Abstract: The first examples of Argentine tango appeared in Buenos Aires shortly before the turn of the 20th century. They were published as piano scores and often identified as “native” compositions under the designation tango criollo. It is commonly maintained, however, that the musical tradition is older and but that the music was lost since the musicians were illiterate. In absence of any anonymous tangos that would suggest the existence of an oral tradition, such a supposition remains purely speculative. All tangos criollos identify their composers, and biographical information indicates that they were educated musicians and well integrated into the musical life of Buenos Aires. Tango emerged as part of the repertorio criollo, a repertoire created and disseminated by (mostly) Argentinian composers and performers as “native” music.
Contrary to what is commonly believed, the emergence and development of Argentine tango is still undetermined. Most reader will be surprised that tango did not originate in Argentina but evolved there into a distinct musical style only in the 20th century. This article suggests a point of departure from which preceding forms of tango developed into a particular Argentinian variety.
I. From Habanera to Tango Criollo
The earliest known musical scores of Argentine tango date from about the turn of the 20th century. “Tango” as a designation for a type of music was not new at the time. Music pieces called “tango” had been introduced to Europe from Cuba in the second half of the 19th century, together with the better known habanera. In fact, the terms “tango” and “habanera” were sometimes used interchangeably, and the designation “American tango” became synonymous with “habanera”. Tangos were also written for Spanish zarzuelas (Spanish light operas) where they were commonly referred to as “Andalusian tangos” (tango andaluz).
Foreign music styles, such as Habaneras, Andalusian tangos, and zarzuelas were very popular in Buenos Aires during the second half of the 19th century—which comes as no surprise in a former Spanish colony with a large immigrant population from Spain. But there are only a handful of tangos by Argentinian composers known to date from before the turn of the 20th century. These tangos do not differ significantly from the “Andalusian” tangos written for zarzuelas.
The lack of “genuine” Argentinian tangos from this time period is frequently explained with the supposition that the first tango musicians were illiterates and that their work was transmitted through oral tradition. However, one searches in vain for vestiges—anonymous “traditional” tangos, for example—that could be linked to the period in which this oral tradition is supposed to have flourished. In absence of any clear evidence, the existence of these illiterate musicians remains purely speculative.
The earliest documented evidence of an Argentinian tango tradition dates from the turn of the 20th century. Tangos that unequivocally referred to South America as their place of origin first appeared at this time as printed piano scores in Buenos Aires. Many of these pieces bore the caption tango criollo, that is, “native” tango. This classification is, unfortunately, problematic as it is not indicative of a particular musical form or style. There exists no conspicuous difference to other pieces (even by the same composers) that are labelled, for example, “tango de salón”, “tango moderno”, or simply “tango”. However, the fact that composers used attributes like “criollo” to differentiate their pieces bespeaks a sense of appropriation of “tango” as an Argentinian music genre.
II. The First Composers of Tangos Criollos
Buenos Aires and the turn of the 20th century suggest themselves as the place and time of the emergence of Argentine tango since the first tangos criollos were published there around 1900. Moreover, the biographical information of the composers—as little as it is—establishes a link to a specific social environment. Most composers of tangos criollos were themselves criollos, that is, they were born in the 1870s in Buenos Aires or at least resided in the city during their professional career. The most prominent (and also the oldest) were Ángel Villoldo and Cayetano Rosendo Mendizábal, who can be considered as the two progenitors of Argentinian tango. Other important contributors were Miguel Tornquist, Alfredo Bevilacqua, Carlos Posadas, José Luis Roncallo, Manuel Campoamor, and Alfredo Eusebio Gobbi.
Ángel Villoldo (*1861, Buenos Aires), composer, songwriter, and author, is a central figure in the early development of Argentinian tango. Not only did he compose the largest number of tangos criollos, he was also the kind of musician that most closely fit the image of the mythical precursor of a tango musician. As a performer, he usually accompanied himself on the guitar, but he was also recorded with orchestra and the piano accompaniment of Manuel Campoamor (see below). The texts of his songs deal with life in Buenos Aires, including witty or sarcastic comments on everyday occurrences.
Despite his considerable output of music pieces, one cannot call Villoldo a musical innovator. His importance lies in the texts he wrote for his songs which set the stage for the subject matter that was to dominate tango texts from then on. His protagonists are members of the lower classes of Buenos Aires who speak their own distinct language. Thus, Villoldo's work, more than a contribution to the tango music, must be considered a contribution to the literary movement of criollismo which aimed to portray the ways and language proper to the lower classes.
