Tracing Tangueros - Chapter-1

What Makes It an Argentine Tango?
University Press Scholarship Online

Oxford Scholarship Online
Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango

Instrumental Music
Kacey Link and Kristin Wendland
Print publication date: 2016

Print ISBN-13: 9780199348220
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2016
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199348220.001.0001

Kacey Link
Kristin Wendland
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199348220.003.0002
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter establishes the fundamental musical elements

that define tango. It focuses on texture, accompanimental
rhythms, melody, instrumentation, form, and harmony. It
establishes a vocabulary for tango rhythmic techniques such
as marcato, sncopa, arrastre. It also establishes basic melodic
techniques, such as enlaces, rellenos, adornos, and
variaciones. Further, it describes the Argentine tangos typical
instrument, the bandonen.
Keywords: marcato, sncopa, arrastre, bandonen, instrumentation, musical

elements
The lessons of history and the conclusions of experts tell

us that two important elements must be present for a
Musical Genre to materialize: 1) a common human
Page 1 of 17
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feeling in a certain time and place, and 2) the labor of

those who mold that feeling into their compositions. If
we analyze the first point, we see how art, and in this
case music, is a consequence of the lifestyle of people
living in a specific place and time.
Horacio Salgn, Tango Course1
Tango Music
People always react when we tell them we work on Argentine
tango. Most light up with a look of passion, and one colleague
regularly strikes a dramatic ballroom tango pose. When people
are introduced to the world of Argentine tango music, they
have immediate responses. Years ago, when Wendland first
started dancing tango, she brought a highly respected music
theory colleague to a milonga in Atlanta. After quietly listening
to the music and watching the dancers, the colleague
summarized her first impression: It is like a memory.2 A few
years later, after Wendland began teaching her tango course,
one student voiced his first impression upon (p.24) hearing
3
the music by saying, Tango is sadness. Recently, Link was
discussing Argentine tango and its wide range of styles with
her neighbor, and after playing a handful of contemporary
Argentine tango videos, she asked the bottom-line question,
What makes it a tango? He quickly zeroed in on one primary
element by responding, Its the rhythm.4
Tango music developed on different paths as it radiated from

Argentina to Paris and beyond in the 1910s. As tango music
captivated the world abroad, many of the distinguishing
Argentine features were washed out in its exported form. Most
composers outside of Argentina simply appropriate basic
tango elements in their own work, like the generic milonga
rhythm heard in Tango Jalousie ( WL 5). The art tango
works in Yvar Mikhashoffs (19411993) International Tango
Collection (1983) also incorporate some basic stylized musical
gestures of the tango style born in Argentina one hundred
years ago, like a steady marching or syncopated rhythm.5
While some Argentine tangos have secured a place in the
foreigners ear through stylized arrangements heard in
Hollywood films and Pops concerts, such as the famous La
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cumparsita6 and Por una cabeza,7 these American versions

tend to stereotype tango musical elements, especially rhythm,
and wash out the original Argentine style.
In its native land, tango music has not only maintained its
original characteristics as it has developed over the last
century but has actually crystallized these definitive musical
traits. However, what makes Argentine tango music so
distinctive from tango outside of Argentina? This chapter
establishes broad answers to this question. We provide here a
basic Tango 101 to outline the musical elements that define
Argentine tango, such as driving rhythmic forces and distinct
melodic styles. In defining these and other musical elements
that make it an Argentine tango, including texture,
instrumentation, harmony, and form, we follow standard
names, terms, (p.25) and models of how tangueros themselves
define these elements. We discuss these elements through the
following works: Comme il faut ( WL 1.1), El choclo (
WA 1.1), A fuego lento, Danzarn, La cumparsita, La
trampera, Libertango, Maipo, Malena, Mal de
amores, Milonga del ngel, Nostalgias, Por una cabeza,
Qu solo estoy, Recuerdo, Romance de barrio, and Si
soy as ( WL 1.2). Then, the remaining chapters of this book
provide discussion and analysis of how these distinct features
have played out in composition, performance, and arranging
practice over the art forms historical and stylistic trajectory.
Tango Instrumentation
Specific instrumental colors of Argentine tango ensembles
define the musical sound. While early tango ensembles often
included guitar, flute, violin, and bandonen, the standard
orquesta tpica criolla (typical creole (p.26) orchestra)8
established in the 1920s by the school of Julio De Caro
consisted of two violins, two bandoneones, piano, and double
bass. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the standard sextet
expanded to include an entire string section of up to four
violins, perhaps viola and cello, and a fila (line) of four or more
bandoneones, as in the orchestra of Pugliese. Toward the late
1950s and early 1960s, tango ensembles reduced in size, most
notably to the 1960 quintet configurations of Piazzolla and
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Salgn, consisting of bandonen, violin, guitar (acoustic or

