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Argentine tango blog
/ with Interaction Design interludes / by Oleh Kovalchuke |
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Tango music
"Those who danced were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
Friedrich Wilhelm NietzscheRecommended tango music
When I had started to listen to tango music, the influx of different names, titles and styles was overwhelming. As in any human endeavor, there is a lot of schlock out there. Perhaps this is the reason why some beginners get intimidated and even turned off by "boring old music". To help you to find "good old tango music", here is my list of recommended dance songs by various orchestras from the "golden" era.
[# of songs in my current playlist (December 2007)] Orchestra (three representative songs):
[250] Juan D'Arienzo (El Olvio, Amarroto, La Espuela) - rhythmic, nice violin
[175] Francisco Canaro (El Poema, Corazón De Oro, Silueta Porteña) - great valses and milongas
[138] Carlos Di Sarli (Un Tango... Y Nada Mas, La Mulateada, Alma Mia) - with singers, Duran is my favorite
[132] Anibal Troilo (Yuyo Verde, Palomita Blanca, Malena) - wide variety of styles over the years
[92] Ricardo Tanturi (Una Emocion, Comparsa Criolla, Recien) - mostly with Campos or Castillo singing
[69] Angel D'Agostino (A Quien Le Puede Importar, Arganaraz, Cafe Dominguez) - mostly with Vargas singing
[65] Osvaldo Pugliese (De Floreo, Rondando Tu Esquina, Recuerdo) - dramatic
[63] Enrique Rodriguez (Como Has Cambiado Pebeta, Son Cosas Del Bandoneon, Suerte Loca) - flowing
[55] Miguel Caló (Al Compas Del Corazón, Percal, El Vals Soñador) - elegant, mostly with Beron singing
[54] Alfredo De Angelis (Soñar Y Nada Mas, Flores Del Alma, Marioneta) - great valses
[49] Edgardo Donato (Quien Sera, Sombra Gaucha, Sacale Punta) - old style, great milongas
[48] Osvaldo Fresedo (Tigre Viejo, Un Amor, Aromas) - sweet; seek older, less sweet arrangements
[41] Francisco Lomuto (A La Gran Muñeca, Damisela Encantadora, Quiero Verte Una Vez Mas)
[40] Rodolfo Biagi (La Chacarera, Quejas De Bandoneon, Lagrimas Y Sonrisas) - sparse, rhythmic arrangements
[38] Pedro Laurenz (Abandono, Milonga De Mis Amores, Que Nunca Me Falte)
[34] Orquesta Tipica Victor (Milonga De Los Fortines, Ventarron, Sin Rumbo Fijo) - old style
[33] Lucio Demare (Carnavalito, Iqual Que Un Bandoneon, Oigo Tu Voz)
[25] Julio De Caro (El Arranque, Mi Dolor, Mal De Amores) - mostly instrumental
[19] Ricardo Malerba (Gitana Rusa, Tres Amigos, Sollozos)
[12] Jose Garcia (Esta Noche De Luna, Farolito De Papel, El Once)
[10] Adolfo Carabelli (Felicia, El Pensamiento, Pa' que Lagrimear) - old styleYou can listen to one representative song by each of the orchestra in the playlist I have compiled at YouTube: 23 Tango Dance Orchestras. Listen to large selection of tangos at todotango.com (look under Selection, includes sheet music and lyrics).
Miguel Caló: Al Compas Del Corazon
Juan D'Arienzo: Con Sus Cantores, Vol. 2
Carlos Di Sarli: Coleccion 78 RPM: 1943-1948
Osvaldo Fresedo: Vida mia (1933-1938)
Osvaldo Pugliese: Ausencia
Enrique Rodriguez: Tangos, Valses y Milongas
Ricardo Tanturi: Coleccion 78 RPM: 1940-1950These CDs are recommended because they have more than 75% of good danceable songs and they illustrate the wide variety of tango moods and styles.
Where to buy tango CDs
Traditional tango music is hard to come by in the usual music stores. I recommend Zivals Tango Store (Buenos Aires): large selection of tango CDs, $8 per CD plus fixed and reasonable shipping rate. I have bought from their website and they are reliable.
27 songs for you listening pleasure:
February 3, 2008 - What defines tango music for dancing
To me, as a dancer, good tango arrangement has to include these five elements:
1. A variety of rhythm: single-, double- and occasional quadruple-time beats, as well as silent, implied beats.
2. Smooth, flowing melody.
3. Surges in the melody (that “swinging” feel).
4. A variety in the arrangement, where different instruments or voice interweave and come to forefront of the orchestra.
5. Bandoneon.As a dancer I hear and express the qualities 1-4 to in the dance. Bandoneon, with its ability to produce in a skillful hands either bellowing, or sharp accented, or quick keyboard sound (all three can be overlaid), is particularly suited to express these qualities. Here is good introductory article on Bandoneon technique (PDF file).
Tango vals and milonga share the same five qualities. In vals they are overlaid on top of vals signature "1-2-3-pause" phrase. Some turns fit this signature perfectly, hence turns are often used in vals. However vals need not to be limited to turns. Here is an example of perfectly musical vals dancing by Alberto Dassieu with few turns.
Milonga has more incesant drive than tango (silent beats are de-emphasized). That's why "electrons-plus-drum" adaptations of milongas (Milonga Sentimental, Baile a Beneficio) by Otros Aires manage to stay fairly close to the original feel. Classic tangos by the same band (La Yumba, Niebla del Riachuelo), of course, are necessarily bastartized.