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A rare portrait depicting Villoldo as a young man.
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Commentators on Villoldo's work have been tempted to interpret his depiction of lower-class people as a case of self-portrayal. However, unlike the characters of his songs, Villoldo was a performing artist and published author who gained considerable popularity in Buenos Aires. He was one of the first criollo musicians to be recorded on gramophone records. His El choclo was the first Argentinian tango ever to be issued on record (in an orchestration for wind band by José Luis Roncallo) and to be distributed world-wide.
While the life and work of Villoldo has been fairly well documented, precious little is known about Anselmo Cayetano Rosendo Mendizábal (*1868, Buenos Aires). This is especially unfortunate as this pianist and composer was the real musical talent of the two progenitors of Argentinian tango. As a child of mixed-race parents, Mendizábal was also known as “el negro Rosendo” (without derogatory connotation). During the 19th century, black music teachers were common in Buenos Aires. For Mendizábal, however, becoming a pianist and teacher was the result of privilege rather than necessity, as he was the offspring of a wealthy family who inherited a rather considerable fortune.
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Cayetano Rosendo Mendizábal
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In the early history of Argentine tango, Mendizábal is a pivotal figure. Whereas Villoldo cultivated dance as a topic of tango songs, Mendizábal was associated as a pianist with some of the legendary dance establishments at which tango was actually danced. His pieces are instrumental music that evince melodic and rhythmic characteristics distinct from the earlier habanera. It stands to reason that Mendizábal's tangos are the earliest manifestation of the original tango criollo.
Miguel Tornquist (*1873, Buenos Aires) fits the cliché of the rough and uncouth tango musician—such as the creators of tango supposedly were according to the uncritically accepted narrative of tango's origins—even less than Mendizábal. In fact, he was the offspring of one of the wealthiest families of Buenos Aires. Before his early death in 1908, the popular weekly magazine Caras y caretas published three of compositions of his, which demonstrates that he was a musician known to the public at large.
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Tornquist's tango criollo El Maco, illustrated with tango dancers, in Caras y Caretas, 1903
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All of Tornquist's compositions known today were written for the piano, the instrument on which he performed in public. They include not only tangos criollos but also pieces based on other dances popular at the time. Compared to other contemporary tango composers, Tornquist's harmonic and rhythmic style is considerably more complex, thus following the long-standing 19th century tradition of “musique de salon”.
Alfredo Bevilacqua's (*1874, Buenos Aires) career followed a pattern typical for early tango musicians that were not descendants of professional musicians. After leaving school at age fourteen, he worked in a variety of jobs (to contribute to the support of the family) and turned to music after coming of age. Nevertheless, he had received piano and music theory lessons already as a child. As an adult, he worked as a pianist in music halls and the theater environment, as well as a piano tuner and teacher. He also arranged tangos of other composers for piano.
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| Alfredo Bevilacqua |
His first tango, Venus, was published in 1902. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Bevilacqua's tangos were part of the standard repertory of orchestras. He was later remembered by younger tango musicians as a mainstay of the “old guard”. It must also be mentioned that he was the teacher of one of the most ingenious tango musicians: Roberto Firpo.
Like Mendizábal, Carlos Posadas (*1874, Buenos Aires) was the son of a family of “pardos”. His father had studied the violin but later pursued a military and journalistic career. However, his oldest son, Manuel, showed musical talent from an early age and went on to study in Belgium with the renowned violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.
Manuel also became the music teacher of his younger brother Carlos. Playing not only the violin, but also guitar and piano, Carlos became a prolific composer of tangos. Yet, it would be incorrect to call him a tango musician per se. His most important professional position was that of a concert master in the orchestra of the Teatro Avenida, a theater that staged predominantly a repertory of Spanish zarzuelas and sainetes (short plays). A familiarity with the tango andaluz can, therefore, be taken for granted.
Manuel also became the music teacher of his younger brother Carlos. Playing not only the violin, but also guitar and piano, Carlos became a prolific composer of tangos. Yet, it would be incorrect to call him a tango musician per se. His most important professional position was that of a concert master in the orchestra of the Teatro Avenida, a theater that staged predominantly a repertory of Spanish zarzuelas and sainetes (short plays). A familiarity with the tango andaluz can, therefore, be taken for granted.
From 1909 until his death in 1918, Carlos Posadas was director of the orchestras of the Avenida (1909) and Marconi theaters that performed at the carnival dances. One of the advertisements published for the events called him the “King of the Tango Criollo”. It must also be mentioned that Posadas made arrangements of tangos by other composers, among them Juan “Pacho” Maglio.