electric), piano, and bass. Tangueros today in Buenos Aires
draw on the rich instrumental tradition of the various tango
ensemble configurations over the past century. Ensembles
may include wind instruments, such as flute in Ral Garellos
sextet, saxophone in Bernardo Monks ensembles, and bass
clarinet in Nicols Guerschbergs sextet and the newly
reformed Orquesta de Salgn. Some tangueros form more
novel ensembles, such as the classical string quartet Cuerdas
poptemporaneas (play on words for contemporary/pop strings)
of Bolotin and even trombone and percussion instruments in
Possettis sextet.
The
Bandonen
The
bandonen (
WP 1.1)
alone evokes
the essence of
Argentine
tango in a
listeners ear.
Originally
used as a
portable Photo 1.1. Julio De Caro Sextet, c. 1926
organ in 1928. Clockwise from left: Emilio De
German Caro, violin; Armando Blasco, bandonen;
parish Vincent Sciarretta, bass; Francisco De
churches Caro, piano; Julio De Caro, violin-cornet;
during the and Pedro Laurenz, bandonen.
mid- Undated photo from the Archivo General
nineteenth de la Nacin, Dpto. Doc. Fotogrficos,
century, this Buenos Aires, Argentina, #71339_A.
free-reed Used by permission.
concertina
probably
made its way
to Argentina on an immigrant ship around the turn of the
twentieth century. It gradually replaced the flute in tango
ensembles,9 and by the 1930s and 1940s, bandonen sections
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were staples of tango orchestras. During these two decades,

the German luthier Alfred Arnold produced and exported the
instrument to Argentina to supply the high demand (his
instruments are referred to as doble A for his initials), but then
production ceased during World War II as his factory was
converted for the German war effort. A devilishly difficult
instrument to play, the bandonen has seventy-one buttons,
thirty-eight on the treble-range right side and thirty-three on
the bass-range left side. With a pitch range from C2 to B6, the
keys are scattered in pitch order, and most of them change
pitches on the keyboard between opening and closing the
bellows. Thus, a player must learn four keyboard patterns, two
for each hand. In Web Video 1.1 , Nicols Enrich (p.27)
demonstrates and explains the basic techniques and

mechanics of playing the bandonen.
Yeites
Surely the most unique way the instruments are used to color
the musical palette in tango is the standard body of extended
techniques and percussive effects tangueros often refer to as
yeites (colloquially translated as licks, and a term we adopt
throughout this book). Heard in varying degrees of weight and
frequency in tango music throughout its history, these
techniques have become a defining feature of Argentine tango
instrumental style. Since tango yeites entail such precise
performance skills and techniques, we explain and illustrate
them in more detail in chapter 3.
Tango Texture and Instrumental Roles

Like other popular music genres, tango musical texture is
predominantly melody and accompaniment. The role each
particular instrument plays in the texture points to another
crucial aspect of what makes it a tango. Generally, the violins
and bandoneones carry the melody in the instrumental
narrative, while the piano and bass provide the harmonic and
rhythmic accompaniment. Naturally, these are not hard-and-
fast roles, and melody and accompaniment may cross over
between instrumental groups and solos. With its warm,
melancholy tone and its ability to project a strong, forceful
sound, the bandonen may function in melodic, rhythmic, or
harmonic roles. The violins may also assume an
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accompanimental role as they balance and complement the

bandoneones. At times, the two sections may double each
other, or they may trade melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic
roles. While the piano left hand and the bass typically double
each other in the rhythm section, the piano may also take on
melodic and solo passages.
Although our study focuses on tango instrumental music, we

must acknowledge how the popular music genre grew from
song and its inherent melody and accompaniment texture. As
in many other styles of music, the organic process of
transferring vocal to instrumental melodic interpretation
occurs in tango, whether in an instrumental arrangement of a
tango cancin or in a purely instrumental composition. All of
the musical examples discussed next illustrate the primacy of
the tango melody/accompaniment texture.
(p.28) Tango Meter and Rhythm

