Tango music
Tango music
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Tango music

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Tango music

Tango (/ˈteɪˌŋgoʊ/ or /ˈtɑːˌŋgoʊ/; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtaˌŋgo]) is a style of music in 2
4
or 4
4
time that originated in Uruguay and Argentina among European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has mainly Spanish, Italian, Gaucho, African, and French cultural roots. It is traditionally played on a solo guitar, guitar duo, or an ensemble, known as the orquesta típica, which includes at least two violins, flute, piano, double bass, and at least two bandoneóns. Sometimes guitars and a clarinet join the ensemble. Tango may be purely instrumental or may include a vocalist. Tango music and dance have become popular throughout the world.

Even though present forms of tango developed in Argentina and Uruguay from the mid-19th century, there are records of 19th and early 20th-century tango styles in Cuba and Spain, while there is a flamenco tango dance that may share a common ancestor in a minuet-style European dance. All sources stress the influence of African communities and their rhythms, while the instruments and techniques brought in by European immigrants in the 20th century played a major role in the style's final definition, relating it to the salon music styles to which tango would contribute back at a later stage.

Ángel Villoldo's 1903 tango "El Choclo" was first recorded no later than 1906 in Philadelphia. Villoldo himself recorded it in Paris (possibly in April 1908, with the Orchestre Tzigane du Restaurant du Rat Mort), as there were no recording studios in Argentina at the time.

Early tango was played by European immigrants in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The first generation of tango players from Buenos Aires was called "Guardia Vieja" (the Old Guard). It took time to move into wider circles; in the early 20th century, it was the favorite music of thugs and gangsters who visited brothels, in a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914). The complex dances that arose from such rich music reflect how the men would practice the dance in groups, demonstrating male sexuality and causing a blending of emotion and aggressiveness. The music was played on portable instruments: flute, guitar, and violin trios, with bandoneón arriving at the end of the 19th century. The organito, a portable player-organ, broadened the popularity of certain songs. Eduardo Arolas was the major driver 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, tango was associated with the underclass, and attempts were made to restrict its influence[by whom?]. In spite of the scorn, some, like writer Ricardo Güiraldes, were fans. Güiraldes played a part in the international popularization of tango, which had conquered the world by the end of World War I; he wrote the 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".

One song that would become the most widely known of all tango melodies also dates from this time. The first two sections of "La Cumparsita" were composed as an instrumental march in 1916 by teenaged Gerardo Matos Rodríguez of Uruguay.

Besides the global influences mentioned above, early tango was locally influenced by Payada, the Milonga from Argentine and Uruguay pampas, and Uruguayan candombe. In Argentina there was Milonga "from the country" since the mid eighteenth century. The first "payador" remembered is Santos Vega. The origins of Milonga seem to be in the pampa with strong African influences, especially though the local candombe (which would be related to its contemporary candombe in Buenos Aires and Montevideo). It is believed that this candombe existed and was practised in Argentina since the first slaves were brought into the country.

Although the word "tango" to describe a music/dance style had been printed as early as 1823 in Havana, Cuba, the first Argentine written reference is from an 1866 newspaper that quotes the song "La Coqueta" (an Argentine tango). In 1876, a tango-candombe called "El Merenguengué" became very popular, after its success in the Afro-Argentines' carnival held in February of that year. It is played with harp, violin, and flute, in addition to the Afro-Argentine candombe drums ("Llamador" and "Repicador"). This has been seriously considered one of the strong points of departure for the birth and development of tango.

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