José Luis Roncallo (*1875, Buenos Aires) was the son of Italian immigrants from Genoa. His father was a musician and co-owner of a factory of player pianos and barrel organs. Roncallo started his musical career as an orchestra musician in the theaters of Buenos Aires. Already at age 17, he had lead his own classical orchestra that performed in various hotels and restaurants. Although his involvement with tango criollo appears to have been short, he was nevertheless a pivotal figure in its development. Not only was he the arranger and conductor of the first tango criollo ever to be recorded (Ángel Villoldo's El choclo in an arrangement for wind band), he also appears prominently among the first composers to be recorded in Buenos Aires. His involvement with the “tango scene” seems to have ended when he moved to Rosario for professional reasons, but his name was not forgotten. Francisco Canaro himself commemorated José Luis Roncallo in a radio program upon his death in 1954.
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Cover page of piano score of Roncallo's tango criollo “Guido”
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Like Villoldo, the musical career of Manuel Campoamor (*1877, Montevideo) shows traits that seem to correspond to the image of the “illiterate” tango musician. It is said that he taught himself to play the piano, played “by ear”, and never learned to read music. He also never seems to have been a “full-time” musician but always maintained an employment in a non-musical capacity. However, Campoamor's achievements are in stark contrast to the idea of an “illiterate” musician. It is quite obvious that he was well connected—and thus well respected—within the criollo music scene. He was not only recorded as a piano soloist, but was also a sought-after accompanist of popular singers (among them Villoldo and Gabino Ezeiza) on recordings. Campoamor's output as a composer is not large but it coincides with the emergence of the tango criollo. His first tango was published in 1899. His best known one, La cara de la luna, has been recorded by many tango orchestras even long after his death.
After Villoldo, the compositions of Alfredo Eusebio Gobbi (*1877, Paysandú, Uruguay) show the largest number of pieces labelled tango criollo. Like many other Argentinian stage artists of the late 19th century, he began his career in the circus where he appeared as a clown, acrobat, and singer of comic songs. In 1904, Gobbi founded his own theater group with his would-be wife, Flora Rodríguez. They performed as a singing duo and specialized in short musical comedy acts.
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“The Kings of the Gramophone”, promotional photograph of Flora Rodríguez and Alfredo Gobbi
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Gobbi was among the first Argentinian criollo artists to be recorded extensively and, as a stage performer, he was probably the most prominent one during the first decade of the 19th century. 1906 the Gobbis were contracted by the North-American company Victor and recorded an extensive repertory that was profusely advertised in Argentina. Performing alone or together with his wife, Gobbi recorded songs (including tangos) with accompaniment of orchestra, guitar, or piano, as well as recitations, dialogues, and comic scenes with his wife and other artists. He also maintained an orchestra for which his tangos criollos were probably composed.
Our list of the “original” composers of Argentinian tango is a tentative one. It does not demonstrate that the tangos criollos authored by these musicians were the first manifestations of a genuinely “native” tango style. To reach a conclusion on this question, it still remains to be determined what a tango criollo actually is and how—if at all—it differs from other varieties of tangos.
What the list does, however, is to demystify the origins of Argentine tango. As we have shown, the first composers of tangos criollos belong to an age group born in a period that roughly spans the 1870s. During the decade in which the first tangos criollos appeared in print, they all resided in Buenos Aires—if they were not born there in the first place. Furthermore, all of them were musicians of professional standing. That is, they had received professional musical training and performed at venues open to and frequented by the general public. This puts a perspective on the music these musicians would have been dealing with day by day. It is not the song of the legendary musical illiterate but the music of cafés, theaters, varietés, and ball rooms. The notion of tango's origin among dilettante lower-class musicians is a myth that can safely be put to rest.
III. The Repertorio Criollo
The emergence of Argentine tango coincided with an important technological invention: the “talking machines” that were able to play back recorded music. Especially with the development of the record disk and the 'turntable' record player during the first decade of the 20th century, the new technology turned into a mass medium of global proportion.
An important point of fascination of the talking machine was that it offered the possibilty to listen to music from far-away places one would never even imagine to visit. Recording companies seized on that idea and sent out engineers all over the world to make recordings, which were turned into records at the factories back home and then sold on the international market.
