The Bandoneon in the Early Tango Orchestras

No musical instrument is associated with tango more closely than the bandoneon. However, in the early days of tango—before and at the time when the name orquesta típica for tango orchestras was introduced—a presence of a bandoneon in the performing group was not a given. If it was among the instruments, then most likely a single one; two bandoneons can be found only rarely.

The biography of Julio de Caro (1899-1980) sheds a light on the dissemination of the bandoneon in the first decade and a half of the twentieth century. Describing his childhood years in Buenos Aires, De Caro reports:

[Buenos Aires, Pasaje la] Defensa 1020: new residence. In front the music school and store; for a few, short years a magical place due to its stock of musical instruments which my father, the visionary, had enhanced with bandoneons—very rare then since they were brought only in small quantities by Max Epperlein from Germany.

Given such an event (which it was), our house—one of the few to exhibit them—became eye witness to a long parade of customers and interested persons, mainly by the “great fathers of tango” as this instrument was an indispensable element for them and, I repeat, very difficult to obtain.

As if in a dream, I recall names: [Enrique] Saborido, “Pacho” [Maglio], [José Bonano] “Pepino”, [Alfredo] Bevilacqua, [Angel] Villoldo, Rosendo [Mendizábal], [Ricardo] González (“Mochila”), [Domingo] Santa Cruz, Vicente Greco. Greco's tangos edited by Enrique Caviglia [Ediciones Mignon] (the first publisher to do so) sold dozens every day in my father's store, as [piano] scores for 0.10 cent. I took advantage of this lucky opportunity and “pried about” when a new piece was released. I remember once having appropriated two tangos (as contraband goods): “El Pibe”, which attracted me especially, and “El Morochito”. I learned them secretly—I do not remember how—with a sordine on the violin, memorized them, and then shelved them again without leaving the slightest trace of the theft: a deed that would have made proud Arsène Lupin.

It will be good to point out again that 50 years ago, tango—the “forbidden word” due to its low extraction—did not cross the threshold of respectable households and therefore, much less likely ours, the handiwork of classicism. The contact with it stopped with the commercial interchange.

(See the biography of Vicente Greco which contains an anecdote on that subject.)

From De Caro's biography of Vicente Greco:

He [Vicente Greco (1888-1924)] does not quit playing the other instruments [flute, piano, guitar] until he discovers by chance a box on the top of his parent's wardrobe. Opening it, he was astounded by an instrument unknown to him (words that Vicente reported to me).

He asks his mother what it is and to whom it belongs, to which she responds: “It is a concertina that was given to us by a befriended family”.

It is not surprising, knowing the predisposition of this young fellow, that enchantment immediately took hold of him. Taking possession of this instrument, he begins to cultivate it and within a month plays a waltz of Waldteufel, a polka, and a tango!

He studies day and night without letting go of the instrument that he considers his treasure, adding sounds from new songs.

The Discovery of the Bandoneon

People, astonished about such mastery, gather in the street to listen to him, and word spreads throughout the neighborhood. Attracted by the fame of this new performer, “El pardo” Sebastián Ramos Mejía arrives at the house of the Grecos and asks to hear him.

Foreseeing the “stuff” blossoming virtuoso he advises the parents to buy him a real bandoneon. It is obvious that he will excel on that instrument. Friends and family collect a common fund and after a long search, since the instrument was then very rare, the acquire the coveted instrument and bestow it on the child prodigy of 14 years.

It is still a matter of debate how the bandoneon, an instrument developed in the 1840s in Germany, came to and attracted the attention of musicians in Argentina. De Caro, son of an owner of a store for musical instruments, surely was a reliable witness to the fact that the instrument was not a common one in the first decade of the twentieth century. And from his account of the acquisition of Greco's first bandoneon, one can surmise that the purchase of such an instrument was a considerable expense—especially for families of humble means, like Greco's. In fact, bandoneons were expensive instruments, as the following newspaper advertisement of 1914 shows:

Of course, violins for $25 or guitars for $30 would not have been high quality instruments, but the initial investment, especially when one still learning to play the instrument, for a bandoneon is significantly higher. It is not surprising that the Greco family had to rely and friends and family to purchase an instrument for their talented youngster.

(© 2017 Wolfgang Freis)