History of the tango
Both a song and dance genre, the tango originated in the arrabales (slum areas) of Buenos Aires (Béhague 2007). Over time, what began with influences from folklore of the pampa came to represent a purely urban identity. The heavy influx of immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century dramatically changed the make-up of Buenos Aires’ population and had an undeniable effect on this shift from countryside to cityscape. Just as important, however, was the “great migration… from the interior of the country to its littoral, more urbanized regions” (Taylor 1976, 284). Taylor further explains:
this movement [from the interior to the capital city] and the links which it created between rural and urban areas and thus between rural and urban lore and customs offer important clues to the origins of the mentality of the hombre tanguero” (1976, 284).
The hombre tanguero (tango man) is a “true tango enthusiast” and the personification of “many of the sober, pessimistic traits of the Argentine” (Taylor 1976, 276-277). Taylor fleshes out the description of this man by quoting author Julio Mafud, who describes the hombre tanguero as a combination of various Argentinean archetypes. The most prominent of these is the compadrito, the hero (or as Taylor also describes him, the “anti-hero”) of the arrabales that evolved from the compadre, a gaucho known as a “great lover and fighter;” the compadrito, however, became, “not a defender of rights, but a bully, a robber, and at times a killer” (Taylor 1976, 276). Therefore, the compadrito has a darker side than the nobler compadre from the country, and is a symbol of how the tango made the change from being a rural import to being a part of the city’s identity. Even given their strong differences, their encounter is not as surprising as we might expect: the pampa was not always as far from the city as it is today and less than a century ago the plains stretched out into what is currently part of Buenos Aires (Taylor 1976, 275).
The integration of folklore elements from the countryside was not as strange as it might therefore seem. The two forms to most affect the birth of the tango were the payada and the milonga, both originally from the pampa. The payada was an improvised poetic form whose texts “frequently voiced social protest” while the milonga was a dance of African origin in duple meter and with a syncopated rhythm (“Tango,” www.grovemusic.com).
The acceptance of the tango by so many city dwellers is understandable, especially because the members of the newly founded nation were searching for a new identity. However, as we could expect, it was not accepted by all porteños. Since the tango is, more than anything, a symbol of social mobility (a move from countryside to capital city in the hopes of a better life), it did not appeal immediately to “upper-middle and upper-class Argentines since they feel that their social position has never been questioned at any time” (Taylor 1976, 284). In contrast, the immigrant living in Buenos Aires was often poor. In addition to a search for economic success, then, he also searched for social success – a new identity. For this very reason, he was open to a new form of expression such as the tango, especially one that spoke to his class struggle. Lunfardo, the street jargon used in many if not most tango lyrics, literally means “ladrón” or thief:
jerga de ladrones y gente del bajo fondo porteño que se extendió a la población orillera, que se la apropió gustosa y le incorporó nuevas voces y modismos, adaptándola al común de su expresión corriente. (Espíndola 2002, 291) [Translation: jargon of thieves and people of low funds (i.e. low class) in Buenos Aires that extended to the shoreside population, who appropriated it with gusto and incorporated new voices and idioms into it, adapting it to their own common expression.]
Since lunfardo is also the language of the compadrito, revered and romanticized in conjunction with tango lore, this manner of speaking became very popular. Lunfardo is currently touted as one of the main reasons why the spoken language of Argentina should be given a name besides “español” or “castellano.” Because its use is so widespread and an outsider would have a hard time understanding it, many have taken to calling it simply “idioma nacional” or national language (Castro 1961, 84). Because language is one of the elements that unites the people of a nation (see “Key Concepts”), having a particular form of language (or one altogether distinct from the original Spanish conquerors, as some might argue) such as lunfardo greatly helps to cement a feeling on national identity.
Musical form and characteristics of the tango
Early tangos had either a three-part or two-part form, the latter becoming more popular after 1915, but by 1955 three types of tango emerged (“Tango,” www.grovemusic.com). The first of these, the tango-milonga, was played by orchestra in popular venues; the tango-romanza was instrumental or vocal and also has a greater emphasis on melody and lyricism than does the tango-milonga; the third and most popular, the tango-canción, is a tango sung with instrumental accompaniment and became particularly popular during the 1930s (“Tango,” www.grovemusic.com).
The two-part tango was split into a rhythmic verse and a melodic chorus, often with a major-minor contrast between the two.