Since all phonographs and records were imported to Argentina before 1914, it is not surprising that the music offered for sale consisted predominantly of recordings made by artists in Europe and North America. However, advertisements placed in magazines and newspapers of Buenos Aires in the course of the first decade of the 20th century demonstrate that the offerings of Argentinian artists grew steadily.
Advertisements are not complete catalogs and reflect to some extent only an arbitrary sample of available recordings. They convey, nevertheless, a sense of what kind of music the public was familiar with and responded to favorably. Domestic Argentinian music, generally performed by local musicians, became advertised under the heading repertorio criollo (also repertorio nacional, discos criollos, cantos criollos, etc.). Typical for this repertory was music that was unequivocally of Argentine origin, namely, pieces of country music in the form of songs (estilo, vidalita, triste, etc.) and dances (pericón, queco, etc.).
This country music was considered the pure and unadulterated expression of native Argentinians who were not subject to the cultural exchange that was unavoidable in Buenos Aires. The gaucho was the idealized criollo, and the payador, the itinerant gaucho poet-singer, became the paradigmatic musician of the repertorio criollo. Payadores were known to improvise their poetry on the spot and sing to the accompaniment of a guitar. They also performed in payadas, competitive events staged in front of large audiences in which a jury would declare a winner.
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Payadores also belong to the mythical ancestors of tango and appear as romanticized figures in scores of tango texts. There exists, however, a more tangible connection between the payadores and the first composers of tangos criollos. Rather then being wandering gauchos singing at the pulpería, the famous payadores of the repertorio criollo were city-dwellers who made their musical career largely in cities like Buenos Aires. (For example, Gabino Ezeiza [*1858, Buenos Aires], Nemesio Trejo [*1862, San Martín, Buenos Aires], Arturo de Navas [*1876, Montevideo], and José Betinotti [*1878, Buenos Aires]). As they belong to the same age group and sphere of influence, they could be included in our list of tango criollo composers above.
References to recordings byArgentinian musicians can be found in advertisements as early as 1899. There was at first no mention of names or specific music types, however, only to criollo songs. The first performers to be announced (not by name but with “guaranteed authenticity”) were the singers of the Comedia theater. The first tango, “el celebre tango del automóvil”, was listed in conjunction with the cast of another theater, the Teatro Mayo. These theatrical performances were not recordings of the repertorio criollo, however. The Comedia and Mayo theaters staged Spanish zarzuelas, and the Tango of the Motor Car belongs, in fact, to the zarzuela El último chulo by the Spanish composers Tomás López Torregrosa and Joaquin Valverde.
The first mention of repertorio criollo performers by name that we have been able to find appears in an advertisement of 1902. It included the following remark:
NOTE: The criollo songs we are selling were pressed exclusively by the
renowned singers Villoldo and Navas (father and son).
“Navas” refers to the above mentioned Arturo de Navas (Arturo Navas Sosa) and his father Juan. Juan Navas was a payador from Uruguay who participated in another celebrated payada with Gabino Ezeiza at the Teatro Artigas of Montevideo in 1888. His son Arturo became a very popular singer-poet and actor in Buenos Aires. That Ángel Villoldo is listed in 1902—one year before he is supposed to have composed his first tango—is significant, as it shows him being a publically recognized musician already at that time.
Another advertisement published later in 1902 gives a better insight into the repertorio criollo and names some performers, yet, without listing individual pieces. The music of the payadores is given a prominent place. (Note the drawing of a payador playing amongst the chickens!) Again we find Arturo de Navas listed as performing criollo songs alongside two other payadores: Diego Munilla (*1873) and Eugenio Gerardo López (*1874).
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Criollo songs with guitar accompaniment, by Navas, Munilla, López, etc. National zarzuelas by Perdiguero, Romeu, Ceballos, Colón, Colas, etc. Band of the Police, conducted by maestro Rizutti. The Orchestra of the Teatro San Martín. Great success: piano solos by Payá.
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Furthermore the ad refers to “national zarzuelas”. The zarzuela is, of course, a typical Spanish music genre. It is listed here simply because the composers were Argentinians. The list of performers concludes with the brass band of the Buenos Aires police force, the orchestra of the San Martín theater (Buenos Aires), and piano recordings by Francisco Payá.
Francisco Payá (*1879, Guipúzcoa, ES) was a composer of theater music, orchestra director, and pianist. He could have been included in our list tango criollo composers as he fits the age group and spent his professional life in Buenos Aires. However, he was a gringo who had been educated as a musician in Spain before immigrating to Argentina, and tangos were not an important part of his compositional work.
