The Art of Tango

Bárbara Varassi Pega

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781138392069
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429748806
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

The Art of Tango offers a systematic exploration of the performance, arrangement and composition of the universally popular tango. The author discusses traditional practices, the De Caro school and the pioneering oeuvre of four celebrated innovators: Pugliese, Salgán, Piazzolla and Beytelmann.

With an in-depth focus on both reception and practice, the volume and its companion website featuring supplementary audio-visual materials analyse, decode, compare and discuss literature, scores and recordings to provide a deeper understanding of tango's artistic concepts, characteristics and techniques. River Plate tango is explored through the lens of artistic research, combining the study of oral traditions and written sources. In addition to a detailed examination of the various approaches to tango by the musicians featured in this book, three compositions by the author embodying creative applications of the research findings are discussed. The volume offers numerous tools for developing skills in practice, inspiring new musical output and the continuation of research endeavours in the field.

Illustrating the many possibilities of this musical language that has captivated musicians and audiences worldwide, this book is a valuable resource for everyone with an interest in tango, whether they be composers, performers, arrangers, teachers, music lovers or scholars in the field of popular music studies.

1
Introduction

Bárbara Varassi Pega

Tango music as we know it today is the result of the artistic work of several great twentieth-century musicians. Very few of them, however, expressed themselves explicitly regarding the musical influences, innovative concepts and ideas implicit in their music, and only partial information concerning the elements and techniques of composing, arranging and performing tango has been documented and made available so far. Tango enjoys an ever-expanding practice and popularity, nowadays one of the most widely known world music genres; yet, there is still little practical knowledge available regarding its creation, re-creation and performance. In order to shed light on these aspects and offer a deeper understanding of what tango music consists of – both in traditional practice and in the hands of the musicians studied in this book, namely Osvaldo Pugliese, Horacio Salgán, Astor Piazzolla and Gustavo Beytelmann as well as insights into the work of their direct musical predecessor, Julio De Caro – this volume presents an examination of tango’s constituent elements and techniques alongside a discussion of related compositional, arrangement and performance practices. The whole is explored and delivered from the author’s role as both a musicologist and a tango musician (composer-arranger-performer), its uniqueness precisely being the dual approach to the subject matter from a scholarly and a practical point of view. This results not only in an outstanding contribution to the field but also in a concrete, practical example of how the genre’s history can be transformed by a new generation of musicians as well as used as a guide towards new creations and practice. What are the core musical features and techniques that define River Plate tango as a model, and which innovations can be traced in the oeuvre of the musicians studied here in relation to that model? How can musicians explore tango’s constituent elements and techniques to inform their practice as performers, arrangers and composers? How can making explicit the innovative concepts and ideas implicit in the musical output of the musicians discussed here serve as a guide for a deeper understanding of tango music that might lead to its further advance? The Art of Tango has been written with the aim of offering thoroughly investigated answers to these questions.

Focused on both reception and practice, The Art of Tango seeks to analyze, decode and discuss significant arrangements and compositions by the musicians mentioned previously in order to provide a deeper understanding of their styles as well as the artistic concepts and theoretical foundations of the genre. This is achieved by presenting readers with techniques, processes and materials to better comprehend tango’s musical language and by providing tools to develop skills in arranging, composing and performing tango, hopefully inspiring new musical output in the field. In addition, this volume offers a series of research tools that can be applied to other works by the composers dealt with here as well as others, which allows for the continuation of a research practice that has, until recently, been scarcely investigated or even fully neglected within the study of tango.

The choice of tangos for the case studies in this volume is specified in each instance and was based on both the judgement of the composers themselves (when available) and my own as well as – often – public consensus. The analyses take both scores and recordings into account. Tango performances – and recordings as well – are rarely an exact reproduction of the sheet music, which is why this study pays special attention to those elements that defy notation and accounts for both written and oral practice and the tension between the two. The musical materials and techniques described in the analyses and used to break down and decode tango’s musical language are classified in relation to formal, textural, harmonic and melodic features; rhythm and meter; composition techniques (including variation techniques); orchestration and segmentation; the use of articulations, register, texture, timbral and percussive effects; performance techniques; and the relationship between the main lines and the diverse accompanimental archetypes, all studied in close observation of their relationship and interplay with each other. The same parameters and techniques – described and explained in Chapter 2 – were observed, taking into account perceptive and performative issues within all the pieces studied in order to better understand the different approaches to tango’s constituent elements by the musicians featured in this volume.

It is my belief – and also the driving force behind my research and this book itself – that by breaking down the elements that build and shape tango music, we will be able to discover and understand them, their function and this rich musical language as a whole together with its wide array of possibilities for creation, re-creation and performance. The same holds true for decoding the oeuvre of the aforementioned musicians, and even others, as it is about observing how they consistently used and combined all these elements and techniques in their own works – be it original compositions or arrangements – resulting in their different styles and unmistakable signatures.

In order to offer a glimpse into the history of tango music and situate the four musicians studied in this volume in time, a short summary of the main periods in tango music’s development and some of its main actors are outlined in the following paragraphs. The musical influences the four musicians exerted on each other, as well as their main stylistic traits, will be thoroughly addressed in the respective chapters devoted to their music.

