I was asked a very simple question by my father when I told him that I dance tango: “So what is tango? How do you characterize it?”. And I realized that every time I tried to formulate an answer or a definition for tango, I would come up with another form or meaning of tango that would contradict what I was about to say. You can do this thought experiment for yourself. Just think of what you believe “tango” means to you, and see if you can come up with a one or two sentence description that really captures whatever your feelings are on the subject of tango. I bet you will find this exercise entertainingly futile!

I will tell you about my thought experiment, or rather the thought explosion or thought disaster that I underwent:

My first thought was Tango is the style of dancing that originated in brothels of Argentina in the late 1800s and became popular through out the world in the early 1900s. Now, although this statement is superficially almost correct, every part of it is wrong at some level. Let’s start at the beginning: tango is “a style of dancing”. WRONG. Tango is not just a style of dancing.

tangofestivalverlin.de

Tango is also a genre of music. Okay, so tango is a style of dancing AND a genre of music associated with this style of dancing (or the other way round), right? Of course not! Tango is also a type of rhythm with this genre of music. Besides, when we refer to tango music, as a whole, we include many many things in it: tangos, milongas, tango waltzes, tango candombes … the list goes on. And while we are thinking about the music, tango music didn’t even originate in Buenos Aires only. Uruguay has also played an immensely important role in the birth and history of tango. For those of you who don’t know where Uruguay is, it’s the country sandwiched between brazil and Argentina (officially known as the Oriental Republic of Uruguay), whose capital Montevideo is perhaps as important as Buenos Aires as far as tango history is concerned. It was in Uruguay that the most famous tango of them all “La Cumparsita” was written.

As such, tango dance and tango music both are pretty young. According to Wikipedia and also this website, the earliest records of tango styles are 19th century Spain and Cuba, which is pretty recent if you compare it to waltz which has been around since the 16th century. What is considered traditional Argentine tango, is the music and dancing that evolved between 1910s to 1950s in Buenos Aires and Montevideo among the European immigrant population (mainly Italian, Spanish and French) of these cities, greatly influenced by African and Creole music. But I digress. Let’s just keep aside what is tango music… That would be a subject for another powwow. So let’s focus instead just on what is Tango dance ?

Even here, we can’t give a succinct answer. Of the top of my head, I can think of at least a bunch of things that would fall under the umbrella title of “tango dance”: the Argentine tango, Tango Canyengue, Nuevo Tango, Tango Candombe, Tango Milonga, Ballroom tango (okay may be that’s stretching the definition :). And after checking the Tango wiki, I can add: Uruguayan tango (also known as Tango Oriental) and To My Great Amazement: Finnish Tango - something I had never heard of till now. Everyday I discover something new about tango. I had no idea that Finnland had anything to do with tango.

Anyway, Wikipedia lists a bunch of more styles. Here is the list:

• * Tango Argentino
• * Tango Oriental (uruguayo)
• * Tango Canyengue
• * Tango Liso
• * Tango Salon
• * Tango Orillero
• * Tango Milonguero (Tango Apilado)
• * Tango Nuevo
• * Show Tango (also known as Fantasia)
• * Ballroom Tango
• * Finnish Tango

You can read the nuances of each of these styles by googling ‘tango’ and going to the wiki article. Well, there goes any hope of explaining to my father what tango is! As we kept talking, I ended up mentioning a lot of jargon like ganchos, boleos, close embrace, traspie, cadence and lots other things that made him even more confused. We drifted again into tango music and tango instruments, bandoneons the soul of tango and Francisco Canaro and Carlos Gardel and the revival and Por Una Cabeza from the movie “Scent of a woman”. At some point I realized that I am talking about comme il faut and neo tango shoes and I knew that I should stop. I even tried to resort to inappropriate humor (the cliched and ultra-limited “vertical expression of a horizontal desire”) but to no avail.

So I took a break… I went for a walk and a coffee. And I thought of the best tangos I’ve ever danced, and I thought about my favorite tango music, my favorite milongas and my favorite tango places and my favorite tango partners… Then I thought some more… and felt some more…

When I came back I told him this: Tango is all about communication without words. Tango is communication with your body. And it’s not a digital communication, unlike in other dances like swing or salsa (at least the way it’s danced in the US). You don’t give an “instruction” to the follower, and wait and watch while she does her bit and then give the next instruction… Tango is led continuously, every fraction of every second. Dancing tango is giving a visual, corporal form to the words and the music, giving body to “quejas de bandoneon”… It’s like making a moving painting of the melody and rhythm.

My bad: Now he is asking me what’s swing and salsa and how’s bandoneon different from an Accordion!

This is a piece of tango culture that represents the varied nature and scope of tango dancing. If you see someone dancing to this song, you might mistake it as a milonga, but it’s really a Candombe - An Uruguayan style of dancing that originated among the african population in Montevideo (which also happens to be the origin of La Cumparsita).

