126 Classics of Tango Dance Music
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 13:09:45 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Classics of Tango Dance Music
The Tango Argentino de Tejas website now has a list of the classic tangos,
milongas and valses for social dancing as
recommended by tango dancers and DJs from around the world. Development of
the list is an ongoing project. To access the current version of the list
go to:
http://www.tejastango.com/classic_tangos.html
With best regards,
Steve
Tango Argentino de Tejas
http://www.tejastango.com/
Tango Argentino de Tejas is a non-commerical online resource information
about Argentine tango including reviews of instructional videos, guides to
tango music, articles about learning and dancing tango, and links.
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 13:22:24 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Classics of Tango Dance Music
One of the issues in developing a list of classic of tangos dance music
<http://www.tejastango.com/classic_tangos.html> is assessing recording
quality and availability. If the list is to be useful to the readership,
it ought to consist of great tango, milonga and vals music on readily
available CDs with the highest sound quality.
With sound quality in mind, I listed a number of Troilo recordings as
coming from *Instrumental* (Tango Argentino BMG-RCA) and
*Troilo/Fiorentino* (Solo Tango BMG-RCA) rather than the much lower
fidelity *El Inmortal Pichuco* (El Bandoneon). The El Bandoneon release is
actually somewhat more available because it can be found in some stores.
The other two recordings have to be mail ordered from places like Classic
Tango in the United States <http://www.classictango.com>, or milonga.co.uk
in the United Kingdom <http://www.milonga.co.uk>, or Zival's in Buenos
Aires <http://www.tangostore.com/>. For a tango enthusiast, that is
probably not too much trouble.
With availability in mind, I change the source listed for three Fresedo
tangos from private CD-R to 40 Grandes Exitos (Los Grandes Orquestas del
Tango Blue Moon) as Mike Lavocah suggested in his posting to Tango-L
"Tigre Viejo de Osvaldo Fresedo".
For those recordings where the only available CD has gone out of print, I
have retained the listing because it remains the best source. People can
frequently find out-of-print CDs (such as Disco Latina or Music Hall) if
they know to look for them. I will have to update some of the listings now
that the Music Hall label seems to have gone out of production and is
becoming increasingly difficult to find. I am having trouble bringing
myself to do this, however, because for the tracks that I have listed as
being on the Carlos Di Sarli CD *Milonguero Viejo* (Music Hall), the Music
Hall release has much better fidelity than the same tangos on Instrumental
(Tango Argentino BMG-RCA).
For some tangos, privately issued CD-Rs seem to be the only available
source and I have listed them. Privately issued CD-Rs need be no less
ethical than the El Bandoneon and Blue Moon commercial releases. The
copyrights have expired on the original material, and most of the musicians
are deceased. In producing their CDs, El Bandoneon and Blue Moon have
relied on 78 records. The privately issued CD-Rs that I have heard are
also compiled from old records. The sound quality ranges from terrible to
better as on the early El Bandoneon releases. Availability is a little
more difficult issue. Privately issued CD-Rs are typically only available
from the individual producer. But in this electronic age, contacting and
ordering CDs directly from some producers is relatively easy. To obtain,
the CDs that I list as Mario #6, #8, etc., one has to go to Buenos Aires
and find Mario or have a friend who is willing to do so.
Clearly much more work remains to be done to make the list of classics of
tango dance music the best resource it can be. I opened it for public
viewing in a beta state with the idea that it would never be perfect and
that public scrutiny would help improve it as a resouce. So far, a dozen
people have contributed to the list, and I most grateful. I have not
listed their names because I recognize that the project is far from
complete in its current state.
With best regards,
Steve
Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
http://www.tejastango.com/
----- Forwarded by Stephen P Brown/DAL/FRS on 08/02/01 12:40 PM -----
Stephen P
Brown To: Tango-L@mitvma.mit.edu
cc:
08/01/01 Subject: Classics of Tango Dance Music
01:09 PM
The Tango Argentino de Tejas website now has a list of the classic tangos,
milongas and valses for social dancing as
recommended by tango dancers and DJs from around the world. Development of
the list is an ongoing project. To access the current version of the list
go to:
http://www.tejastango.com/classic_tangos.html
With best regards,
Steve
Tango Argentino de Tejas
http://www.tejastango.com/
Tango Argentino de Tejas is a non-commerical online resource information
about Argentine tango including reviews of instructional videos, guides to
tango music, articles about learning and dancing tango, and links.
Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 16:26:54 EDT
From: Crrtango@aol.com
Subject: [Tango-L] dance music
To: tango-l@mit.edu
Jake Spatz wrote:
<Especially as most rhythm-centric dance music from the Golden Age was
dance-to-ably rhythmic because the band was often playing accompaniment
to a vocal line.>
Actually, with all due respect that is not the reason nor is it true, at
least in my understanding of the history and evolution of tango. Many early tangos
and those from the golden age were originally instrumental, some with lyrics
being added after the fact, for example La Cumparsita (originally a brass-band
marching song transposed by Firpo into a tango) and El Choclo, just to name
two very famous ones. Tango was mostly about dancing early on but there were
always vocal tangos meant to be listened to and not usually played at milongas.
Later as more vocals entered into the milonga tangos, they were often nothing
more than a few lines, most of the song being instrumental. The singers (
called estribillistas) were considered as backups to the more important musical
line. In other words tangos were composed specifically as dancing songs.
Orchestras such as D'Arienzo's in the thirties played very few vocal songs but his
later orchestras, especially after Biagi left, used more vocalists. In the late
thirties and forties vocals became more prominent and even the the prized
singers such as Angel Vargas and Raul Beron or Alberto Castillo were loved for
their musicality and danceable singing style. Ultimately vocals played a more and
more important part eventually becoming the main emphasis of the songs. There
was always a schism between the danceable songs and the experimental artistic
compositions, Pugliese being a rare example of a combination of the two. I
think the real problem is that late complex tangos appear to be more
revolutionary and thus have more appeal to musicians for their complex arrangements and
dynamics, in other words they are a musician's music and they have lost touch
with the dancers. This is not a new phenomenon. The same problem existed in the
early thirties when so much tango was influenced by DeCaro and the
evolutionary school and D'Arienzo came along and started playing simple danceable music
again (for which he was ridiculed as being too simple and basic). He
practically single-handedly brought tango back to the dance floor. I think it is an
age-old problem of musicians playing for themselves or playing for dancers. Too
many musicians today (with a few exceptions, notably Tito Castro here in New
York and a few others) think that the traditional tangos are too prosaic and
boring. They want to show off their musicianship. There is a very good tango
orchestra from Montreal that plays many traditional tangos and I have danced to
them. It is a wonderful experience. Perhaps this is an opportune time for a good
tango musician to emulate D'Arienzo (who was no stranger to musician's music,
having played jazz before forming his seminal tango orchestra).
Cheers,
Charles
See what's free at
http://www.aol.com.
Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 21:42:26 -0400
From: "Jake Spatz (TangoDC.com)" <spatz@tangoDC.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] dance music
To: tango-l@mit.edu
Hi Charles,
Yes, I've also read that history. But I'm talking about the dance music
made _in_ the Golden Age, and about _vocal lines_-- not necessarily
_vocalists_. D'Arienzo and many others often mined the older tunes for
material in the 30s and 40s (which is how the milonga got a facelift at
that time). It's said that D'Arienzo returned to the older 2/4 tempo
thereby, but from what I've read it seems just as likely that that's how
Biagi had been transcribing his parts for years. Regardless, D'Arienzo,
as you mentioned, often dropped the singer: I'm simply arguing that he
kept the singer's music, and distributed it among the sidemen while he
(et al.) made new arrangements.
In short, we (dancers) nowadays know a great many songs as
"instrumentals" (El recodo, A la gran muneca, El flete, Don Juan, etc.)
because the Golden Age bandleaders & arrangers frequently kept the vocal
line while dropping the vocalist. There was ALSO a new integration of
the singer into the dance band, yes-- but these two evolutions, which
have a superficial dissimilarity, were happening at the same time.
