance. It became so popular that it start to influence musicians, they start to incorporate different rhythmic variations into their own music. The music they played was a mix of European popular dance forms, such as the mazurka and schottische, habaneras, and milongas. According to Novati, the milonga had a short but productive existence in Buenos Aires, and is the ancestor of the early tango (tango criollo). It was really a rural poetic form but in the later version it resembled the rhythmic patterns of the habanera and became the main part in the birth of Argentine Tango. Musicians started gathering their repertoire and the first composers of Spanish-tinged tango-milonga and gaucho-influenced tango-criollo appeared at the end of the 19th century. The music became well-known outside through the repertoire of bands and organ grinders, and through piano sheet music in the end. The worldwide Tangomania at the beginning of the 20th Century was so big and massive that was really unimaginable. By 1913, the tango dance had become an international phenomenon in Paris, London and New York. There were tango teas, tango train excursions and even tango colors most notably orange. The passion for Tango hit the elite of Paris in 1912, and was very popular till the First World War. The Tango was a powerful cultural force, accelerating changes in fashion and social life. This passionate dialogue of two bodies with strong feeling of emotional and physical danger was a challenge to dance and a pleasure to watch. The Argentine elite who had rejected the tango were now accepted it with great national pride. It took only a several years for tango to become socially acceptable. The tango spread all over the world everywhere in the 1920s and 1930s. The dance appeared in movies and tango singers traveled the world. The dance was discussed and talked about in print. Certainly, the music was rather different from the music of the Golden Age. Many of the great tango melodies were written at this time, the rhythm - the cornerstone of the dance - had a different swing. Tango was danced by masters to real, haunting music of difficult rhythms; tango itself is a wonderfully supple instrument of expression. Two events at the beginning of the 20eth century were crucial for the development of the tango. The first one shaped the history of music throughout the world: the invention of the phonograph recording. The second one was unique to the tango and gave it its distinct rhythmic and melodic character: the arrival in Buenos Aires of the German concertina-like instrument known as the bandoneon. In the hands of the first good performers, the bandoneon was the characteristic sound of the tango orchestra. In the early groups, the rhythmic support was given to the guitar, while flute and violin played the melody in unison. The bandoneon could play melodic and rhythmic roles. So the guitar and flute was replaced. The bandoneon's technical difficulty made orchestras to slow down the tempo of their music. Also the strong influence of Italian immigrants gave a melancholic character to the music that was missing in the early variants. Tango rhythm gone away from the original habanera influence and into a steady four-beat pattern. To complete the development of the instrumentation, the piano and bass was added to the early tango orchestras. It was about the end of the 1910's. Juan "Pacho" Maglio (1880-1934), was the leader of a quartet which has great popularity in the first decades of the new century. His quartet included flute, violin, guitar and bandoneon. Another well-known musician was the pianist Roberto Firpo (1884-1969), who was also one of the first composers of tangos. Firpo studied with pianist Alfredo Bevilacqua (1874-1942), who was one of the earliest teachers of tango and author of a tango method book. Some time later, Firpo formed his own orchestra, which in turn became the launching pad for many other important careers. Among other early composers and performers of tangos there were great Angel Villoldo (1868-1919), the author of the well-known El Choclo; Francisco Canaro (1888-1964), composer and bandleader; and the "Tigre del Bandoneon"; Eduardo Arolas (1892-1924), a very talented composer himself. Arolas, Canaro and Firpo, Villoldo, Vicente Greco (1888-1924), Rosendo Mendizabal (1868-1913), Agustin Bardi (1884-1941) and Arturo de Bassi (-1950) created the first popular tangos. By the early 1920's, a lot of young composers started to write and perform in a style, known as the Guardia Nueva (New Guard). The main figure among them were violinist Julio De Caro (1899- 1981), pianists Francisco De Caro (1898-1976) and Juan Carlos Cobian (1896-1953), and bandoneonists Pedro Maffia (1899-1967) and Pedro Laurenz (1902-1972). With their innovations they revolutionized the style of orchestra. They incorporated arrangements