TANGO

Tango primarily describes the national dance of Argentina, but it is also the term for an elegant and sensual song and dance music. It became internationally popular in the 1910s and a variety of styles appeared, but the basis of them all remains the tango argentino, Argentina’s premier musical export.

The roots of tango lie in the 19th-century slums of Buenos Aires. Rural Argentines had their milonga—the music of the gaucho—but in the cities they joined the immigrant population of Europeans and blacks in a musical mix. The city’s outskirts became an urban laboratory of milonga, muñeira, flamenco, Cuban habanera, Italian folk, and African percussion.

Tango music was first played on guitar, violin, and flute, but the arrival of the bandoneon (a boxy button accordion from Germany) completed the classic tango orchestra. The music is played in 4/4 time, usually in minor mode, with syncopated rhythms. Integral vulgar lyrics and sexually suggestive steps meant that it thrived in bars and brothels. In a milieu of violence, brawls, and male chauvinism, men choreographed steps for a dance in which the woman represented Argentina, and the man, the newly arrived immigrant.

Tango became the premier music of the working class and was denounced as vulgar by others. Much as rock’n’roll would be banned in certain U.S. households, so tango was barred from aristocratic Argentine homes. But in Europe it was all the rage, and was danced in the chic salons of Paris; finally, Argentines of all classes had to accept it.

The 1920s and 1930s took the music from brothels and bars to theatres and cabarets, and a golden age began. The artist credited with transforming tango into a song style for all classes was Carlos Gardel, whose voice and demeanour oozed passion, arrogance, machismo, and elegance—the very essence of tango. With nearly 900 songs recorded before his death in a plane crash in 1935, Gardel is tango’s patron saint.

Tango was at its height in the 1940s, adopted by bandleaders like Anibal Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese, and Juan D’Arienzo, whose 1937 recording of “La cumpar-sita” is perhaps the most popular tango ever.

Rosita and Ramon demonstrating the tango at the club El Patio in New York City, in 1931.

Astor Piazzolla is tango’s modern voice. His tango nuevo (new tango) has transformed dance music into serious listening. While preserving the essence of tango, he toyed with jazz and recorded with groups such as the Kronos Quartet. Piazzolla won world acclaim in the 1980s and played well into the 1990s.

Tango’s golden era has passed, and rock and jazz now run through its veins, but Argentine tango still is popular at home and abroad.

Brett Allan King