The Guardia vieja (Old Guard) refers to the period when tango was born, the cultural movement that contributed to its creation, and its first generation of musicians, poets and dancers. Historians disagree as to the exact moment when the movement started and ended, but there is consensus that it began in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and ended between the second and third decades of the twentieth century, when it gave way to the so-called Guardia nueva (New Guard). After that, from approximately the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, tango’s major expansion and establishment took place. Those years are usually referred to as the Época de oro (Golden Age).

Tango originated at the end of the nineteenth century from an intermingling of the music of several populations who moved to the River Plate, to the ports of Montevideo (Uruguay) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) in search of work: European immigrants (who brought classical, popular and folkloric traditions), people of African descent (who brought percussive features and rhythms like the candombe) and the gaucho (the rural population, who brought their indigenous and Spanish heritage). In rather small ensembles and with instruments light enough to carry – such as the flute, guitar, accordion, mandolin and violin – they played traditional tunes from their own lands, mixing melodies, harmonies and rhythms that all contributed to the birth of the musical language of tango. Following its humble and marginalized origins, tango’s foundational elements came to be defined within the hands of musicians such as Ángel Villoldo and Eduardo Arolas. There, a new dimension of symbolic intent appeared, manifested in the drama and melancholy of the ensemble led by Eduardo Arolas. Arolas was a very influential figure, since the key musicians who forged the principal features of the Guardia nueva either played with him, listened to him, or admired him. In 1917, with the recording of the piece Mi noche triste, Carlos Gardel brought the ‘singing’ quality to tango’s melodic shape through his use of rubato, re-creating the cadence of the porteño Spanish spoken by the inhabitants of Buenos Aires. It was a groundbreaking moment, as it endowed tango with one of its most meaningful characteristics.¹ Better suited to the ensemble of violins, piano and bandoneon that was consolidated by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, this melodic character would remain thereafter a primary feature of tango music, together with the more joyful, danceable and articulated tango kind of speech with which contrasts are secured in its compositional and performative practice. According to García Brunelli (personal communication, 25 January 2018):

One of the distinctive features of the Guardia nueva is the consolidation and standardization of the instrumental practice of tango. This entails a variety of aspects: the emergence of instrumentalists with formal education, the widespread use of instrumental arrangements, and the definition of distinctive interpretative styles that involve the creation of aesthetic schools. In the early 1920s, the ensemble structure including two violins, two bandoneons, piano and double bass began to be firmly established. The young musicians that consolidated the emerging movement of renewal include Carlos Vicente Geroni Flores, Osvaldo Fresedo and Juan Carlos Cobián. The three of them introduced the concept of arrangement in order to lend variety to performances and to build upon the instrumental capabilities of the musicians involved. Flores and Cobián were the first pianists to expand the possibilities of the instrument within orchestras.

Indeed, with the 1920s came a period of musical expansion. While initially performance practice – primarily for dancing – built on the simple tunes mostly played by ear by musicians who often had no formal musical training or reading abilities, a radical change occurred with musicians like Osvaldo Fresedo, Juan Carlos Cobián, and Francisco and Julio De Caro. The new generations of musicians possessed increasingly developed technical and musical skills, and many of them had a classical music background. The standard sextet of two bandoneons, two violins, piano and double bass was established and then expanded (by adding bandoneons, violins and sometimes viola and violoncello) towards the orquesta típica, the most representative tango ensemble. The sextet also demanded better orchestration and arrangement strategies. The arrangements and compositions De Caro wrote for his sextet marked a turning point in the history of tango music and set the foundation which most later generations would build upon.

The orquesta típica (traditional tango orchestra, generally made up of three or four bandoneons, three or four violins, viola, cello, piano and double bass) was indeed crucial in the development of this music. From the 1920s until the 1960s, but especially in the so-called Época de oro (Golden Age, the 1935s–1955s, with a peak in artistic production in the 1940s), a large number of orchestras were active in many cities in Argentina. During the ‘explosive’ 1940s, among the many ensembles and orchestras that contributed to the definitive expansion and consolidation of tango’s musical language were those led by violinist Alfredo Gobbi, bandoneonist Aníbal Troilo, pianists Carlos Di Sarli, Osvaldo Pugliese and Horacio Salgán as well as the one led by a very young bandoneonist, Astor Piazzolla. All of them developed new techniques for their instruments and approached composition and arranging in a new way, while still relying on tradition. According to Horacio Salas (2009, p. 152):

Since then [the 1940s] it became frequent that musicians playing in orquestas típicas would also join symphony orchestras, since their training allowed for that. Tango was no longer something played intuitively by people whose grounding was limited, at best, to rudimentary knowledge gained in the modest music school in the neighbourhood. Now it moved in a field in which progress could only come from [musical] studies and technical solidity.

