Tango
Milonga
A short walk, making a
playful figurative style
The milonga, which precedes
the tango in history, was a solo song cultivated during the 19th Century
by the gaucho (a sort of Argentine cowboy) in the vast rural area
known as the Pampa. It derives from the payada de contrapunto, in
which two singers (payadores), accompanying themselves on the guitar,
improvised on different topics in a competition-like practice.
Gaucho Compadritos
Around
1880, through the Conquista del Desierto (the conquest of
the desert), the Argentine
government made possible the fencing of the Pampa and the subsequent
distribution of the land into large prope rties
for aristocratic owners and small plots of land for European immigrants,
who were arriving in Argentina in large numbers.
This forced the almost nomadic gauchos to settle down in the poorest
suburban areas of the capital, Buenos Aires. Their
adaptation to city life was difficult, and frequently they lived
marginal lives of crime. Eventually
they were called compadritos, a word used to denote a person with
an aggressive character.
Tango
Canyengue
A compadrito style more related to
the funny walking styles
The Tango Relationship
The relationship between
the compadritos and the African-Argentine population in the Buenos
Aires suburbs gave birth to the tango dance, which started as a
result of the compadritos' mockery of the black people's dances
with an important difference: the blacks danced separated and the
compadritos danced embraced. Diverse historians affirm that the
word tango derives from the name (in the slang of the black people)
of their dancing places, known as tambos and, later, tangos. It
is widely accepted that the mocking new choreography was taken to
the brothels by the compadritos before tango music really existed
as such.
The Tango
Eventually, music was created
to fit this dance, and it is not strange that the rural milonga
and the habanera, in fashion at the time, influenced it. Trial-and-error
adaptations to the new dance, bringing together the rural milonga
of the gauchos, the habanera of the European immigrants, and the
African-Argentine dances in the melting pot that was Buenos Aires,
created a mixture called TANGO.
Los Tangueros
Tango
Orillero A little of here and a little of there. Originated
in the ORILLAS (surrounding)
of Buenos Aires
Undoubtedly, Sebastián
Piana was the pioneer of the tango MILONGA with his Milonga Sentimental,
composed in 1931 with lyrics by Homero Manzi. It enriched the simple
harmonies of the rural milonga and opened a whole range of rhythmic,
melodic, and poetic possibilities. Many other composers followed
his path: some of the most representative productions are La trampera
(A. Troilo), La Puñalada (P. Castellanos), Nocturna (J. Plaza),
and Taquito Militar (M. Mores).
Caminito
Amigo will be informing you once a month about an interesting Tango
topic.