Tango Meter
As the tango genre developed, it separated into three distinct
musical characters that tangueros refer to as the tres ritmos
(literally three rhythms, but referencing three meter types),
namely, tango, milonga, and vals (waltz). Tango in general
slowed down from quick early pieces in like Arolass

recording of the famous tango El choclo to a slower meter in
4, such as Malena. The milonga, the main precursor to the
tango, continued to develop on its own parallel path as it
retained the characteristic dotted rhythm within the fast and
slow tempo types. The milonga ciudadana in meter matured

into such lively works as La trampera. The slower milonga
campera developed into the expressive milonga lenta typically
in 4, like Milonga del ngel. The vals in became especially

popular in Buenos Aires during the 1940s, perhaps the result
of gentrifying the tango genre with European dance forms.
With its light spirit and fast tempo, the vals lends itself to
continuous movements and turns in the dance, as opposed to
dramatic pauses in the slower tango, such as Romance de
barrio.
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Tango Accompanimental Rhythms

As the dotted milonga rhythm (see Introduction Example I.1)
transferred to Argentine tango in the early twentieth century,
fast pieces were often titled Tango Milonga. For example,
the cover to the sheet music of Boedo by De Caro uses this
term. The accompaniment pattern in these early tangos
typically outlined arpeggios of the harmony in the
characteristic milonga rhythm, as illustrated by the piano
score of El choclo ( WE 1.5a) and the 1913 recording by
Arolas ( WA 1.1).
While the milonga rhythm remained a prominently fixed

element in the milonga, it fell away in tango itself. Two more
fluid and exaggerated patterns replaced it to define Argentine
tango rhythm, namely, marcato and sncopa. The most basic
marcato in 4 literally marks the beat, although styles of
accentuation, register, and articulation vary according to the
instrumentation and ensemble. Example 1.1 illustrates a
possible marcato piano accompaniment in for the first eight

measures of El choclo, and the Canaro recording clearly
articulates such a steady, pulsing accompaniment in the
orchestra.
As its name
suggests, the
other basic
Example 1.1. El choclo by Villoldo, mm.

1-4, with marcato piano accompaniment,
arr. Wendland.
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accompanimental rhythmic figure in tango, sncopa, is a

syncopated pattern. Among its many variations, the three
basic types may begin a tierra (squarely on the downbeat of a
measure, Example 1.2a), anticipada a tierra
(anticipated in the preceding (p.29) measure on the weak part
of beat 4 but the harmony still arrives on the downbeat,
Example 1.2b), and anticipada and contratiempo
(anticipated in the preceding measure on the weak part of
beat 4 with the arrival of the harmony shifted to the weak part
of beat 1, Example 1.2c). In any of these three cases, the
syncopation stabilizes on the next strong beat, typically
articulated with a tenuto.
Arrastre
Either of the
two basic
Example 1.2. Sncopa accompanimental

rhythms.
accompanimental rhythms, marcato and sncopa, may be

preceded by an anticipatory sliding instrumental technique
called (p.30) arrastre (from the Spanish verb arrastrar,
meaning to drag). Tangueros often describe this
embellishment as the fundamental recurso (literally
resource, but tangueros use this general term to include all
distinctive tango compositional, arranging, and performing
techniques)10 that gives tango its distinctive swing. Arrastre
further accentuates tango accompaniment by creating an
aural impression of yearning and striving as the music drags
to the downbeat while at the same time providing forceful
rhythmic momentum toward the punctuated arrival of the
downbeat.11 Example 1.3 illustrates a typical tango bass line
using three common methods for notating arrastre. The first
(Example 1.3a), and probably most common, simply uses a
glissando line (not the written indication of the word) to
connect an upbeat to a downbeat; the second (Example 1.3b)
notates appoggiaturas; and the third (Example 1.3c) notates a
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sixteenth-note chromatic upbeat leading to a downbeat in a

sncopa pattern. This notated chromatic arrastre, used
especially by Piazzolla and later tangueros, may use two, four,
or even a quintuplet of sixteenth notes.12 De Caros sextet
version of Maipo illustrates the distinctive sonic effect in the
opening melody played by the strings.
Bordoneo,
Milongeo, and
3-3-2
The stock Example 1.3. Three types of notated
habanera arrastre.
rhythm
inherent in
early tango and the milonga took another important path in
the tango genre as it developed through bass lines and their
elaborations, also called bordoneos referring to the three low
bass strings of the guitar called la bordona, from the milonga
campera. One typical (p.31) syncopated bordoneo pattern
emphasizes a rising gesture from 1 to 6 and descends to 5 in
minor keys ( WE 1.1a). This bass line is typically combined
with an arpeggio fill above, and it is called milongueo when a
tango shifts from regular marcato or sncopa to this more
rural sound ( WE 1.1b).13
This early guitar syncopated bass-line pattern in the milonga

