Home > 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 instrumentsA musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that somehow produces sound can serve as a musical instrument, but the expression is reserved generally to items that have that:
| Violin, piano, guitar, flute and bandoneon
|
| Mainstream popularity:
| Major, first Latin dance craze in Europe and North America in 1930sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Link Trainer invented Sc and 40sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Years: 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 Events and trends Technology First nuclear bomb First cruise missile, the
|
| Subgenres
|
| Neo-tango - Tango-canción - Tango nuevo
|
| Fusion genres
|
| Tango-rockéro
|
| National scenes
|
| Dodompa (Japanese tango)Dodompa is a Japanese style of tango music. Tango Japanese music.
|
| Other topics
|
| Tango (dance)
|
1 The beginnings
Early tango was the music of the thugs and gangsters who visited the brothels of a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914). The complex dances arose as men danced in groups, expressing machismo and sexual desire, leading to the aggressive and competitive mood of the dance form. The music was played by flute, guitar and violin trios, with bandoneón arriving at the end of the 19th century. 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 major part of the international popularization of the tango, 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".
2 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 sex symbol 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.
