Tango or Milonga?

Among compositions written during the early part of tango history, there exist a number of pieces that have been recorded by later tango orchestras as both tangos and milongas. The different versions of some pieces will sound familiar to the experienced tango dancer, perhaps without realizing that these tangos are danced today in two different ways. Or, it may instead come as a surprise that another version exists, not to be danced the way it is customarily done today.

A striking example is El Porteñito by Ángel Villoldo (1861-1919), which most tango dancers will know as a milonga performed by the orchestra of Ángel D'Agostino, sung by Ángel Vargas. Yet, one can also hear it performed as a tango by the orchestra of Juan D'Arienzo and—less frequently—by the Orquesta Típica Victor, Canaro's Quinteto Pirincho, and Adolfo Pérez. Villoldo himself defined El Porteñito a “tango criollo”, not a milonga. In fact, Villoldo composed hardly any milongas, and those have little in common with milongas as we understand them today. The largest part of his output consists of tangos—tangos with a variety of attributes besides “criollo”: “argentino”, “nacional”, “milonga”. Later tango orchestras recorded these pieces generally one way or another. For example, the “tango milonga” El Esquinazo and the “tango criollo” El Torito were usually recorded as milongas, and the “tango criollo” La Morocha as a tango. D'Arienzo arranged the “tango argentino” Bolada de aficionado as a milonga, but the “tango criollo” Yunta brava he played as a tango.

We repeat: The composer labeled all these pieces tangos. It will not concern us here why orchestras chose to perform the pieces one way or another. We simply accept it as a historic fact. We will suggest, however, that the variant interpretations evince a conceptual change of tango and milonga within the first four decades of the twentieth century. We focus on compositions by Villoldo—the “numen of our [Argentinian] popular music” (Francisco Canaro)—because they were and still are widely known and his œuvre provides an ample source of examples. The argument presented below applies to the work of other composers as well.

1. A Modern View of “Tango” and “Milonga”

Today, tango is almost exclusively regarded as dance music. From that perspective, the milonga is distinguished from tango by having a faster tempo and by having a continuous rhythmic foundation. The rhythmic foundation is provided by a distinct rhythm that originated from the Cuban “habanera”.

It is this rhythm that forms the link between Villoldo's tango compositions and their later arrangements as milongas. While the distinction of a milonga employing the habanera and a tango not using it holds true for tango music from the 1930s on, this cannot be said of pieces written during the first two decades of the twentieth century. During that period, tangos used the habanera rhythm for rhythmic accompaniment as well.

As an example, we have extracted the lower part of a piano score of Villoldo's “tango criollo” Don Pedro, which shows a use of the habanera rhythm that is very similar to what one might expect of a milonga. The tango consists of three sections (indicated as A, B, C, respectively) that are played in the example without the customary repetitions.

Villoldo, Don Pedro, excerpt, slow

The habanera rhythm is prevalent throughout the piece. The only difference to a milonga is the slow tempo. Were we to speed up the tempo, the “tango criollo” could easily be danced as a milonga:

Villoldo, Don Pedro, excerpt, fast

Is a milonga, then, simply a fast tango with the habanera rhythm as an accompaniment figure? For many milongas of the 1930s and 1940s, such a description would hold true. But, as we have pointed out already, some twenty years earlier, the distinction based on the habanera rhythm could not have been made. The rhythm was then prevailing in tangos as well. Furthermore, it turns out that in the early days of tango, the word “milonga” was commonly associated with poetry and song rather than with dance music or a specific dance.

2. “Criollo” Music

The development of tango runs parallel—luckily—to the development of music recording. At the beginning of the 20^th century, Argentina did not have a music recording industry. However, foreign companies from the United States and Europe sent engineers to Buenos Aires who recorded local musicians. These recordings were sent back to the factories in the US or Europe and manufactured into records. The recording companies then shipped the records (together with other recordings from their inventory) back to be sold in Argentina.

In order to distinguish Argentinian recordings from foreign ones, the former were customarily referred to as the “repertorio criollo”. The adjective “criollo” was employed to identify music pieces and genres that originated in Argentina or the countries of the River Plate region. Tango and milonga were part of this body of “native” music, which included a great number of song (estilo, décima, vidalita, triste, etc.) and dance forms (pericón, gato, zamba, chacarera, etc.).

