Music For Tango

05 Dec 2024 - by Graham (from Newsletter)

Why do so many people think that tango is only 'real tango' if it is danced to music by the Orquestas Tipica of the 1930s and 1940s? How did the music become so intertwined with the dance in a way that no other style has done?

The history of tango is not all that well documented as it was only much later that people realised that it was something that would be important for future generations. Early stories were passed on by word of mouth, and - as the events that led to tango being the way it is now were spread across continents - much was missed. But one fairly well supported version begins like this...

A ban on public gatherings in Argentina in the early 1950s had effectively made the traditional method of learning tango illegal, as men gathering together to practice their dance skills fell under the ban. So until the late 1970s and early 1980s tango had largely disappeared from view. It lived on in small groups as people still wanted to dance, but there were few opportunities for social gatherings and so the bands that had regularly played at these venues broke up and stopped playing.

When tango started to make a comeback in the late 1970s the new generation of dancers reached for the old recordings of the Golden Age (1935-1952) to dance to as that was all there was. Then in 1983 the Tango Argentino show opened in Paris and New York with music modelled after the sextet of Aníbal Troilo as he had played in the 40s and 50s. So from its initial resurgence back into the public eye and polularity, tango became linked with the traditional Orquesta Tipica sound.

But why is there such resistance to musical change amongst so many tango dancers? Early tango music evolved with popular taste, from rhythmic milonga tracks, through the slower tango rhythms, to the introduction of singers and widely varying styles. The bands of the time often sound nothing like each other, with versions of the same piece of music being staccato and sharp from one band and yet flowing and mournful from another. In fact the only similarity can sometimes be in the instruments - bandoneon, violins, piano, and double bass. And yet people will tell you that tango has always been danced to that music, that it was written specifically for the tango, and that to dance it to anything else is wrong.

I suspect that if tango had been allowed to grow naturally we would not be having these conversations. The progression of the dance was interrupted just before rock & roll and other more modern styles started to make an appearance, and this meant that tango never had the chance to evolve around them. It skipped a step, and when it reappeared it just stayed as it had always been in the early 1950s. 

But this is a dance, not a historical re-enactment, so at Tangosynthesis and at many other modern or neotango groups we dance it to the music we like.

If you want to find out what sort of music that is then join us at one of our X/Tango events!