that went beyond the simple doubling of the melody under a steady-beat accompaniment. The ensembles, a standardized instrumentation consisting of two violins, two bandoneones, piano and bass, were known as Sexteto Tipico. The Chief of The Sexteto Tipico was Juan Carlos Cobian. He brought together most important musicians of that time. Cobain was a musician with a conservatory education. He had worked in Buenos Aires accompanying silent films. He created a trio within Eduardo Arolas and violinist Tito Roccatagliata (1891-1925). Later they became a group with another famous bandoneonist, Osvaldo Fresedo (1897-1981). He was also the author of some tangos with difficult harmonies and broad melodies that are sometimes referred to as tango romanza. The tango faced its first crisis in the 1930's. Argentina was a victim of the military takeovers and needs. Also the world-wide Depression robbed the Argentine economy. Crisis of morals and economies gave a cynicism that was strong reflected in the lyrics of the time. Enrique Santos Discepolo (1901-1951) was the poet who best shows the emotions of that time. In tangos such as Cambalache, Infamia, Chorra and many others, his lyrics chronicle an era of disillusion. Going out from the world crisis, Argentina became a prosperous country again. It finds the place in the world economy as a big food exporter, and also as an emerging industrialized nation. Many of the old-style tangos were shown again, including Arolas, Greco, and Firpo. The massive popularity of the tango stimulates the enlarging orchestras. Now it contains of five bandoneones, four violins, piano and bass. One of the characteristics of 1940's tango was the distinctive interpretive style of each major orchestra. That was very significant. Some of the most important orchestras of the time were led by Anibal Troilo, which was known because of its talented pianists, the elastic phrasing of the bandoneon section, and the individual style of the singers; orchestra by Osvaldo Pugliese was rich in soloists, with a certain rhythmic style of its own, which would in a way presage the Nuevo Tango of Astor Piazzolla; by Miguel Calo (1907-1972), who led an ensemble of great singers; and by Carlos Di Sarli (1900-1960), was one of the most danceable orchestras. The huge variety of Tango dance styles in Buenos Aires in the 1940s and 1950s represents the amazing depth and richness of Tango. Let's begin from a style which was very popular in the geographical centre of Buenos Aires and the central part of the south of the city in the early 1950s. It was a style which developed for crowded dance floors. I suppose, that was the simplest Tango dance style indeed. It leans on the connection within the two dangers and the musicality of the couple for its delight. The musicality of this style relies on steps on the beat and frequent double time steps. This form of musicality appears to be the easiest for people with an ear trained in European musical styles to understand. Christine Denniston , in her "Story of tango Music" says, that "the most elegant Tango dance style is without question the style danced in the north of Buenos Aires in the 1940s. This is a part of the city that has historically tended to be financially better off than the south. Dance floors here have tended to be larger. The shape drawn by the couple on the floor as they dance tends to be long straight lines, punctuated with a sudden, very complicated movement. The form of musicality in this style is probably the hardest for the person trained in the European tradition to understand. " Also, she says, that in the style of the north it is very common to see people dancing three equal steps in four beats of the music, in a way that is utterly natural, and completely at one with the music. The archetypal step in this style is a salida in which the leader takes just two steps to the four taken by the follower, followed by walking in line with frequent weight changes. The archetypal orchestra is Di Sarli . From the book "Story of Tango Music" we know that possibly the oldest of the Tango dance styles of the Golden Age is the style of the south. The shape drawn by the couple on the floor is one without many straight lines, made up of curves and arcs, looking very much like an Art Nouveau design. The stance of the dancers is a tiny bit closer to the floor. The interpretation of the music involves many pauses, and many rapid movements. This is the style where ganchos and boleos were danced. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Denniston, Christine Story of Tango Music. London: 1915 2. Alsan, Pablo Tango Stylistic Evolution and Innovation. UCLA Masters thesis, 1990 3. Denniston, Christine Tango Dance Styles of the Golden Ag . London: 1915 4. Denniston, Christine Dancing Tango - Unlocking the Mysteries and Secrets of the Tango - 1914 Read More