[Tango-L] Origin of tango - Candombes

[Sergio Vandekier]

Around 1880, Gauchos (cowboys) that normally brought cattle to Buenos aires started to settle around the city.  
They brought with them,  their payadas and Milongas Camperas to the suburbs of the city. 
 
 Here they interacted with African slaves that had their own dances called Candombes.  The place where the Candombes took place Tambos or Tangos were called "Gathering place" or "Closed place" in their African language - They all interacted with dwellers of the periphery of the city of Aggressive Character called "Compadritos".  
 
>From the interaction of the Milonga, the Candombe and the Habanera (a dance brought by sailors from Cuba or from Spain by immigrants, plus the Tanguillo Español, ( a form of music and dance from Spain) Tango was born.  People started to use the word "Tango"in reference to the music and the dance that were being created.
 
The tango started as result of the Compadritos mockery of the black people's dances.   
 
The blacks danced separated as they did in africa but the compadritos danced with an embrace.
 
 Compadritos took the music and the dance to the brothels, where the dance was learned by men of middle class, or high class that patronized such places. These men eventually took the tango to Europe during their travels.
 
 
Small ensembles formed by flute, violin, and guitar gave the rural milonga a peculiar timbre that the first tangos would keep. These types of ensembles would also be present in the brothels, the gathering places of the compadritos, where the early tangos were first played. The tango’s features described above are characteristic of the period comprised between the tango’s origins and 1920. This period is also known as the age of the Guardia Vieja (Old Guard). During that time, the rural milonga survived as a countryside genre independent of the tango.
 
The characteristics of the rural milonga were present in the early tangos. El Choclo (1903) by angel Villoldo is a good example. El esquinazo, El porteñito, are other examples. They all sound like milongas.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdNahs2sCOY&feature=related   Example of Candombe from san Telmo.
 
Blacks used to imitate important personalities (members of the armed forces, doctors, judges,members of the government, etc) in their dress and movements during the "llamadas" to a candombe. most of the time they borrowed discarded clothes from their owners, tuxedos, top hats, imitation jewelry, decoration medals, etc. Here at the beginning there are two such characters imitating doctors.
 
Best regards,
 
Sergio
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