Tango

Tango History

Tango (the dance with the stop "Baille Con Carte") is one of the most fascinating of all dances. Originating in Spain or Morocco, the Tango was introduced to the New World by the Spanish settlers, eventually coming back to Spain with Black and Creole influences.
In the early 19th Century, the Tango was a solo dance performed by the woman. The Andalusian Tango was later done by one or two couples walking together using castanets. The dance was soon considered immoral with its flirting music!
Ballroom Tango originated in the lower class of Buenos Aires, especially in the "Bario de las Ranas". Clothing was dictated by full skirts for the woman and gauchos with high boots and spurs for the man.
The story of Tango as told is that it started with the gauchos of Argentina. They wore chaps that had hardened from the foam and sweat of the horses body. Hence to gauchos walked with knees flexed. They would go to the crowded night clubs and ask the local girls to dance. Since the gaucho hadn't showered, the lady would dance in the crook of the man's right arm, holding her head back. Her right hand was held low on his left hip, close to his pocket, looking for a payment for dancing with him. The man danced in a curving fashion because the floor was small with round tables, so he danced around and between them.
The dance spread throughout Europe in the 1900's. Originally popularized in New York in the winter of 1910 - 1911, Rudolph Valentino then made the Tango a hit in 1921.
As time elapsed and the music became more subdued, the dance was finally considered respectable even in Argentina.
Styles vary in Tango: Argentine, French, Gaucho and International. Still, Tango has become one of our American 'Standards' regardless of its origin. The Americanized version is a combination of the best parts of each. The principals involved are the same for any good dancing. First, the dance must fit the music. Second, it must contain the basic characteristic that sets it apart from other dances. Third, it must be comfortable and pleasing to do.
Phrasing is an important part of Tango. Most Tango music phrased to 16 or 32 beats of music. Tango music is like a story. It contains paragraphs (Major phrases); sentences (Minor phrases); and the period at the end of the sentence is the Tango close.
For exhibition dancing, a Tango dancer must develop a strong connection with the music, the dance and the audience. The audience can only feel this connection if the performer feels and projects this feeling. So it is when dancing for your own pleasure -- and your partner's!
"The Tango is the easiest dance. If you make a mistake and get tangled up, you just Tango on." (Al Pacino in "The Scent of a Woman.") Movies that featured Tango dancing include "The Scent of a Woman", Madonna's "Evita" and "True Lies" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Tango Music

Some people see tango as primarily a dance - a connection between two people in a beautiful pas de deux. However most will say tango is the music, and the lyrics, and the dancers' interpretation of that music, and the sentiments it expresses. Getting to know the music is part of learning tango. Learning both the general style and the individual compositions and recordings enables you to dance with much more confidence and enjoyment.
The classic tango orchestra or 'orquesta típica' is made up of bandoneons, violins, piano, and bass. The guitar is also a common instrument, especially accompanying singers, notably Carlos Gardel. Other instruments are added viola, cello, saxophone, lute, flute electric guitar, drums in various styles. The Bandoneon, perhaps the key to the tango sound, is a large and fiendishly complicated concertina, originally developed in Germany for churches that could not afford organs.
In the first years of the century the first tangos were written e.g. El Choclo(Angel Villoldo)', Yo Soy La Morocha (Enrique Saborido, 1906), and were big hit and best sellers of piano scores. Recording came in in the 1910s and older songs, like La Cumparsita were arranged as tangos. Gardel recorded his first tango Mi Noche Triste in 1917, and became an enormous force in popularising tango.
Early orchestras (pre 1920s) include Firpo, Fresedo and Canaro. Firpo in particular helped define the new tango sound with arrangements of songs such as Alma de Bohemio (1914). They were influenced by the jazz sounds they encountered on tour in the US and Europe. In the 1920s two streams of music developed: the 'traditional', exemplified by Canaro, which concentrated on the rhythm and dancability, and the 'evolutionary', led by Julio de Caro and his brothers who explored harmony, melody, the fraseo, and created the modern sextet featuring innovative musicians such as Laurenz and Maffia. These two steams continued into the Golden Age of Tango in the 1940s and 50s The most popular bandleaders and composers in the traditional stream are Canaro, Ricardo Tanturi, Juan D'Arienzo (the 'King of Rhythm'), Rodolfo Biagi ("Manos Brujos") and Alfredo De Angelis. The evolutionary or 'decareano' school was developed by Troilo, one of the greatest composers and bandoneon players. In the deareano school we also find Carlos Di Sarli, Osvaldo Pugliese, Miguel Caló, Salgan, Gobbi, Maffia, Laurenz, Piazzola, Francini and Pontier.
As the music developed it became less rigidly rhythmic, more harmonic and melodic, and the hallmark tension and release was developed. The fraseo, phrasing, the soloist (or soli) bending the melody across the underlying rythmn, became a central part of tango. Many interwoven layers of music can be picked out and danced to each with their own rhythm and feeling. However the orchestras, who knew which side their bread was buttered generally kept the underlying time steady, except for maybe catching the dancers out sometimes with breaks and unexpected endings. The 'traditional' orchestras (e.g. Canaro, D'Arienzo) played it simple and pleased the dancers. Composers and players, in the Decareano school such as Pugliese, Salgan and Piazzola were more interested in the music, and played for listening, and from the 1960s the dancing audience disappeared anyway.Their music takes the tension and release further, the time changes, they introduce spectacular pauses and accelerations. Their music was originally shunned by dancers, who thought it impossible, and it is still extremely difficult to dance to. Other groups of this time include Sexteto Mayor, Color Tango and Quinteto Real. Of all modern tango musicians, Piazzola is the best known, and the person who tackled it musically, introducing new sounds and concepts. Born in New York, and trained classically, his music is often completely un-danceble in a salon, but he never intended it to be.
In the 21st Century a new generation of musicians are mixing tango with contemporary music styles, reimaginging what tango music can be, and creating new arrangments of classics. This has been branded 'Tango Nuevo'(although Piazzolla was called that in the 70s) or 'Neo-tango', or 'tango fusion'. Popularised by the highly popular Gotan Project based in Paris, a raft of new compositions and sounds is being heard not only by tango enthusiasts, but by 'dancemusic' and mainstream TV-advert-watching audiences. This type of music often makes up a considerable part of the music played for dancing in milongas. Other artists include Bajofondo Tango Club, Daniel Melingo and Carlos Libedinski (Narcotango). However some contemporary musicans are following other musical paths closer to tango's traditional sound, including groups such as Pablo Aslan's Avantango and El Arranque, often with a jazz influence. Tango dancers also explore other non-tango music (to the horror of tradiationalists), looking for tango-like feels, or finding ways of exploring tango movement though other rhythms.
Different tango music tends to suggest different styles of dance when we hear it. Although many of the dance styles that were original danced when it was compose are now lost, with our mixed and reinvented tango we are able to interpret it. Some music suggests the use of cortes 'cuts' that reflect its strong rhythm, others are most flowing, while still others are full of tensions and accelerations. In the end it is up to the couple how they dance, but it is important , and more interesting to really listen to the music, and not just dance the way same all the time.