[Tango-L] tango/milonga/tango

[Crrtango@aol.com]

As Astrid pointed out, tango goes back to habanera, some flamenco, milonga, 
etc and as Sergio also pointed out, it also evolved along the way from 
canyengue (basically an early form of tango) and rural dances. 
To answer 'mash's questions, one of the reason you don't have milongas of 
only milongas is that there may not be enough of them to fill an entire night. 
There are many more tangos proportionately.   And if so, it might get a little 
tedious week after week. One of the beauties of having three distinct dance 
forms is the variety offered during the night. I would personally get tired of 
dancing spirited, happy dances all night. Melancholy, sadness and romance are 
all part of tango. 
As to the origins, milonga did not directly evolve into tango, but in the 
early days there was often no distinction between the two, especially if the song 
was a upbeat one. If you happen to find any old sheet music (or photographs 
of them in books) you will see some of the early songs called tango/milongas. 
The rhythm that we associate with milonga evolved out of the combination of   
several sources like the milonga campera, candombe and tango and gradually 
evolved into the distinct beat that we now know. One very interesting example of 
the mixture is "Carnavalito" recorded by Lucio DeMare which almost literally 
layers a rural "country" or indigenous rhythm on top of a "city" rhythm. It 
almost sounds like two songs played simultaneously. Another example is the famous 
Villoldo song "El Porten~ito."   D'Arienzo and others play it as a tango but 
D'Agostino plays it as a milonga (it's listed as a tango/milonga on his CD). 
Nothing is ever purely black or white but the fact that we call the social 
dances "milongas" indicates how germane it is to the evolution of tango.

Cheers,
Charles


**************
Start the year off right.  Easy ways to stay in shape.
   
  http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489