Танго: История и культурные корни.

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Tango, a distinctive tango dance and the corresponding musical style of tango music, began in the working class port neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay); on both sides of the Rio de la Plata.

There are numbers of theories about the origin of the word "tango". One of the more popular in recent years has been that it came from the Niger–Congo languages of Africa. Another theory is that the word "tango", already in common use in Andalusia to describe a style of music, lent its name to a completely different style of music in Argentina and Uruguay.

The Tango derives from the Cuban habanera, the Argentine milonga and Uruguayan candombe, and is said to contain elements from the African community in Buenos Aires, influenced both by ancient African rhythms and the music from Europe. These African rhythms are thought to come from the candombe, which was characterized by energetic, "jerky" movements. Conversely, the milonga was a fusion of the Spanish Cuban habanera and the imported European polka. there are earlier written records of Tango dances in Cuba and Spain, while there is a flamenco Tangos dance that may share a common ancestor in a minuet style European dance. Initially tango was just one of the many dances practiced locally, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theatres and street barrel organs spread it from the suburbs to the working class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants. The development of Tango had influences from the cultures of several peoples that came together in these melting pots of ethnicities. For this reason Tango is often referred to as the music of the immigrants to Argentina. To attract immigrants, the Argentine government implemented various measures, such as offering free land, providing financial incentives, and establishing immigration agencies in Europe. It was in these arrabales that different marginalized groups converged while expressing themselves in dances. They frequently met in “tangos” where whites and people of color played music and danced together. Afro Argentines and the other working class populations were especially crucial in shaping the emergence of tango by combining the different influences, including the milonga, the condombe, payada.

At the beginning of its history, tango was looked down upon by the Argentine elites for a number of reasons. First of all, tango's associations with marginalized groups, especially the immigrants and people of African descent, who were considered lower class and uncivilized, made tango the dance form seem vulgar and immoral, thus unsuitable for respectable society. The elites also enoucraged the composers and lyricists to create less explicit tango music by adopting more traditional musical forms such as waltz. In 1917, folk singer Carlos Gardel recorded his first tango song Mi Noche Triste, forever associating tango with the feeling of tragic love as revealed in the lyric. During the first decade of the 20th century, some songs under the name of tango were recorded, but these recordings did not achieve great popularity. However, in 1921, 'El Sonido de la Milonga' helped bring about the rise of tango, and introduced it properly as a form to the people. Classically trained musicians weren't associated with tango music until Julio De Caro, violinist, formed an orchestra in 1920 and made the tango more elegant, complex and refined, as well as changing the time signature of most pieces from 2/4 to 4/4. With Pedro Laurenz on bandoneon, De Caro's orchestra was famous for over a decade. ), and that practice fell under the prohibition of public gatherings. One of the results was that rock and roll became more popular because it did not require males' gatherings. The dance lived on in smaller venues until its revival in the 1980s following the opening in Paris of the show Tango Argentino, The Broadway musical Forever Tango, and in Europe Tango Pasión. In Argentina this resurgence was largely fostered by Osvaldo Peredo.