[Tango-L] Argentine Tango III

[Konstantin Zahariev]

Dear Sergio,

I will try to get back to some of this when time permits. I am
familiar with these proxy arguments involving excerpts of indecent
lyrics and such, but uncomfortable with the large amount of
extrapolation and logical leaps required to get from A to B. It will
be nice to come up with a list of supposed primary sources, too, and
then examine those.

By the way, and without discussing anything seriously before I can get
to my materials,
just as an observation, I have never quite understood the logic of how
the existence of indecent lyrics (attached or not to tango music)
logically necessitates brothel/prostitution origin of tango
music/dancing.

At most it may indicate the mindset or world view (and this is really
pushing it) of the author, or 'poet'. I think practically every
culture has had indecent texts floating around, sometimes attached
post factum to decent songs, sometimes attached to previously songless
melodies, sometimes just being 'dirty' poems without music (not to
mention larger literary works). Are we going to claim they (or, even
more expansively, related art forms) must have had a brothel origin?
That has never made much logical sense to me, but then I have not
really thought too deeply about it, so perhaps someone else can
comment or suggest how these things connect logically.

Also, it would be nice if one would also check through Argentine folk
songs (like what the payadores would sing, for example) and other
literary works and determine if Argentina has had no indecent literary
works of any kind except in tango songs (why - because no one is
seriously claiming that folk dancing originated in brothels, for
example).

Sorry for the wordiness but there are so many questions with these
types of arguments..

With best regards,

Konstantin
Victoria, Canada


On 7/18/07, Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> What is known about tango history is due to several sources, in particular
> from the police records of Buenos aires and Montevideo dating from early
> 19th century when "Dances of Negroes" were regulated by the City Hall and
> frequently raided by the police. There are records dating 1808 forbidding
> Candombes and other dances of negroes.
[...]