By the way, if you you are interested in the electronic tango, Otros Aires is a good choice - by far better than the mechanical compositions of Gotan Project or the plain dumb arrangements by Bajofondo Club.
November 15, 2004 - Tango radio stream over internet
In addition to Todo Tango you can now listen to an uninterrupted tango music stream at Radio Tango. They do play some not so hot choices and the sequence is rather random.
October 20, 2004 - Persistent Canaro
After distributing my music into three folders (Tangos, Valses, Milongas) on my laptop [update: do not distribute your music in this way, keep it organized by the orquestra] I have noticed that in all cases when you look at the orchestra representation it is always Canaro plus someone. This is in spite of my belief that his tangos are relatively monotonous and my relentless efforts to weed out all "blah" songs (Canaro has a lot of those on his compilations). Keep in mind that I try to delete duplicates of the same song by different orchestras - usually one version is much better than "sound-alikes". And so in tangos it is Troilo and Canaro, in valses it is Canaro and De Angelis, in milongas it is Canaro and D'Arienzo. At least he didn't find his way into Alternative Stuff folder.
In reply to the above note Charles Roques has pointed out that Canaro is actually a tango giant with over 4000 recordings under his belt, more than anyone else, hence hard to miss. Makes sense.
Charles also wrote that if I delete "sound-alikes" I am too rigid in my approach and could miss some interesting variations of the song. Misunderstanding. I actually do have more than one version of the same song if the versions are both good enough and distinct enough to be in my playlist. His examples: Juan D'Arienzo's version of "9 de Julio" and Pugliese's version. Di Sarli's version of " El Choclo" and D'Agostino's. Biagi's version of "Caricias" and Tanturi's. Canaro's version of "Silueta Portena" and D'Arienzo's. Troilo's version of "Comme Il Faut" and Di Sarli's. Couple of my examples:"Sonar y nada mas" by De Angelis and by Canaro, "Desde el alma" by Pugliese and by Canaro. Here you go, Canaro again... Hard to escape the giant.
August 23, 2004 - More on tango lyrics
Sergio Vandekier defined common topics in tango lyrics at Tango-L:
Love, the loss of youth, depression
Tango
Dance and dancers
Bandoneon
The neighborhood
Carnival
Advise and wisdom
Childhood
Mother
Women
Men, manhood and compadritos
Bad life
Bar, drinks and drinking.
Gambling
Horse races
The harbor and the sea... the usual, basically.
August 20, 2004 - On tango lyrics
Charles wrote at Tango-L thus:
Rose wrote:
"Jorge Nel once asked me while we were listening to a tango, "do you know what he is singing about?" and when I said no he told me "you will never dance tango until you understand the lyrics" I think that he is correct. "
Well, that's a nice notion but I wouldn't lose sleep over it or worry about not totally grasping tango. Not to mention that it is a little condescending. Knowing the lyrics definitely adds another dimension to it but I don't agree that you will never master tango if you don't know them. In fact you might be disappointed when you found out that some are pretty ordinary or even silly. Not all are about romance or the intense tango connection between two people. Some are pretty corny; others are profound; some are about your mother; some are about your buddies hanging out on the street. Many have great lyrics like "A Media Luz" or "Sonar Y Nada Mas" but not all of them by any means. Also remember that many never had lyrics until after the fact since they were mostly for dancing at first. "El Choclo" didn't have lyrics nor did "La Cumparsita" until someone later added them. So that great song you heard may not have had any words at all when it was originally composed and been a great song to dance to so now that it has words, why should you have to know what they mean to really feel it?
Funny, I had talked to D. a while ago and used the same arguments except in the assumptive tone. By the way the map of Buenos Aires milongas I have mentioned before has a list of tangos with good lyrics. "A Media Luz" and "Sonar Y Nada Mas" are listed.
August 31, 2004 - Tango, Ukraine and cheese
My Spanish has improved, so I decided to check the lyrics of Gitana Rusa - lately I have listened to it quite a bit and began to grasp some of the words. To my immense delight this is what I read at TodoTango:
«I have something amazing for you, that I shall deliver to you in Buenos Aires», Juan Carlos Cáceres told me on the phone, from Paris. Some days later he displayed before me, on a table at the Tortoni, five yellowish music sheets, written in black ink. It was a tango, dated on August 10, 1940 at the small Ukranian town named Umañ, halfway between Kyiv and Odesa. The texts were in Russian. It had as title, "Tus ojos" (Your Eyes), and a dedication "to dear Celia". Its music belonged to a certain Saverio Sadán, and on the last page there is a long lyric signed by D. M. Glinberg. But those notes handwritten by someone unknown do not result strange at all. They are those of a tango which reached great accclaim in Argentina after 1942 and was the greatest hit by the orchestra of the bandoneon player Juan Sánchez Gorio and his singer, the Uruguayan Luis Mendoza: "Gitana rusa".
Me being Ukrainian, no wonder I felt so drawn to the melody of this tango! Now I need to find out why do others like it. It was mistake to translate it however: "Las balalaicas buscaron música en tus trenzas, y los cosacos cantaron a tu soledad" - Balalaikas searched for music in your braids and cossaks sung to your loneliness. ??? Sometimes ignorance is bliss...
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