Before the advent of radio in Argentina, the larger record companies advertised their new releases in newspapers and magazines. While advertisements are not sales records or stock lists, they do give an insight into what kind of music the orchestras played and was listened to by the audience. At the very least, music record advertisement shows what kind of music the recording companies thought would resonate with their customers. The following advertisement of the North-American record company Victor, published in November 1906 for records to be sold at the Cassels department store in Buenos Aires, announces the arrival of a “new criollo catalog” that had been recorded three months earlier.

Advertisement Cassels & Co., Buenos Aires, 1906

The total list of more than 140 pieces consists of “songs, recitations, tangos, national arias, orchestra and [wind] band pieces, etc.”. Milongas are not mentioned; but there is one tango in the itemized list: Villoldo's El Porteñito, sung by Mrs. de Campos to the accompaniment of an orchestra. There is no particular mention of dance music, but songs and pieces performed by bands and orchestras could, of course, include dances.

A more extensive and detailed list—also by Victor—is given in the following advertisement of the Casa Lepage of Max Glücksmann, published in 1909. Glücksmann was a key figure in the development of film and music in Argentina. He had acquired Casa Lepage, the company of his former employer, in the preceding year. Like no other, he saw the business potential for “criollo” products and was instrumental in the promotion of tango. (In a later interview, he stated that he was very proud of having made three men very rich: Roberto Firpo, Francisco Canaro, and Carlos Gardel.)

Advertisement Casa Lepage of Max Glücksmann, Buenos Aires, 1909

Like the advertisement of 1906, the list consists largely of vocal music (30 double-sided records). The largest group of pieces is made up of songs accompanied by guitar (24 pieces). Among “estilos”, “décimas”, etc. there is also one milonga, El Perro, sung by a “payador” (itinerant singer).

Moreover, the list includes also 13 tangos. Three are sung with orchestra accompaniment by Alfredo Gobbi (Villoldo's El Porteñito and El Caprichoso) and Lea Conti (Tango de la Pollerita), respectively. Five tangos were recorded by the Orquesta Argentina Victor (Villoldo's El Choclo and, again, El Porteñito, as well as Bevilacqua's Apolo) and the orchestra of the Apolo Theater of Buenos Aires (Ruiz, Golpea que te van a abrir and Alarcón, Tirale mateca al gringo). Five more tangos are performed by wind bands (two of them were recorded—most likely in the United States—by the wind band of John Philip Sousa).

The types of music present in the list could be categorized into three groups. The largest group consists of songs with guitar accompaniment. Wind bands and orchestras make up another group; it includes most of the tangos and some valses and thus comes closest to dance music. The third group is perhaps best described as music for the stage, that is, music that would be performed in a theater, varieté, or cabaret. There are comic songs and scenes sung by Ángel Villoldo and/or Alfredo Gobbi, recitations, and music numbers from plays. There are also actors among the performers. Lea Conti and Arturo de Nava were actors of the troupe of the Podestá family. Conti, in fact, was married to Antonio Podestá, who is credited to have been the first to compose tangos for the theater (some of them undoubtedly sung by his wife). Arturo de Nava also acted with the Podestá troupe as a galan and tango dancer.

Two events in 1912 changed the course of tango history: tango became a fashionable dance in Paris, and the German recording enterprise Lindström opened the first record manufacturing plant in Argentina, making Max Glücksmann the exclusive representative for its Odeon label. The developments in Paris popularized tango also in Argentina, which led to the emergence of the “orquesta típica”—a standardized small orchestra consisting of violins, bandoneons, bass and piano—that performed tango music. Glücksmann took the best musicians under contract: at first Roberto Firpo, then Eduardo Arolas, Carlos Gardel, Francisco Canaro, etc.

Advertisement Casa Lepage of Max Glücksmann, Buenos Aires, 1914

The music is not specifically advertised as dance music but it is clear from the repertory that the orchestras specialize in this kind of music. Most pieces are tangos, followed by a handful of “vals” and a few North-American dances—yet, no milongas.

Advertisement Victor Talking Machine Co., Buenos Aires, 1917

In the course of the second decade of the 20^th century, tango developed a stronger identity as dance music. The “repertorio criollo” in the example appears divided into vocal and dance pieces. Wind bands and symphonic (theater) orchestras are replaced by “orquestas típicas” and (also slowly disappearing) “rondallas” (that is, orchestras consisting of violins, mandolins, flute and piano). By far the most common dance recorded is tango, followed by vals, some occasional “criollo” or “foreign” dances. Milongas, however, appear neither as dance nor as vocal music.