campera further developed into another key rhythmic design
in tango known as 3-3-2.14 In tango accompaniment, the 3-3-2
pattern in time is articulated in eighth-note groupings in

each measure by a dotted quarter note (3), the eighth note
tied to the quarter note (3), and the quarter note on beat 4 (2)
( WE. 1.2a). The pattern became Piazzollas signature
rhythm ( WE 1.2b) as a faster accented meta-rhythm,15 such
as in his famous Libertango. While this fundamental tango
rhythm is widely associated with the music of Piazzolla and his
tanguero descendants, it is heard throughout all periods of
Argentine tango music. For example, as early as the 1920s, De
Caros sextet performance of Mal de amores pulsates the
rhythm percussively to accompany the melody in the
bandoneones in the first phrase of the second section. While
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perhaps most obvious in the accompaniment, the 3-3-2 rhythm

is also embedded in many tango melodies. In both the early
Comme il faut and the later Danzarn, the respective
composers Arolas and Plaza create 3-3-2 sixteenth-note
groupings through repetition and articulation ( WE 1.2c and
1.2d).
Tango Anacrusis
Many tango phrases begin with an anacrusis (upbeat), which
defines one of the genres most distinctive features of meter
and rhythm. This pervasive and idiosyncratic upbeat-downbeat
metric feature manifests both in melody and bass lines, and it
is typically coupled with a weak-strong harmonic motion, such
as V-I. While this phenomenon will be pointed out throughout
this book, Web Example 1.3 illustrates some of the
anacrusis rhythms that occur in both melodies and bass lines.
(p.32)
Tango Melody
Tango Melodic Styles
Melody reigns supreme in tango texture, and it falls into two
broad contrasting styles. One, uniformly called rtmico
(rhythmic) by tangueros, features two- and three-note groups
sharply articulated by accents, staccatos, and neighbor tone
(NT) ornaments. The motive-driven phrases are metronomic
and measured with regular subdivisions of the beat in simple
meter, although the rhythm is usually quite syncopated (not to
be confused with the term sncopa, which refers to the distinct
syncopated accompanimental rhythm). Both Comme il faut
and Danzarn exemplify this style.
The contrasting smooth, flowing, and lyrical melodic style has

a number of names among tangueros, including cantando
(singing), meldico (melodic), ligado (legato, or smooth and
connected), and expresivo (expressive). We prefer to use the
term cantando to describe this more singing and legato style.
It employs a rhythmic technique called fraseo (meaning
phrasing, as distinct from frase, meaning phrase) that
treats the melody in a flexible, elastic, and loose rhythmic
manner relative to the beat. Like the swing in jazz, where a
musician plays two notated eighth notes as a softer triplet
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figure, a tango musician also knows a code to interpret four
squarely notated eighth notes in (or four sixteenth notes in
) with its own swing. In the two most basic forms of fraseo,
four eighth notes become either a syncopated figure or a
triplet figure (Example 1.4). In either case, it is important to
understand that fraseo does not mean rubato. The steady beat
remains intact, and the fraseo creates an elastic internal flow
that pushes forward to the next downbeat (see chapter 3).
Tango Melodic
Codes
Like their Tin
Pan Alley Example 1.4. Two of types of notated
counterparts versus performed fraseo in cantando
who forged a melodic style.
distinctive
popular music
style nearly a
century ago in the United States, tangueros in Argentina
synthesized some musical elements from their old world
heritage into tango. Many of these tangueros were first-
generation Italians, and their legacy of bel canto lyricism
refined the Argentine speechlike payador melodic (p.33)
tradition. Certain classical music melodic figures permeate

