Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volumes Viii–Xiii: Genres
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BLOOMSBURY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC OF THE WORLD VOLUMES VIII –XIII: GENRES VOLUME IX GENRES: CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA Encyclopedia .indb i 1/14/2014 3:50:15 PM Principal Editors David Horn, Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool John Shepherd, FRSC, Carleton University, Ottawa Founding Editor Paul Oliver, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford International Advisors Christopher Ballantine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Peter Manuel, City University of New York, USA South Africa Portia Maultsby, Indiana University, USA Nimrod Baranovitch, Haifa University and Richard Middleton, University of Newcastle, UK Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Toru Mitsui, Kanazawa University, Japan Rafael Jos é de Menezes Bastos, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil Svanibor Pettan, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Th eo Cateforis, Syracuse University, USA Paolo Prato, Pontifi cal Gregorian University, Rome Jan Fairley, University of Liverpool, UK† Motti Regev, Open University of Israel, Israel Juan Pablo Gonzalez, Universidad Alberto Hurtado Raquel Z. Rivera, affi liated scholar, Center for Puerto SJ, Santiago, Chile Rican Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA Dai Griffi ths, Oxford Brookes University, UK T. M. Scruggs, University of Iowa, USA Jocelyne Guibault, University of California, Berkeley Chris Stapleton, London, UK Bruce Johnson, University of Turku, Finland; Macquarie University, Sydney; University Martin Stokes, University of Oxford, UK of Glasgow, UK Jim Strain, Northern Michigan University, USA Steve Jones, University of Illinois, USA Will Straw, McGill University, Canada Dave Laing, University of Liverpool, UK Paul Wells, Middle Tennessee State University, USA Encyclopedia .indb ii 1/14/2014 3:50:16 PM BLOOMSBURY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC OF THE WORLD VOLUMES VIII –XIII: GENRES EDITED BY DAVID HORN AND JOHN SHEPHERD VOLUME IX GENRES: CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA EDITED BY DAVID HORN, HEIDI FELDMAN, MONA-LYNN COURTEAU, PAMELA NARBONA JEREZ AND HETTIE MALCOMSON LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2014 Reprinted 2014 © Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2014 David Horn, Heidi Feldman, Mona-Lynn Corteau, Pamela Narbona Jerez and Hettie Malcolmson have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Editors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-4197-2 ePDF: 978-1-4411-3225-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain Genres: Caribbean and Latin America Tango 4. Th e Nuevo Tango (New Tango) period, from Th e word ‘ tango ’ describes a dance, a song and a 1955 to 1985. Th is stage began with the avant- purely instrumental music form. It was born and garde movement, but the decline of the tra- developed in the R í o de la Plata area and its two most ditional genre also took place. Th e common important cities, Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Mon- denominator of the genre in these years was a tevideo (Uruguay), but the center of its activity has great struggle between the traditionalists and always been Buenos Aires. It originated in a process the avant-garde led in an almost univocal form that culminated at the end of the nineteenth century, by Astor Piazzolla, along with a general process shaped by diff erent elements: the musical activity of of decay and diminished popularity that only black slaves on the Atlantic coast of South America began to change in the mid-1980s. and the modifi cations that they made to European 5. Th e rebirth of tango . From 1985 to the early music; other genres including the American tango twenty-fi rst century there was a renaissance ( tango americano ), the habanera and the milonga ; and of activity and new tango styles and musicians popular music melodies of Argentina. Tango built emerged. upon these infl uences but was new in its rhythm, structure and melody. The Old Guard: Origins to 1920 One of tango ’ s most original aspects is its choreog- It is very diffi cult to ascertain with accuracy the raphy. Tango is danced by a couple in a close embrace, origin of tango . Various elements contributed to with quebradas (swaying hips), cortes ( ‘ cuts, ’ pause a process that took place during the latter