The presence of zarzuelas and Payá in the advertisement highlights the difficulty of coming to terms with the actual content of the repertorio criollo. A zarzuela of decidedly Spanish flavor could be considered criollo if the composers were Argentinian, and musicians raised and educated in Spain could produce criollo music.
This lack of differentiation is also noticeable in the case of Ángel Villoldo. One of the purported musical predecessor of tango, the milonga, was considered to be a corrupted version of the art of the payadores. It was sometimes described as originating in the outskirts of Buenos Aires where the pure music of the Argentinian countryside was subject to degenerate influences of the city. Tango, considered as the descendent of the milonga, is a decidedly urban music—and thus a further degradation of the milonga. It is in many ways the antithesis to the ideal of criollo music. Yet, “corrupted urbanite” or not, Villoldo, the composers of tangos, could take his place next to the most distinguished payadores.
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With 28 entries, Villoldo's listing is the most extensive one in the advertisement. His repertory differs, however, from the other three performers. He is the only one to sing tangos (at least three, El pimpollo, Toma mate, che, and El queco). Notably, titles like El carbonero macarrónico (The macaronic coal dealer), Aventuras de un tenorio (Adventures of a ladies' man), Sospiros de una niña cándida (Sighs of an innocent girl), or Batifondo en un café cantante (Commotion in a music café) infer the comical and satirical slant of Villoldo's texts which contrast with the lyrical and sentimental songs of the payadores.
IV. Tango in the repertorio criollo
The choice of music pieces is not the only aspect in which Villoldo diverges from the repertory of the payadores. Although the image of the musician Villoldo is inseparably associated with the guitar, he also recorded extensively with orchestra accompaniment. His tangos in particular—whether performed by him, other singers, or ensembles—were recorded customarily with instrumentations for orchestra or brass band. The participation of orchestras suggests a place at which such pieces could have been performed in front of an audience: the theater. Accordingly, it is precisely in the context of the theater that tangos criollos were first itemized in record advertisements .
The following advertisement from 1906 represents the earliest example in which a tango was listed by title, instrumentation, and performer.
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The announcement was published as a full-page advertisement which demonstrates that this collection of records was extraordinary. In fact, it was probably the first time that a record company—the Victor Talking Machine Company—invested on this scale in Argentinian artists. The list of artists in the advertisement is, however, surprisingly short. It includes two names we are already familiar with from our list of composers of tangos criollos: Alfredo Gobbi and his wife and duo-partner Flora Rodríguez; and, furthermore, a Mr. and Mrs. Campos, and the clown Gobbino el 76.
The clown Gobbino el 76 was no one else but the same Alfredo Gobbi in one of his stage acts. The name was derived from another famous circus clown, Pepino el 88, created by the circus artist and stage actor José Podestá. It is also said—we have not been able to confirm this—that “Mr. and Mrs. Campos” was just another stage name for the Gobbi duo. If this is so, then the entire collection of pieces is performed by the Gobbis, which gives an indication of their fame and popularity in Argentina at that time.
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Victor Talking Machine Company, 1906, excerpt
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The records listed represent a typical mixture from the Gobbi repertoire. There are criollo songs, like the “Saludo a Paysandú” (by Gabino Ezeiza, an often recorded composition at the time), comical duets and recitations, and one tango sung by “Señora de Campos”. All but three of the 16 pieces were recorded with orchestra accompaniment, suggesting that the ordinary performance arena of the Gobbis was the theater stage.
The tango sung by Flora Rodríguez is a famous one: Ángel Villoldo's "El Porteñito". There exist a number of early recordings of it, both sung and instrumental, but perhaps no one contributed more to its popularity than the Gobbis. Both of them sang this tango individually on record. Furthermore, they turned it into a comic scene, El criollo falsificado (The Counterfeit Criollo), in which an Italian gringo claims to be criollo and unsuccessfully tries to impress a criolla with his tango dancing skills.
To the 21st-century tango enthusiast it may be surprising that Gobbi and Villoldo, the most prolific composers of tangos criollos, turned out so few tango recordings. However, it is simply an indication that in 1906 tango had not yet reached the popularity it would reach in the following decade.
The Gobbis specialized above all in short comic scenes and dialogues with music. Tango was one musical form among others in their repertoire. This can also be said of Villoldo whose song texts exploit the same topics as the Gobbis. The comedy aspect is a common ground shared by these entertainers, but whereas the Gobbis enacted comic scenes that included singing on stage (note that the advertisement above includes photographs of the Gobbis in stage costumes), presented Villoldo songs with texts of a decidedly comical, satirical, even cynical slant.
