[Tango-L] The Time before Tango

[RonTango]

----- Original Message ----
> From: Trini y Sean (PATangoS) <patangos at yahoo.com>
> To: Tango-L <Tango-L at mit.edu>
> Sent: Wed, June 2, 2010 8:09:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Bachatango et al.
> 
> ... Somehow back in the sands 
> of time, someone decided to include vals and milongas along with tangos.  
> We might never know who started it, but it has proven popular and I bet it was 
> because they added a different rhythmic flavor to the night.  

In Buenos Aires, the birthplace of tango, near the end of the 19th century, there was milonga and there was the vals brought from Europe by immigrants, but there was no tango. The milonga developed from the habanera from Cuba and was also influenced by the polka and the mazurka from central Europe, as well as the African-Argentine candombe. Tango evolved in this environment in a from referred to as canyengue, which is no longer danced (except by a handful of revivalists who aren't even sure it's the real thing). The music 100 years ago was different - the old 'guardia vieja' style that had a faster tempo than what developed later in the 20s and 30s. We have few records of what the first 'milongas' were like, but they were undoubtedly very different from what we have today in terms of the music played and the way people danced.

In the golden age ti was common to have live music at milongas, with 2 orchestras, one playing tango, and the other playing something else, usually a mix of European and North American dance rhythms. (Check out some of the Rodriguez CDs labeled something like 'Bailando todos los ritmos' - a mix of polka, paso doble, jazz, etc.)

It is not exactly clear when the current custom of T-T-V-T-T-M with some sets of 'tropical' (typically cumbia), 'jazz' (basically Dixieland), rock 'n roll, chacarera, and paso doble came in (with the non tango sets making up less than 30% of the selections by law to be called a 'milonga'), but it has been this way the last 30 years, as far as I can tell. 

Ron