 |
 |
Presentation
Staff
Schedules and prices
Workshops
Agenda
References
Tango Festival D’Abbraccio - Montegrotto (Italy)
From 10th to 12th september, 2010
History of Tango
In any culture, music is part integral of life in society, it is thus defined by, and must to be replaced in, economic context and social moving, with for consequence its adaptability and, its perception by those which listens to it for what it is or should be. Its popularization through the interbreeding allows its transverse evolution then. The music can thus have several functions, esthetic pleasure, entertainment, communication, symbolic notation, physical answer, imposing the social conformity and standards, validating the institutions and the ritual monk, contributing to continuity, stability and with the integration of the aforesaid the society, like emotive expression.
From the end of the XVI ème century, one observes a process of creolisation of the musics, born from the marriage from the African rhythms and Hispanic then French musics.
To Cuba first Conquistadores bring a poetic and musical tradition corresponding to the “Lovesong” and the “Zapateo”.
August 17, 1791, a revolt of the slaves bursts in Hispañola (current Haiti and Dominican Republic). French colonists and slaves take refuge in Santiago of Cuba bringing with them the culture of the coffee, but also of the musics and new dances : Fine, Minuet, Gaceste and Tumba francesa.
The French « Contredanse » creolized at the Cubans on a Spanish and an African music gave the “Danzon” which changed thereafter with the 20th century into “Mambo”, resulting from the meeting of the dances of course with African syncopes and percussions.
The syncopated rhythm of the “quintolet” (in French, “cinquillo” in Spanish) appears. In the years 1830, Havana will give its name to a musical style resulting from the contradanza, the “Habanera”, which will allure the whole world, in particular Argentina (from which the tango will derive).
The appearance at the 19th century of this cuban rhythmic identity under the powerful influence of the Spanish music with the “Habanera”, will inspire by many composers of reputation. “El Arreglito”, interpreted in 1863 by the soprano Mila Traveli with the Italian Imperial Theater of Paris, from which the music will be useful for “the Love is a rebellious bird (will habanera It)” opera “Carmen” of George Bizet of 1875.
Musically speaking, tango is not in a relation of direct continuity compared to the traditional musics, like milongas, zambas, chacareras, cuecas or others which could develop in Argentina. It is an interbreeding of three dances or musics, from African drums from Candombé Uruguyan, danced by the black slaves; Habanera of cuban origin which strongly influenced its development and certainly Milonga, slow song and serious arrival of the Argentinian pampa. Of share and others of the borders of Argentina, various musical kinds, more or less comon run with the whole of the countries of the southern Cone appeared, which experience a parallel development with that of the urban music which became the tango.
History of tango starts with the urbanization of the country, therefore towards the end of the 19th century. However one can seek roots in Candombé of the 18th century. Candombé is of a fast rhythm supported by both or three drums called tangós. It is presented in the form of a typical music of the Argentinian Blacks. At the beginning of the 19th century one called with Buenos-Aires the houses in which the Blacks organized their tango balls.
In the living rooms of the new middle class, one dances the same waltz and polkas of the evenings of the European small-middle-class, to which one adds some American dances as Habanera. Born in Cuba at the beginning of the 19th century the « Habanera» is less vibrating that the milonga and candombé: it has a “negro” color thus less. True Spanish-American music, habanera is certainly completely creole, but it seems more Castilian than the other musics which are born then on the American continent. Because its African influences are done very discrete, habanera offers with the middle-class men a music of the country, without being sullied too much with colors mulattos.
For this class, civilization, the culture and the good taste remain associated, in spite of the deep creolisation of the population, with European values. Habanera offers a cultural product of an ideal local color, since, paradoxically, it can pass for European, this even with the eyes of Europeans.
At this point starts to appear a new musical form resulting from habanera with its roots of Candombé: the milonga.
The melody and the instrumentation were transformed. The African colors attenuate, the drum disappears. One finds there the memory of traditional melodies resulting from the folklore which developed in the country populations starting from musics of Spanish origins. But one starts to notice immigrant influences there. The melody evokes Italian « Tarentella »; one plays guitar what contributes to give him a more Mediterranean color; one starts to employ the violin whose melancholy points out the traditions of Eastern Europe.
The milonga which is born thus is a music of festival. Smiling and strong, it quickly becomes the queen of the popular balls. One associates it to the new society of “arrabales”. This expression comes from the word « arrabal »- suburb, it indicates however more than the only place of the districts of the outskirts of the city: it emanates an odor of loose living which one finds in English in the “suburban” adjective. Because one identifies it with people who make bad kind, the milonga is seen confined in the places of loose living; it is if not in the brothels, in any case in the popular festivals, considered of a very evil eye by the right-thinking people of the center of the capital, which one will play the milonga.
The plausible chronology of the evolution of this new music leaves Candombé, passes by the Spanish fines - probably Andalusian, then will habanera it to arrive at the milonga and leads to the tango.
Musicians of the popular districts will create on the basis of milongas and of will habaneras the first tangos. At the beginning they introduced into their repertory milonguero some will habaneras. From habanera, tango borrows its characteristic rhythm, this by adding the colors frays to him which are brought to him by the various immigrant cultures. Randomly social transformations and multicultural crossings, this new music hatches in a few years. It is on August 30 1866 which one finds the first explicit reference. Oldest from the tangos which continues to belong to the modern repertory goes back to 1897.