[Tango-L] Origins

Wed Jul 18 13:29:18 EDT 2007

Hi,

While many have claims have been made, and we do not really have
copious amounts of primary documents for incontrovertible proof of one
hypothesis over another, I think that we can still (A) identify and
separate obvious biases that got woven into the narrative, as well as
claims that are made to reinforce or conform to the preferred
narrative (B) separate less systematic analyses and famous people's
opinions from more systematic analyses and (C) distill more probable
from less probable realizations.

In regards to biases and prejudices influencing the narrative, it
seems quite self-evident now that (1) tango originated with the
working classes, and because of that (2) high-society argentines did
not accept it at first because of class prejudice. What the upper
class did then was the usual for the times with their racial and class
prejudices - it claimed that tango is dirty, born in brothels,
practiced by homosexuals, ugly/unseemly dirty scandalous dance, etc. I
am not even saying that they were willfully lying - it must have
seemed that way to them because this is how they saw low class people
- they had to be dirty and into any sin in fashion at the time. BTW,
this was not some peculiarly Argentine behaviour - the same patterns
stemming from racial and/or class prejudices can be seen elsewhere.

Later, when tango was forced on the upper class by Paris, it became
imperative to reject any black influence in it because of racism.
Separately, because Europeans were titillated with 'exoticism', with
'natives' and 'authenticity', whole storylines were invented about
gauchos (being identified with Argentina the most) being the
dancers/creators of tango, and tango performers in Europe were
apparently required or encouraged to dress in what was thought to be
gaucho dresses. Also the pimp/whore or knife-wielding dangerous
man/devoted woman as a dancing couple, which seems to have  been
borrowed as a narrative directly from the french 'apache'
dance/performance that also originated within low class people in
Paris at about the same time tango was exported there.

To see how strongly the upper class (Argentines and Europeans)
influenced the narrative, to this day we still hear about tango
described as exotic, sexual, born in brothels (very very unlikely and
frankly nonsensical). It did not help that tango celebrities were
reinforcing or conforming to that over the last few decades - for
example Piazzolla's 'tango is vertical rape', or perhaps he was
quoting a poet or someone else.

So we throw in famous people expressing opinions, quoting poets, or
re-re-re-telling anecdotes found in books that were not systematic
analyses of primary sources as much as one can find them. I am not
saying that oral history is not important - it is extremely valuable,
but it has to be balanced with a systematic investigation whenever
possible.

>From what I have read, it seems to me the most probable story has the
working class creating tango in conventillos in Buenos Aires, in the
inner yard while socializing in the evening, just like with other
nations that had traditional gatherings every night and almost
everyone could play an instrument or dance or recite a poem or tell a
story, and dances and songs were created, and that's where things were
generally happening..

Of course tango might have been danced (not created) in brothels, just
like other dances were danced there or in US brothels - whatever was
popular, people will dance it.

There seems to be a confusion also about dancing halls versus
brothels, with a tendency to conflate one with the other, which might
be part of establishing the whole 'dancing in brothels'  idea to an
extent larger than it might have been happening. Dancing halls (and
dancing) were big everywhere in the world at the time (turn of the
century to the big depression). These came in various configurations,
some with taxi dancers (which was a perfectly respectable profession).
That's apparently who you would give chips to to dance with, with
typically half going to the owner. This seems to have been corrupted
into 'paying a prostitute to dance with at brothels' or at least it
bears a disturbing similarity to it. I am talking here about Europe
and the US, not just Argentina.

As an aside, the term 'gigolo' meant a taxi dancer, and the female
counterpart would be a 'gigolette'. Rudolf Valentino was a gigolo,
i.e. a taxi dancer in a dancing hall, when he was discovered by the
film industry. There is some evidence that 'gigolo' acquired its
'dirty' connotations later, as a result of either (i) some gigolos
branching into expanded services, or especially (ii) the societal
stigma of a man getting paid by women thus his job/profession being
dishonourable, or likely both.

Then there are some confusions in terminology or context.

The milongas before 1930 came in several flavours - most famously the
milonga campera, a slow, 3-3-2 pattern, sung by payadores accompanied
by guitar, but also some 2/4 livelier tunes, yet none of them had
anything to do with the post-1930 milonga as we know it.

However the post-1930 milonga and the pre-1920 tangos share the
habanera rhythm pattern of dotted eight-sixteenth-eight-eight, which
is why Sergio could say that some outside Argentina confuse early
tangos (in pre-1920 arrangement) with post-1930 milongas. This cannot
be an argument about the primacy of milonga, though - at least not
about the milonga as we know it now.

This is my current opinion about various myths and concepts to do with
tango history and influences. It is all subject to correction and
refinement. It is also important to realize that I am not making
absolute claims here. but more in the sense of most likely, or most
supported by systematic analysis or evidence, or most common.