In the following years, tangos appeared more often in advertisements and, what is more important, they were listed by title. This demonstrates that tango's popularity was increasing and that individual pieces became known to the general public. We extracted the following list from advertisements that were published between 1907-09.
| TITLE | PERFORMER | COMPOSER |
| El elegante | Banda de Policía de Buenos Aires | ? |
| El mimoso | Banda de Policía de Buenos Aires | Gerardo Metallo |
| Servidor de Vd. | Banda de Policía de Buenos Aires | ? |
| Diana | Banda del 1. Regimento de Infantería | Rosario Mazzeo |
| Ay, chinita | Banda militar | ? |
| Guido | Banda militar | José Roncallo |
| La Payada | Banda militar | José Roncallo |
| Ven china á mi rancho | Banda militar | ? |
| Ay, chinita | Banda Sousa | ? |
| El Malevo | Banda Sousa | López |
| Recuerdos de la Pampa | Banda Sousa | Alfredo Bevilacqua |
| Apolo | Orquesta Argentina Víctor | Alfredo Bevilacqua |
| El Choclo | Orquesta Argentina Víctor | Ángel Villoldo |
| El Porteñito | Orquesta Argentina Víctor | Ángel Villoldo |
| Golpea que te van á abrir | Orquesta del Teatro Apolo de Buenos Aires | F. Ruiz |
| Tirale manteca al gringo | Orquesta del Teatro Apolo de Buenos Aires | Eugenio de Alarcón |
| Cuidado con los cincuenta | Señor Gobbi y orquesta | Ángel Villoldo |
| El Caprichoso | Señor Gobbi y orquesta | Ángel Villoldo |
| El Porteñito | Señor Gobbi y orquesta | Ángel Villoldo |
| La Lotería | Señor Gobbi y orquesta | Alfredo Gobbi ? |
Not all tangos were listed with their composer, and not all the composers indicated are known today. We were not able to located any information on López (perhaps Joaquín Cortes López), F. Ruiz, and Rosario Mazzeo. About José Luis Roncallo and Alfredo Bevilacqua, whom we introduced in our list of criollo composer together with Villoldo and Gobbi, see above.
Gerardo Metallo (*1871, Calabritto, Italy) was excluded from our list of composers above, though he fits the age group and professional profile (he was a composer and band director) for two reasons: he lived in Montevideo and was not a criollo, but a gringo who had immigrated from Italy as a child. We have found no biographical information on Eugenio de Alarcón, who may match the profile of criollo tango composers as well. He was the director of the orchestra at the Teatro Nacional in Buenos Aires during the first decade of the 20th century.
It is striking that all recordings involved an orchestra or brass band. Noteworthy is the appearance of the orchestra of the Apolo theater. The carnival dances at the Apolo are among the earliest documented public dance events at which tango was danced. At the time the recordings were made, the still adolescent Arturo de Bassi, composer and future orchestra director, played in the orchestra as a clarinetist. Some of his tangos, like El Incendio (1906), were heard for the first time at the Apolo theater.
Brass bands played a much more important role in the dissemination of music than they do today. One reason is that they were easier to record with acoustical technology as they produced a strong and homogenous sound. Fascinating to see is that the North-American band of John Philip Sousa, an internationally acclaimed ensemble, recorded tangos criollos shortly after they were composed. Thus, as tango gained popularity in Buenos Aires, it was at the same time exported to and disseminated in North America and Europe. (Tango recordings with brass bands were also made in Madrid and Paris.)
At the beginning of this article we asserted that 1) the first composers of tangos criollos belonged to a certain age group and 2) were criollos, born or residing in Buenos Aires. Most of their names reappeared in our survey of record advertisement of the repertorio criollo. We have also seen that tangos were performed mainly by ensembles associated with the theater and music stage. This is a confirmation of our third assertion, namely, that the first composers of tangos criollos were musicians of professional standing. Arranging music for orchestra or brass band, performing it in recording studios, theaters, and varietés is not done casually but requires professional musicians. Likewise, printing music and having it performed and recorded in North America and Europe requires people who have the professional know-how to accomplish it. Hence, the first composers of tangos criollos, we conclude, were not amateur but professional musicians working in a highly organized professional network. And within this network they did not only act as composers but also as performers, conductors, arrangers, and teachers.
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Ángel Villoldo, Arturo de Nava, and the Gobbis depicted in an advertisement for phonographic cylinders, 1907
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