In the 1920s, one can occasionally find recordings of pieces that are identified as milongas. They are not dance pieces, however, but songs, typically with guitar accompaniment. The following example includes two milongas: one is composed and sung by Rosita Quiroga, the other is composed and sung by the duo Néstor Feria (“El Gaucho Cantor”) and Ítalo Goyeche.

Advertisement Discos Victor, Buenos Aires, 1923

In summary, sales advertisements of music records from the first three decades of the 20^th century 
demonstrate that tangos were recorded and sold from the very beginning of music recording in Argentina. The formation of a standard tango orchestra and a focus on dance music commenced after 1912, when tango had become popular in Paris and received world-wide attention. Records with milongas, on the other hand, were rarely advertised, and these pieces were not recorded by orchestras but were songs with guitar accompaniment.

3. The Meaning of “Milonga” and “Milonguero” before 1930

From its very beginnings, tango was always associated with dance. Most tangos were composed as instrumental music, to be played by instrumental ensembles of various sizes. In the early days of tango, pieces with texts were relatively rare. Yet, if a text was written, it often broached the topic of dancing tango and dancing it well. In Villoldo's El Torito, for example, the narrator of the song prides himself with his skill in dancing the national Argentinian dances (which, incidentally, do not include the milonga):

Aquí tienen a “El Torito", el criollo más compadrito que ha pisao la población. Dondequiera me hago ver cuando llega la ocasión. Pa' la danza soy ladino, y en cualquier baile argentino donde yo me he presentao, al mozo más bailarín he dejao acobardao. … En los bailes nacionales nadie nos puede igualar, pues yo y mi prenda formamos La pareja sin rival. Lo mismo bailamos tango que gato con relación, la zamacueca, el cielito, la huella y el pericón.

Here he is, “The Bullock”, the brashest criollo ever to enter town. I show myself everywhere when I have the chance. I am crafty in dancing, and in every Argentinian dance that I have performed, even the best dancing lad I have left daunted. ... In the national dances nobody is equal to us, because I and my better half make a pair beyond compare. We dance tango just as gato to a relación, the zamacueca, the cielito the huella and the pericón.

By contrast, the association between milonga and dance was much more ambiguous. One can find text sources that recount situations where one danced to the music of a milonga, but such descriptions remain very general and do not enter into specifics of the dance. The reason for this is, in part, that the term “milonga” was not only used to describe a specific type of music, but it was also used in a very general sense for events at which music was performed and, more specifically, the performance of a poem, sung to the accompaniment of a guitar.

Illustration, “La Milonga del Cocoliche”, Caras y Caretas, Buenos Aires, 1916

The milonga, therefore, had a very strong association with poetry and the sung performance of a poem. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, writing poetry was a very popular pastime in Argentina, enjoyed and practiced in all walks of life. The milonga was one of the popular poetic forms—like the vidalita, relación, décima, triste, etc.—and it was meant to be sung with or without guitar.

José Betinotti, Milonga Obsequio, 1913

As poems, milongas are narrative texts, that is, they consist of multiple verses and relate a story. Depending on the narrator, the text may describe a scene from country or city life, but many are sentimental accounts of misery and lost love.

It follows from the affiliation between milonga and poetry that the “milonguero”, the practitioner of milongas, was not a dancer (its modern connotation) but a composer or performer of milongas. In 1920, for example, the journalist Ricardo Sanchez described the milonguero as the urban counterpart to the rural itinerant singer, the payador:

The milonguero is well known in the Republics of the River Plate. His personality has something of the payador, the gaucho poet (admirably described by Ascasubi). With the exception, however, that the latter encompasses wider horizons and, improvising to the cadence of the music, raises his inspiration from the ardent patriotic song that electrifies, to the moving sentimental triste; whereas the former cultivates a special genre, eminently marked, with a suburban flavor that his mates enjoy.

There is another distinction to be made as well. The payador is an exclusively rural type; he is the troubadour of our highlands and his stage are the bodegas and shelters of the countryside. The milonguero is found only in the cities. The locations in which he performs are the small cafés of the suburbs, the dance and gaming halls known as academias, where the most select of lower class fellows get together.

…

There are only a few legitimate milongueros among us. The majority of those who call themselves so are no more than routine imitators, or they sing—lacking that spontaneous inspiration of the early ones—what they have learned from memory. But the others are most of the time original and charming.