With best regards,

Konstantin
Victoria, Canada

On 7/18/07, Jake Spatz (TangoDC.com) <spatz at tangodc.com> wrote:
> As for the evolution of tango and its origins (apropos the remarks of
> Konstantine, Sergio, et al)...
>
> I've read various arguments, each of which centers on a different
> "pivotal" moment, emphasizing different details to arrive at the desired
> historical climax.
>
> Some claim that the dance came first (when treating its urban history),
> and that the music developed afterward, to support & encourage the dance.
>
> Others claim that the early city-dance was an import of the gauchos who
> moved into (or were at any rate nearby) the city outskirts, and who
> influenced the compadritos. And also that the gauchos had campfire
> dances, which skewed the (not from the Pampas) habanera into the
> earliest milongas.
>
> Others claim that the compadritos were mocking traditional (?) dances of
> the blacks.
>
> Others claim that the blacks were the original tango dancers.
>
> Then there's the whole brothel thing, which Borges said not many
> aficionados even believed.
>
> So how it started, and who gets the credit, is anyone's guess. The only
> verifiable fact seems to be that some schmucks took it to Europe, and
> that by the time it came back to Argentina, there were lower-class
> people dancing it "old-school," and bourgeois types learning it
> new-school Euro style.
>
> THEREFORE...
>
> Since the original export eventually became a different dance (aka
> Ballroom)...
> And since the re-import clashed with the pre-import, which hardly had a
> national character...
>
> ... the only viable conclusion, however you slice it, is that the first
> _inauthentic_ tango dancers were Argentine.
>
> According to each other, anyway.
>
> I hear the first exporters were idolized in Europe as the genuine
> article though.
>
> Spatz
> DC
>
>
> Konstantin Zahariev wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > It seems to me that the statements below need some significant qualifiers.
> >
> >
> > On 7/17/07, Amaury de Siqueira <amaurycdsf at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >> [...] Little does she know about the history of the dance.  That the
> >> Argentines on the turn of the last century condemned Tango (and disowning
> >> it)and the French welcomed with open arms.
> >>
> >
> >
> > That is not true on its face. A more accurate statement would be that
> > the _wealthy_ or high society Argentines (i.e. the ones that could
> > shape the discussion, the ones with the voice to be heard the loudest
> > and recorded) condemned tango (before the French accepted it). This is
> > not an insignificant detail. The working class Argentines created
> > tango and obviously embraced and liked tango from its beginning. I
> > don't think they were less Argentines than the upper class were.
> >
> >
> >
> >> That theTango is not an
> >> Argentine product, but the product of fusion between afro-Caribbean and
> >> European rhythms.
> >>
> >
> >
> > Rhythm is only one of several parts of a musical form though. Even so,
> > pre-1920 tangos borrowed the Cuban habanera rhythm pattern of
> > dotted-eight, sixteenth, eight, eight. However this pattern was
> > imported from the slaves in Haiti, and they were brought to Haiti from
> > West Africa. I do not know what European rhythms are referred to here
> > when we talk about tango (and not vals, for example), but in any case
> > the evidence shows that any syncopated rhythm pattern (one example is
> > the habanera pattern above) that was imported in "civilized" Europe
> > ultimately came from West African and other black people's drum lines.
> >
> > In fact the theory is that the habanera pattern came as a 3-2 rhythm
> > pattern (alternating or mixing 3-long and 2-long rhythm blocks is
> > something common in African drum lines) which was something
> > incomprehensible, with its implied 5/8 time signature, to western
> > Europe. So the sailors and others distorted the 3-long block and
> > shortened it to fit into a 2-long block, thus "straightening" the time
> > signature into a 2/4 or 4/8 and the pattern into the habanera pattern
> > mentioned above. The other consequence was that whenever songs had
> > accents or notes on all three eights of the original 3-long block,
> > this became a triplet (to fit into 2 eights). Habaneras are filled
> > with these triplets, as were very early tangos. See even Bizet's
> > Carmen - the famous habanera (which was really Sebastien Yradier's El
> > Arreglito habanera that Bizet borrowed thinking it was a folk tune.)
> >
> > I don't think all this rhythm genealogy business makes tango less
> > Argentine or somehow a derivative from Europe. The habanera rhythm
> > pattern is not tango.
> >
> > Rhythm aside, it was Argentines who took, at first, whatever portable
> > instruments they had, later the bandoneon and piano and violins of
> > different sizes, and created the musical form, and it was Argentines,
> > mostly immigrants from Italy and Spain, and others, who created the
> > dance form in conventillos.
> >
> > With best regards,
> >
> > Konstantin
> > Victoria, Canada
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Tango-L at mit.edu
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> >
> >
> >
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