Argentine tango melodies. One of the most poignant is the
linear 5-6-5 figure, such as the opening six notes in the melody
of El choclo (Example 1.1) that hover around A and B. The
bordoneo pattern ( WE 1.1a) also incorporates this melodic
figure in the bass line.
For centuries, this descending 6-5 half-step figure in a minor

key has signified a musical lament, often in association with
texts that express grief and sadness.16 This musical code fits
naturally in tango, since many lyrics deal with lifes tragedies
and dramas. In addition to Mi noche triste and Nostalgias
mentioned in the introduction, Malena paints a sad portrayal
of a milonguita who has the pain of the bandonen.
Discpolos famous definition of tango as a sad thought that
is danced aptly describes its essential tristeza (sadness), and
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the lament figure captures this sadness in sound. One

poignant example of this musical lament portraying tangos
tristeza appears in Qu solo estoy, where the haunting
melody falls and rises around the half-step figure 6-5 (A-G), as
the words express feelings of lost love.
Tango Melodic Embellishments

Both types of tango melodies utilize adornos (ornaments),
many of which are familiar from baroque and classical
performance practice. Rtmico melodies especially feature
appoggiaturas, turns, mordents, trills, and octave grace notes
within their short rhythmic cells, as in Danzarn ( WE
1.2d), El choclo ( WE 1.5a), and A fuego lento ( WE
1.5d). Also similar to instrumental ornaments from classical
music, many tango melodic embellishments like portamentos
and slides in cantando melodies originate in tango vocal
practice. For example, in his recording of Qu solo estoy,
singer Ral Bern subtly slides between the notes of the rising
leap D to A on the word perda (lost) and even more
dramatically later in the song on the descending fifth that sets
the word solo (alone).
Tango Variations
The variaciones (variations) are another key melodic feature
that makes it a tango. Typically played by bandonen solo or
soli at the end of a tango, the variations reiterate the main
melody within the original phrase and (p.34) harmonic
framework, but embellished with running passagework
(sixteenth notes in or thirty-second notes in ). Some of

these cadenzalike finales were written by the composer of the
tango, such as Laurenzs Mal de amores and Puglieses
Recuerdo. Other variations have been added to original
tangos by arrangers, such as Luis Stazos 1958 arrangement
of Tres esquinas (see chapter 3 for more details about this
arrangement).
Tango Harmony
Typical for a popular music genre, tango harmony draws on
the functional major-minor tonal system. Yet, the development
of tango harmony also parallels other popular music styles
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from the same time period, such as jazz and American popular
songs. Early tangos like El choclo typically center on the
tonal pillars of tonic, dominant, and subdominant chords in a
slow harmonic rhythm ( WE 1.5a). Later tangos in the 1930s
and 1940s contain expanded and refined harmonic language
to include chromatic bass lines, such as in the opening of both
Qu solo estoy ( WE 1.4) and Nostalgias ( WE 1.5b).
One chromatic progression that retains tangos tristeza
signified by a descending half step in the bass is the sound of a
German augmented sixth chord moving to the dominant chord.
Tangueros typically spell this chord derived from classical
harmony enharmonically as VI7, and they usually call it an
apoyatura. (Since most readers are probably more familiar
with the common names and sounds of specific augmented
sixth chords, we will use the names Italian, German, and
French for the sake of clarity and consistency [see chapter 3
for further discussion of the name and treatment of the
apoyatura].) It typically precedes the dominant at cadences,
such as in the B section of Sur ( WE 1.5c). Since the
1950s, tangueros have incorporated more chromatic
harmonies and jazz-influenced extended chords within an
essentially functional diatonic framework, such as Salgns A
fuego lento ( WE 1.5d). While some modern tango
composers have pushed beyond the limits of common-practice
tonality to include nonfunctional tonal harmonies and even
post-tonal sounds, these exceptional practices lie outside the
standard harmonic character of the tango genre.
Tango Form
Tango Large-Scale Form
Certain formal designs, both on the level of large-scale
sections and small-scale phrases, also characterize tango
music. Early tangos often employed (p.35) European classical
structures in three-part forms with corresponding contrasting
key schemes. Since many tangos are in minor keys, a typical
contrasting B section and trio move to the relative or parallel
major key, as in many classical structures. The key scheme for
these sections in El choclo provides a typical example,
where the A section is in D minor (Example 1.1), the B section
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moves to the relative F major ( WE 1.6a), and the trio is in

the parallel D major ( WE 1.6b).
Sectional designs of later tangos from the 1940s and 1950s

typically feature formal structures of two contrasting parts,
cast in either binary form, such as Qu solo estoy, or da capo
ternary structure, such as Malena. Later tango composers
refined three-part ABA structures to include recomposed or
varied returns, such as Salgn in his A fuego lento and Plaza
in his Danzarn. As with experimental harmonies, some
modern tango composers have pushed beyond formal norms to
utilize more complex structures, such as Piazzolla in his
contrapuntal Fugata (see chapter 5, Piazzolla case study).
Tango Phrase and Period Structure