The association between milonga and singing continued through the 1920s and was expressed in tangos as well. The text of Carlos di Sarli's Milonguero viejo dedicated to Osvaldo Fresedo and  written by Enrique Carrera Sotelo, narrates the nightly serenade of a milonguero:

El barrio duerme y sueña al arrullo de un triste tango llorón; en el silencio tiembla la voz milonguera de un mozo cantor. La última esperanza flota en su canción, en su canción maleva y en el canto dulce eleva toda la dulzura de su humilde amor.

The quarter sleeps and dreams to the lullaby of a sad, weepy tango; through the silence trembles the milonguera voice of a young singer. The last hope runs through his song, through his beguiling song and sweet singing he raises all the sweetness of this humble love.

 Enrique Carrera Sotelo, Milonguero viejo

Even in 1931, when Homero Manzi and Sebastián Piana composed their Milonga sentimental and planted the seed for a new kind of milonga, the protagonist of the poem was a singer:

Milonga pa' recordarte. Milonga sentimental. Otros se quejan llorando yo canto pa' no llorar. ... Milonga que hizo tu ausencia. Milonga de evocación. Milonga para que nunca la canten en tu balcón.

Milonga to remember, sentimental milonga. others lament weepingly, I sing so as not to weep. … Milonga caused by your absence, milonga of reminiscence. Milonga so that they may never sing it on your balcony.

Homero Manzi: Milonga Sentimental

4. Tango and Milonga As Musical Forms

The different purposes of tango and milonga resulted in different musical structures. Since the music of a milonga was an accompaniment to poetic text, the music was kept simpler in order not to distract from the vocal performance of the “milonguero”. Benotti's milonga Obsequio, given as an example above, begins with a short guitar introduction of four measures (a). Then, the first strophe of the milonga is sung, consisting for two phrases of eight and twelve measures (bc), respectively. The guitar introduction is repeated and the next strophe is sung, and so forth. The resulting musical form is a simple repeating scheme of introduction and strophe:

a bc a bc a …

Tango, however, was primarily instrumental music, and the musical form needed to be more elaborate to make it interesting to the listeners. We mentioned above that the tango “Don Pedro” consisted of three sections, the third part of which (C) being frequently labeled as a “Trio”. Such a three-part division is typical for tangos composed before 1930.

Each of the three sections has its own melodies, composed in a different character to distinguish it audibly from the others. In addition, the sections are harmonically differentiated, and here the “Trio” section was the one that provided the most striking harmonic “color” to the piece. The early composers, like Villoldo, liked to move into the relative major or minor key (depending on the main key of the piece), later composers were fond of the parallel major or minor key, respectively.

One may look upon the sections as building blocks from which a piece is constructed by means of repetition. A repetition scheme may look like AB C AB or ABC ABC A, but there is no general rule on how such a scheme is to be executed. In fact, much of the musical interest stems from the variety with which tangos can be formally organized. Re-arranging a repetition scheme was also a means for orchestras to create a version distinct from other orchestras.

5. From Tango to Milonga: Villoldo's El Porteñito

El Porteñito is one of Villoldo's most successful compositions, having been recorded numerous times in a long series starting before 1906. The record advertisements from 1906 and 1909, given above, include three versions: two for voice and orchestra—sung by “Mrs. de Campos” (1906) and Alfredo Gobbi (1909), respectively—and one orchestra version played by the house orchestra of the Victor company.

As one of the relatively few tangos that had a text, El Porteñito was recorded by many singers. The following example presents a French singer, Andrée Vivianne (or Andhrée Viviane, as she was known in Paris), who worked for some years in Buenos Aires and recordedit there in 1909.

El Porteñito, Andrée Vivianne, 1909

If the habanera rhythm and the tempo of the orchestra introduction hints at a modern-day milonga, the character of the piece changes once the singer begins with the first strophe; the tempo is slowed down considerably. In fact, the rendition is not a dance at all: there are too many tempo changes, ritenutos, and fermatas for any dancer to follow. This recording represents a typical concert performance of a song, as it would be given in a theater, varieté, or cabaret.

Alfredo Gobbi and his wife Flora Rodríguez recorded a similar version, also with orchestra accompaniment. However, they changed the text and turned the tango into another kind of stage performance they specialized in: a comic scene. El criollo falsificado tells the story of an immigrant to Buenos Aires who pretends to be a genuine “criollo” and is proud of his tango skills. His mangled Spanish and clumsy behavior unmask him, however, as a recently arrived “peasant gringo”, and he is duly ridiculed by the genuine “porteña” Flora Rodríguez.