Whether the songs originated as old dance numbers or in musical theater
(which a great many did) doesn't much matter. The D'Arienzo/Biagi
"revolution" basically rebuilt a bunch of old songs from two-part sheet
music, one part being a vocal line. That, I surmise, was their
"formula," or at least a major element of it. So, rather than suggesting
that new bands today set down to copy the _finished product_ of such
groups-- which is rather lame advice to offer an artist-- I'm suggesting
that they might find a better avenue for creativity by looking to the
_method_ of, e.g., D'Arienzo, Biagi, Di Sarli, and so forth.
But for that matter, the method wasn't unknown to De Caro either
(Derecho viejo, Catamarca, El abrojito, etc.)
In any case, if we're going to offer musicians any Useful advice, I
think we have to dig a little deeper than the cursory write-ups on
TodoTango.com.
No?
More below.
Crrtango@aol.com wrote:
> Many early tangos and those from the golden age were originally instrumental, some with lyrics being added after the fact, for example La Cumparsita (originally a brass-band marching song transposed by Firpo into a tango) and El Choclo, just to name two very famous ones.
Not to quibble here, but the majority of _songs_ are written tune-first;
the text coming first seems to be relatively uncommon. And both songs
you mention have multiple sets of lyrics (and problematic copyright
histories because of it)-- which argues in favor of, if anything, so
strong a _vocal line_ as to demand sufficiently strong lyrics. I'm using
songwriter terms here: "vocal line" = "lead melody" (as opposed to
rhythm section or countermelody or harmony or what have you).
> Tango was mostly about dancing early on but there were always vocal tangos meant to be listened to and not usually played at milongas. Later as more vocals entered into the milonga tangos, they were often nothing more than a few lines, most of the song being instrumental. The singers (called estribillistas) were considered as backups to the more important musical line. In other words tangos were composed specifically as dancing songs.
First of all, how songs were composed and how they were played are two
quite different things: even in the Golden Age, with the singer
integrated into the dance band, they usually drop half the words (in the
recordings anyway). Secondly, the estribillista period as well as what
came earlier was kinda primitive for tango, both as music and as dance.
I can find very few songs from the Golden Age, recorded _then_ as
instrumentals or known today as "tangos," that were actually copyrighted
& printed without any lyrics.
And in any case, I'm arguing in favor of looking at the vocal line for
inspiration today. The aim of inspiration being to make new
arrangements. I honestly wonder why anyone would prefer the bloated
sound of Color Tango (on the recordings I've heard: maybe they have
newer shit now) to Pugliese's much better recordings of the same
arrangements. If they had at least made new arrangements of the
material, as De Angelis did with "La yumba," at least it would have
originality going for it.
> I think it is an age-old problem of musicians playing for themselves or playing for dancers.
In defense of musicians, dancers are hardly the only _audience_ one can
have.
> Too many musicians today [...] think that the traditional tangos are too prosaic and boring. They want to show off their musicianship.
So did D'Arienzo, so did Biagi, so did D'Agostino, so did practically
EVERYONE. I'm trying to address HOW ELSE talent can shine today, besides
ripping off Pugliese, late Troilo, and other then-concertmasters (and/or
their arrangers).
> Perhaps this is an opportune time for a good tango musician to emulate D'Arienzo [...]
>
"Emulate," exactly-- not rip off. Encouraging more Xerox "creativity" is
not the best way toward anything vital: we already have recordings we
can dance to. If new bands are going to make their mark now, they have
to do something original, either by making new material (as some do) or
by giving a fresh treatment to old material. Much of the
singer-integration that happened during the Golden Age came in with NEW
songs. That's one great option bands have today. Another is to dip into
the method (not the other results, mind you) that guys like D'Arienzo
did often use-- which is what this and my prior message describe.
I want to see and hear GOOD live tango dance music as much as anyone, if
not more. But if I can press Play and get better results of the same
arrangement (hiss notwithstanding), I can't call that GOOD. What I can
do is tell musicians that the small ensembles often have more order, and
a more danceable sound, because their point of departure isn't some
earlier arrangement, but most likely the two-part sheet music for (most
often) piano and voice. I heard good, danceable results, with a
sufficiently original treatment, in Atlanta last week. And I knew the
words, and I could hear the vocal line, and there was no vocalist. The
task of arranging becomes much easier if you have such a vocal line to
set down first, and can then line up everything else to support it.
And I will now stop repeating myself.
Jake
DC