Tango’s development was possible thanks to many musicians who – in addition to being greatly intuitive – shared an interest in exploring its constituent elements further. The repertoires – still mostly tailored to dancing – were enriched by a highly literary and musical quality, and there was an absolute convergence of popular taste and tango styles: singers and orchestras were the stars of the time, and tango was the most widespread music genre people would listen and dance to. New compositions and arrangements combined melodies with counterpoint, more sophisticated accompaniments and harmonies, and were on the whole more intricate than the earlier tangos. As such, musicians were forced to commit this new complex music to paper, with ensembles working in a setting similar to chamber music. This, however, in no way limited the freedom with which tango music was executed, and performative features were maintained through shared codes aimed at reproducing the aural domain in written versions that could only partly approximate their interpretation. The tacit knowledge of these intuitive musicians played a key role here.

Tango orchestras acted also as ‘schools’ for young fledgling musicians and were the key spots where everything about the genre was passed on, always orally. In turn, the new generation of artists continued the process of establishing new orchestras that performed their own music. This was the origin of tango ‘styles’, the specific manners with which different artists dealt with tango materials and techniques. Thus, through sheer talent, effort and hard work, the main figures of the genre managed to develop a personal language, building upon elements inherited from the tradition. The main tango exponents in that period were performers, arrangers, composers, orchestrators and orchestra leaders all-in-one, and their contribution determined what are now the main features of instrumental tango music. It is important to note that the role of the conductor in orquestas típicas is different from that of orchestras in the Western art tradition. Tango conductors were and are part of the ensemble, and they lead the orchestra members from their own instruments (D’Arienzo was a rare and therefore noteworthy exception to this, as he indeed conducted often standing in front of his orchestra, as many videos and pictures document). This role, together with the rhythmical base of piano and double bass, is solid enough to keep the whole ensemble together and feeling the musical flow, just as in chamber music ensembles. In effect, it is in many ways comparable to the band leader in jazz, who also conducts from their instrument.

Unfortunately, in the 1950s, after a flourishing period, most tango orchestras had to end their activities due to political and economic problems in Argentina. As a result of the ongoing financial crisis, cultural and social activities were drastically reduced. As tango venues could no longer afford to host live music, they reduced or stopped their activities or were closed down. In addition, influenced by the new trends from the United States, people were led to believe that their own musical heritage and expressions were old-fashioned. On the whole, there was a shift in public taste both causing and caused by the genre’s dispersal. Record labels stopped producing tango in order to sell rock and roll music, which was also continuously played on the radios, as the new, hip music, further marginalizing tango as a genre for old, backward people (Sierra 1985, p. 175). As Oscar Del Priore (2007, pp. 101–102) explains:

In the sixties, a gradual lack of interest for tango started to show. The new generation turned to other rhythms, to other musical genres. Young people stopped listening to and dancing to tango. This resulted in the increasing disappearance of orquestas típicas, which were no longer in demand as before, and work for artists of the genre started to wind down. Besides the closing-down of cabarets and cafés, radio stations started to throw out the live sessions from their programming. Recording companies also began to produce more commercial and profitable artists and genres. Besides, out of the five most successful orchestras by the beginning of the 1940s only that of Pugliese would remain, and the other orchestra leaders were even disappearing one after the other: Di Sarli died in 1960, Troilo in 1975, D’Arienzo in 1976.… Rock and roll, which had erupted in Buenos Aires first through Bill Haley and then through the celebrated Elvis Presley, had supplanted tango in young people’s parties and dance venues. Tango was absent for this generation of youths, fans of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones that changed the direction of the recording industry in Argentina. Moreover, new idols of the so-called commercial music started to be created, arising mainly out of the TV program El Club del Clan, which eventually crushed the presence of orquestas típicas in Argentinian cultural life.

According to Juan José Mosalini, ‘between the 1940s and the mid 1950s, there were nearly 700 active orquestas típicas; in the 1980s, only one or two were left’ (Keselman and García Falcó 2005, p. 202). Although the genre survived, thanks to smaller ensembles and a few orchestras, they were not able to mould as many young musicians as the traditional orchestras had done in the past. According to bandoneonist Daniel Binelli (Ibid., p. 176),

In the 1980s, tango was secluded because throughout two generations there was virtually no teaching of bandoneon players, as in 1965 El Club del Clan had buried all possibilities of working in carnival celebrations, and the broadcasting of [North] American music was overwhelming.

In this respect, pianist Atilio Stampone (Ibid., p. 214) adds:

People think that as from the 1950s tango styles changed, but what actually changed w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• The companion website for The Art of Tango
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Stylistic norms of tango music – its main materials and techniques
• 3 Boedo and the De Caro school
• 4 Osvaldo Pugliese – his life, musical style and orchestra and his contribution to instrumental tango music
• 5 Horacio Salgán – his life, musical style and ensembles and his contribution to instrumental tango music
• 6 Astor Piazzolla – his life, musical style and ensembles and his contribution to instrumental tango music
• 7 Gustavo Beytelmann – his life, musical style and ensembles and his contribution to instrumental tango music
• 8 Mendizábal’s El entrerriano – comparative analysis of arrangements by Pugliese, Salgán and Piazzolla
• 9 The impact of this artistic research on my own music
• 10 Summary and outlook
• Bibliography
• Index