El Criollo Falsificado, Flora Rodríguez and Alfredo Gobbi, 1906

In this recording, the orchestral interludes between strophes are replaced by dialogue. The performance is, therefore, even less of a dance than the Vivianne recording. However, since the subject matter of the text touches upon dancing, it is entirely possible that the Gobbis also danced during the performance—a tango, of course.

The following version of El Porteñito, recorded in 1949 by Adolfo Pérez and the Orquesta Típica de la Guardia Vieja, is actually the youngest one we are going to present. Yet, as the name of the orchestra and instrumentation (bandoneons, violins, a flute, and 2 guitars instead of a piano, no double bass) suggest, the orchestra tried to invoke a tango style of earlier times.

El Porteñito, Adolfo Pérez and the Orquesta Típica de la Guardia Vieja, 1949

Pérez's recording is an odd interpretation of El Porteñito, inasmuch as it mixes elements of different phases in the development of tango. An instrumentation with guitars and flute was characteristic of tango orchestras around 1915. At that time, melody and the accompaniment would have been clearly separated, with the guitar playing a clear and steadfast habanera rhythm. Just as the single flute, the violin and bandoneon were not always doubled in the orchestra. These instruments would have played the melody together, only occasionally adding some embellishments. Pérez's instrumentation is much more complex than that of early tangos. He introduces lots of counter melodies, full harmonies, lively bass lines that one would expect from a symphony orchestra rather than a tango band. In this respect, Pérez's El Porteñito is a product of the 1940s, but it was dressed up as a slow tango with a habanera rhythm in order to sound “historic”.

The Orquesta Típica Victor's rendition of El Porteñito, instead, is representative of the style of the late 1920s. Different from the examples presented above, the dotted habanera rhythm has completely disappeared from the accompaniment. Instead, a steady pulse of straight eighth notes provided by the piano and lower bandoneons is heard almost incessantly throughout the piece. It lends a march-like character to the recording and makes clear what the music is intended for: dance, that is, tango.

El Porteñito, Orquesta Típica Victor, 1928

Juan D'Arienzo recorded a number of Villoldo's tangos: some of them as milongas, others as tangos—including El Porteñito. Stylistically, his version of does not differ significantly from the one recorded by Típica Victor nine years earlier. Both orchestras have dropped the habanera rhythm, play in about the same tempo, and use the same instrumentation. Differences are mainly a matter of each orchestra's own style. For example, D'Arienzo has the bandoneons play a variación in section C and the last repetition of section A. And, as if to make his version sound even more like a tango, he changed the rhythmic structure and added more síncopas, most obviously in section B.

El Porteñito, Orquesta Típica Juan D'Arienzo, 1937

Our final example of El Porteñito, recorded 1943 by Ángel d'Agostino, is probably the best known version today.

El Porteñito, Orquesta Típica Ángel d'Agostino, 1943

The recording is a very clear example of a “modern” milonga: a dance piece with a speedy tempo and a well articulated habanera rhythm in the accompaniment. This milonga is no longer a song, a poem accompanied by a guitar. The text has been changed and shortened, just to be sung to two repetitions of the B section. In comparison to the earlier sung versions of El Porteñito presented here, the text has become secondary. The song has become a milonga as we understand it today: a piece of dance music.

It is clear that by the time of d'Agostinos recording, the very concept a milonga had changed since the late 1920s. This is a history of its own and beyond the scope of this presentation, but to demonstrate once more that musicians thought differently about the milonga before and after the 1930s, we present one more example.

In the late 1920s, many recordings were released whose titles evoke the milonga: “Cuando llora la milonga”, “Milonga”, “Milonga con variación”, “Milonga canyengue”, “La eterna milonga”, “Milonga criolla” (Canaro, 1928), etc. All these pieces were, however, tangos. Even Canaro's “Milonga criolla” of 1928, a tango, is not identical with his well-known recording of the milonga “Milonga criolla” of 1936. Some thirty years later, however, he recorded the tango again—this time under the title “Arrabalera” and turned into a … milonga.

Orquesta Típica Francisco Canaro (1936, 1928), Quinteto Pirincho (1960)

© 2017 Wolfgang Freis