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Philosopher and musician Gustavo Varela explains why tango is not just a music genre with very sophisticated fans, but also a model of identity for Argentine people as well as for the country’s image abroad.
Tango is not only a music genre that always managed to gain very sophisticated fans, it also represents a model of identity for Argentine people and one of the main topics of the way the country is regarded abroad. Philosopher and musician Gustavo Varela, academic coordinator of the Post Graduate Seminar “Tango political genealogy and history” of the Latin American Faculty of Social Science (FLACSO), explains the need for a perspective that would join tango’s aesthetic pleasure with an analysis of its history as a part of Argentina’s political and economical evolution.
Why is tango presented as a “model of identity” for Argentine people?
Since its origin in 1880, the history of tango walks along the birth and evolution of the modern Argentine Nation. Its sound and poetry have witnessed the several processes our country went through during the twentieth century; and the transformations that its lyrics have gone trough are a way to tell how a national identity is created. The massive immigration arriving between 1870 and 1930 modified the country’s face and forced the need for a new social union. This means defining values, types of involvement, and bonds.
¿How does tango work on this need?
Unlike other popular music genres, tango’s lyrics have a strong moral component: neighborhood, mother, and friends, are not just poetic themes, but ways to define right and wrong. It was a political and social need for the mostly immigrant popular masses. That’s why the roots of tango are located on the ports: Rosario and Buenos Ares, where the ships arrive.
How and why was tango established as one of the main constituent elements of Argentine identity abroad?
Tango travels to Europe almost from the beginning of its origin. In 1907, París Angel Villoldo (the author of “El choclo”), pianist Alfredo Gobbi, and his wife, a singer, all arrive in Paris. By 1913, tango is danced in the Parisian salons creating a true tango fever. But perhaps the picture of Rudolph Valentino dancing tango in the film Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is what better relates tango to the Argentine nature. Later, it will be the films of Carlos Gardel made for Paramount studios and the presence of tango musicians and authors in Europe. In the 20’s and 30’s, mainly through cinema, tango is established as a symbol for Argentine identity. A few years later Piazzolla will do the same thing, only this time through music.
Why did Gardel -and not someone else - become an icon?
Gardel’s voice has set the way tango should be told forever . Goyeneche used to say: “why should we sing, if Gardel already did”? But the voice alone is not enough to turn anyone into an icon. His image represents the essence of tango: poor suburbs and tuxedos, a big smile and a voice that sorrows, the marginal boy that succeeds, an ideal made of motherhood, horse racing, friendship and beauty. His early tragic death gave him the final touch of glare to become eternal in the people’s memory. His ashes are the fertilizer that nurtures the Argentine soil for tango´s growth and its golden years: the 40’s and 50’s.
How did Piazzola’s vanguard provided for the constitution of tango as a “model of identity”?
Astor Piazzolla is an essential driving force in the history of tango. His music is an open score that brings together the tradition of great tango orchestras and elements of contemporary music, from Bela Bartok to Miles Davis. His music has permitted the perspective on previous forms of tango to widen even more. Through Piazzolla, many have discovered Julio de Caro, Cobián, and Arolas. It is also through him that intellectuals have approached tango without prejudice. In fact, Jorge Luis Borges, who had been a strong detractor of tango in some of his writings, ends up writing several poems for Piazzolla to turn into tango lyrics.