I love the lyrics of this song too, especially the alliteration “borocotó, borocotó, borocotó, borocotó chas chas”, which is supposed to be an onomatopoeia for the Tamboril (a kind of drum that’s common in Candombe music). Without much ado, here are the lyrics (and my humble attempt at translating them):

Tango Negro (Black Tango)

My favorite dance rendition of this song is this performance my Louis and Daniela:

(This version of the song is sung by Alberto Casares. For other versions search for tango negro on youtube).

La Cumparsita, for some reason, is one of the most popular tangos of all times. It is so popular, that the tradition is to play it always as the last song of any milonga and some times the first and the last one. Agreed that it’s one of the most ancient tango creations that is still around: La cumparsita was written in 1917, so just it’s got age on it’s side:

Quoting from Wikipedia

La Cumparsita is a musical piece written by Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodríguez in 1917. It is one of the most famous and recognizable tango songs of all time. The title translates as “The little parade” and the original lyrics begin: “The little parade of endless miseries…”

It was composed in the music room of Club Nacional de Football, and played for the first time in Confitería La Giralda, a cafeteria located where the Palacio Salvo now stands in downtown Montevideo.

….  the complete wiki …

Frankly, It is not my favorite tango song… and by a large margin. I like some renditions of it, especially the really erratic one by , but even these are not my favorites. I tried to dig up some history about how this plain piece of music ended up being so popular… And found some really interesting history behind it.

Apparently, Gerardo was a teenager and struggling student of architecture when he wrote La Cumparsita as a marching song for an upcoming celebration and sold it to Roberto Firpo for a petty sum of 20 pesos. After a short stint of lukewarm popularity it died away.  But it seems it became a big hit after it’s original lyrics (”La Cumparsita de miserias sin fin…”) were changed by the lyricists Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi to “Si supieras que aun dentro de mi alma…” and the song was re-recorded and released (without Gerardo’s consent) as “Si Supieras”, the standard version you will hear everywhere (And which is now known as “La Cumparsita - Si Supieras”). There have been multiple lawsuits between various people based on the copyrights of this song. For the whole story, check out this page. Here are the original lyrics of La cumparsita as written by Gerardo (and as always my humble attempt at translation):

Clearly, these lyrics neither are very romantic (an quality that characterizes tango lyrics) nor represent a wonderful peace of poetry that would absolve the pessimism and lack of romance. Now, here is the new incarnation “La Cumparsita Si supieras” engendered by Maroni and Contursi:

Now, ignoring the limitedness of my translation abilities, you can probably still see that this second set of lyrics hold a much stronger appeal and affect than the original one. The song became an instant success after the change of lyrics. Defer to the power of words!

The spreading of La Cumparsita to the rest of the world was facilitated by Francisco Canaro who took it to paris, in the 1920s where it became immediate hit and a standard fare whenever people wanted to dance tango. It spread to the rest of the world on the wings of the parisian cultural influence on the world at that time. So, I guess we can blame Maroni and Contursi, and Canaro and the French for this musical cataclysm !

Of course, I was very happy (smug expression on my face) to know that Astor Piazzola had some seriously barbed remarks about this song:

(La Cumparsita) is the most frighteningly poor thing in this world (speaking of the D-A-E-F rhythm). Nevertheless, if you add a bass note to enrich it and pour on top of it the melody, you can create a counter point that raises the conventional melody. It is like an ugly person that dresses nicely. It improves his looks. That’s how La Cumparsita is improved. With good clothes.

Now, I don’t have such harsh feelings towards the song but that does put it in perspective. Indeed, it seems to be this precise “dressing up” or its amenability to adornment that has led to the success of la cumparsita. As Francisco Canaro points out (quoting from todotango.com):

“La cumparsita”…has the peculiar virtue that its musical structure wonderfully lends itself to be embellished by orchestrations of higher level, everything fits well with “La cumparsita”: counter melodies for violins, variations for bandoneons and other important instruments, besides other attractive musical effects that arrangers and leaders ably take advantage of for showcasing their own outfit. Each leader of a tango orchestra has his own arrangement, his personal rendition of the celebrated tango. And, proudly, he is convinced that his authorized rendition of “La cumparsita” is the best in existence.

After spending so much time reading about it and listening to 20 renditions of it, I think I have a little more fondness for this Marching song embellished in pink. Good for me! After all, there is no escaping La Cumparsita in this life

Here is what your instructors want you to listen to when they are asking you to “dance to the rhythm”: The double bass playing in the background. If you don’t know what the double bass is, it’s this gigantic violin type of instrument that’s played usually standing up. If you’ve heard your tango instructor go “pum, pum pum, pum pum pumpumpum”, while explaining a step to you (Argentinians do it more often than others), he is attempting to reproduce the sound of the double bass. That’s the part of the music that tango players and dancers use, that’s our time keeper, our metronome.

For examples of a clear, rhythmic and prominent double bass, I would recommend the orchestras of Carlos Di Sarli, Juan D’Arienzo and Francisco Canaro. I would also suggest an exercise: Go to your favorite music player (i.e. itunes) and play any of the classical tango songs you have, e.g. one of Carlos Di Sarli. Now open the equalizer (under the “window” tab) and drag all the sliders completely down except for the left most 3. What you are hearing most prominently now, is the double bass. Try to recognize it the next time you are dancing.

Have fun!