Like most popular music styles, tango phrases tend to fall into
two-, four-, and eight-bar groups in classical antecedent-
consequent or sentence structure to form eight- or sixteen-bar
periods. Again, El choclo provides a classic example where
the first eight-bar period divides into two 4-bar phrases in
antecedent-consequent relationship ( WE 5.1a). Later tangos
in the 1930s and 1940s follow the aaba phrase design found in
so many Tin Pan Alley popular songs from the same period.
While the A section of Si soy as sets up this design in
straightforward four-bar phrases, the A section of Malena
expands the design to an aabaa structure in regular four-bar
groups ( WE 1.7).
Finally, one of the true hallmarks of Argentine tango is the

resounding cadential tag following the end of the final phrase.
It uses a V-I chord progression with scale steps 5-1 in the top
line. Tango musicians, critics, and aficionados refer to it as the
finale, or chan-chan for the onomatopoeia of the two sharply
articulated chords.17 In performance practice, this practically
obligatory final flourish typically accents the dominant while
downplaying the last tonic chord, as articulated in the Stazo
arrangement of Tres esquinas ( WE 1.8).
Notes:
(1.) Las enseanzas de la historia y las conclusiones de los
estudiosos nos dicen que dos elementos vitals deben estar
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presentes para que cristalice un Gnero Musical: 1) El sentir

de un grupo humano, en un lugar y en un tiempo
determinados, y 2) La labor de los creadores que plasmen en
su obra lo dicho en el punto uno. Ahora bien, si analizamos el
primer punto, veremos que las obras artsticas, y en este caso
la msica, son un reflejo, una consecuencia de la manera de
vivir de un grupo humano situado en un lugar y un tiempo
determinados. Horacio Salgn, Curso de Tango/Tango Course
(Buenos Aires: Pablo J. Polidoro, 2001), 29.
(2.) Severine Neff, in discussion with Kristin Wendland,

Atlanta, GA, 2002.
(3.) Spanish 309, Contemporary Arts and Culture in

Argentina, Tango: Argentinas Art Form in Body, Mind, and
Spirit, Emory University Study Abroad Program, class
discussion, Buenos Aires, 2006.
(4.) Grard Pigeon, in discussion with Kacey Link, Santa

Barbara, CA, 2014.
(5.) For further information about these pieces, see Kristin

Wendland, The Allure of Tango: Grafting Traditional
Performance Practice and Style onto Art-Tangos, College
Music Symposium 47 (2007): 111, and Oscar Macchioni, The
Tango in American Piano Music: Selected Tangos by Thomson,
Copland, Barber, Jaggard, Biscardi, and Bolcom (Missoula,
MT: College Music Society, 2010).
(6.) Heard in such films as Some Like It Hot (Wilder, 1959) and
Anchors Aweigh (Sidney, 1945).
(7.) Heard in such films as Scent of a Woman (Brest, 1992),

True Lies (Cameron, 1994), and Schindlers List (Spielberg,
1993), and in the 1997 Boston Pops concert with Itzhak
Perlman, violin, and John Williams, conductor. Perlman also
recorded it with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on
Cinema Serenade, SONY 63005, 1997, CD.
(8.) The literal English translation of orquesta tpica criolla

does not quite capture the essence of the term, which signifies
the standard Argentine tango ensemble.
Page 15 of 17
(9.) Luis Adolfo Sierra, Historia de la orquesta tpica: evolucin

instrumental del tango (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1966,
reprinted 1984), 44.
(10.) For example, Salgn states: Various elements and

resources [in Spanish, recursos] have been incorporated into
the tango that help emphasize its rhythmic and expressive
attributes. Salgn, Curso de Tango/Tango Course, 40.
(11.) See also Thompsons reference to tango bassist Igancio

Varchauskys description of arrastre and how it creates a
feeling of expectation and desire. Thompson, Tango: The Art
History of Love, 183.
(12.) According to Alejandro Drago, this pattern is known

generically among tango musicians as cromtico
(chromatic). Drago, Instrumental Tango Idioms in the
Symphonic Works and Orchestral Arrangements of Astor
Piazzolla. Performance and Notational Problems: A
Conductors Perspective (DMA document, University of
Southern Mississippi, 2008), 77.
(13.) Julin Graciano, email message to authors, August 19,