years or interruption in the movement) and more or less of the nineteenth century, leading eventually to consistent choreographic fi gures, combined and per- the emergence of a genre that was given the name formed in a totally improvised form. ‘ tango. ’ Th e single work in the musicological fi eld Any tango can be danced, whether it is a song that explores thoroughly all the precedents that con- or instrumental. A large number of tango pieces of verged into tango is the Antolog í a del Tango Rioplat- instrumental origin later included lyrics and many ense, Vol. 1 (ATR-1) (Novati 1980), carried out by others were composed with lyrics, or began with lyr- the Instituto Nacional de Musicolog í a ‘ Carlos Vega ’ ics around which music was composed. Tangos with of Argentina, which is followed in this article to lyrics are oft en called tango canci ó n , though this explain the origins. Th is work treats both Montevi- denomination does not refer to a specifi c subgenre of deo and Buenos Aires as a single geographic area. tango. Some others are called tango romanza , when No serious study can be carried out on tango without they are predominantly instrumental and melodic, bearing in mind this research, either to follow it or and tango milonga , when they are more rhythmically to criticize it. Th e research centered on the analysis oriented. of a sample of 700 sheet music pieces and over 500 Th e history of tango may be divided into fi ve stages: recordings (78 rpm faces), widely representative of the genre until 1920. Th e sheet music samples dated 1. Th e Guardia Vieja (Old Guard), from its ori- from almost 1890 to 1920, when tango was already gins to 1920. Th is stage comprises the tango ’ s established as a genre, so analysis was not able to beginnings and its consolidation as a diff erenti- display the process of its origin, but rather the traits ated genre. In this stage, the tango was strongly that the new genre presented in its notated form. based in its place of origin and also spread Th ere is no precise documentation of the worldwide by traveling musicians and later by nineteenth-century process that resulted in the recordings; development of tango in the Rio de la Plata area (in 2. Th e Guardia Nueva (New Guard), from 1920 Buenos Aires and Montevideo). Th e diverse elements to 1935, in which tango made a qualitative leap mentioned in ATR-1 concerning the origins of tango due to its melodic, harmonic and interpretive are: the music of Africa; the musical activity of black development and in which diff erent interpretive Argentinians; the tango americano and the habanera ; schools arose; the tango espa ñ ol or tango andaluz ; the milonga ; the 3. Th e Golden Age, from 1935 to 1955, in which a folk and popular melodic themes and phrases of large number of high-level orchestras appeared Argentina. Th ere is some documentation to support and the popularity of tango dancing and of its theories regarding the infl uence of the tango ameri- performers, singers, instrumentalists and band- cano and habanera , milonga , and folk and popu- leaders was enormous. Th e most signifi cant lar melodies and music of Argentina, while claims developments took place in the 1940s. regarding the infl uence of Andalusian, African and 826 Encyclopedia .indb 826 1/14/2014 3:51:22 PM Tango black Argentinian music have proved more diffi cult to to milonga and early tango (Old Guard), and thus support with tangible evidence. may be predecessors (Cirio 2007). Cori ú n Aharoni á n Given the lack of substantive evidence, there has (2007, 68) affi rms that the music of black slaves prob- been some debate regarding the possible infl uence of ably infl uenced tango ’ s origins, at least in Montevi- African-derived music on the origins of tango . Musi- deo. In fact, Goldman (2008) studied documents of cologists who analyzed tango music and dance around Afro-Uruguayan societies from the period between 1900, when tango was already popularized, did not 1870 and 1890 in Uruguay and found documenta- fi nd what they considered to be African traits (cf. tion of the presence of Uruguayans of African descent ATR-1), and scholarly investigation has produced no in the environments where the tango rioplatense was documented evidence of African roots. Musicologists later born, and he noted that music and dance that Carlos Vega (2007 [1966], 32) and Jorge Novati (1980, emerged in the 1870s shared traits with what decades 2) are among those who do not consider the tango to later was consolidated as tango rioplatense .