2014.
(14.) The 3-3-2 rhythmic grouping found in other Latin

American music genres, such as the clave rhythm in Cuban
son, is sometimes referred to as a tresillo. In Argentina,
however, tangueros simply call this rhythm 3-3-2.
(15.) Edgardo Rodrguez, a composer, theorist, and guitarist at

the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, discussed the idea of
3-3-2 as a singular rhythmic unit with Wendland during one of
their many musical discussions in cafs in Buenos Aires,
complete with diagrams on little paper napkins!
(16.) Raymond Monelle traces the lament (pianto), a weeping,

descending, half-step motive, back to late sixteenth-century
Italian-style madrigals. Monelle, The Sense of Music: Semiotic
Essays (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 67
68.
Page 16 of 17
(17.) While the authors have heard the term chan-chan used
by many tangueros in Buenos Aires, they believe Oscar
Macchioni is the first scholar to put this term in English print
with a musical example. Macchioni, The Tango in American
Piano Music, 15. Thompson theorizes that the tango chan-
chan came from a blending of two Kongo rhythmic sounds
rendered in speech as tshia-tshia and sya-sya. Thompson,
Tango: The Art History of Love, 90.
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What Makes It an Argentine Tango?

University Press Scholarship Online

Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango

Print publication date: 2016

What Makes It an Argentine Tango?

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter establishes the fundamental musical elements

Keywords: marcato, sncopa, arrastre, bandonen, instrumentation, musical

The lessons of history and the conclusions of experts tell

feeling in a certain time and place, and 2) the labor of

Horacio Salgn, Tango Course1

Tango music developed on different paths as it radiated from

cumparsita6 and Por una cabeza,7 these American versions

Salgn, consisting of bandonen, violin, guitar (acoustic or

were staples of tango orchestras. During these two decades,

demonstrates and explains the basic techniques and

Tango Texture and Instrumental Roles

accompanimental role as they balance and complement the

Although our study focuses on tango instrumental music, we

(p.28) Tango Meter and Rhythm

slowed down from quick early pieces in like Arolass

slow tempo types. The milonga ciudadana in meter matured

in 4, like Milonga del ngel. The vals in became especially

Tango Accompanimental Rhythms

While the milonga rhythm remained a prominently fixed

possible marcato piano accompaniment in for the first eight

Example 1.1. El choclo by Villoldo, mm.

accompanimental rhythmic figure in tango, sncopa, is a

Example 1.2. Sncopa accompanimental

accompanimental rhythms, marcato and sncopa, may be

sixteenth-note chromatic upbeat leading to a downbeat in a

This early guitar syncopated bass-line pattern in the milonga

pattern in time is articulated in eighth-note groupings in

perhaps most obvious in the accompaniment, the 3-3-2 rhythm

The contrasting smooth, flowing, and lyrical melodic style has

figure, a tango musician also knows a code to interpret four

squarely notated eighth notes in (or four sixteenth notes in

tradition. Certain classical music melodic figures permeate

For centuries, this descending 6-5 half-step figure in a minor

the lament figure captures this sadness in sound. One

Tango Melodic Embellishments

(sixteenth notes in or thirty-second notes in ). Some of

moves to the relative F major ( WE 1.6a), and the trio is in

Sectional designs of later tangos from the 1940s and 1950s

Tango Phrase and Period Structure

Finally, one of the true hallmarks of Argentine tango is the

presentes para que cristalice un Gnero Musical: 1) El sentir

(2.) Severine Neff, in discussion with Kristin Wendland,

(3.) Spanish 309, Contemporary Arts and Culture in

(4.) Grard Pigeon, in discussion with Kacey Link, Santa

(5.) For further information about these pieces, see Kristin

(7.) Heard in such films as Scent of a Woman (Brest, 1992),

(8.) The literal English translation of orquesta tpica criolla

(9.) Luis Adolfo Sierra, Historia de la orquesta tpica: evolucin

(10.) For example, Salgn states: Various elements and

(11.) See also Thompsons reference to tango bassist Igancio

(12.) According to Alejandro Drago, this pattern is known

(13.) Julin Graciano, email message to authors, August 19,

(14.) The 3-3-2 rhythmic grouping found in other Latin

(15.) Edgardo Rodrguez, a composer, theorist, and guitarist at

(16.) Raymond Monelle traces the lament (pianto), a weeping,

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