years old. Since then he played with a number oftango groups among them the first female bandó-neonist Francisca Paquita Bernardo and also with theEnrique Pollet quartet ending with the Roberto FirpoOrchestra and in 1927 was a member of PedroMaffia’s orchestra as pianist. In 1934, when PedroLaurenz formed his own orchestra, Pugliesi was onthe piano and starting to write his first arrangements,for example, La Beba. He formed his own group andwas the leader, pianist and arranger. They appearedin Radio Nuevo Mundo gaining immense popularity;for the orchestra had a strong rhythmic beat mostappropriate for dancers. In the 40s, he recorded sev-eral instrumental pieces written by himself, kind ofavant-gardé repertoire, one of them, was La Yumba,tango, which is a neologism sort of an onomatopoeiaimitation of the step to mark in the Pugliese orchestraand not an African word as it was first thought. It waswritten in 1943 by his composer who recorded it onthe Odeón label in 1945 and 1952. There is anotherinterpretation by Francini-Pontier.
MALENA, TangoLUCIO DEMARE (1906-1974)HOMERO MANZI (1907-1951)
Demare lived all his life in Buenos Aires and as a boysettled in the Abasto’s neighbourhood – the heart oftown – but moved to Colegiales at five years of age. Hedid not play games, but played the piano instead. He hada very strict teacher, Mr Scaramuzza, who told him thesecrets of playing well and at 6 years old was hired at alocal cinema, playing from 2.00pm until midnight andearned forty pesos per month. His teacher in tango wasEnrique Di Cicco and Canaro took him to Paris in 1926.Demare was then 19 years old and spent two years withhim and premiered two of his tangos Mañanitas deMontmarte and Dandy. Afterwards, in 1938, formedhis own orchestra with singers Juan Carlos Mirandaand Raul Berón, which was most popular for tenyears for having his own style and a good repertoire.He also tried the film industry to help his brotherLucio who was a Director. They did Dos amigos andone love, Chingolo, (with Luis Sandrini), El viejohucha and La guerra gaucha. Later he dissolved theorchestra and went to play in several venues. Demarewrote the music of Malena, tango, in a very shorttime. Manzi had given him the lyrics ten days beforeand was due to meet him and wanted to have at leastthe beginning of the tango so, he went to a bar calledEl Grand Guindado and sat and wrote it in one gofrom beginning to end. The verses of Malena, saidthat she sings tango like no-one else, and into everyverse she puts her heart, her voice has the weed’s per-fume… Malena feels the pain of bandoneón.
SELECTION OF MILONGASThe selection includes two famous milongas: Francia byOctavio Barbero, and Linda, by Roberto Rufino andAlejandro Romay.
EL AMANCECER, TangoROBERTO FIRPO (1884-1969)
Once the tango came back from Paris it began to beaccepted by decent people who took great pleasure inlistening to the tango rhythms, therefore, it was nec-essary to set limits to avoid the lower classes intrusion;but under the law of Saénz Peña in 1904, AlfredoPalacios, socialist, was democratically elected. Thisshowed a sign of flexibility and the arrival of a per-missive society; the belle époque was at an end anddemocratisation was on its way, in this ambience thecabarets were created similar to the Parisian ones, thedance floor was now a vaulted ballroom, luxuriously
illuminated and decorated following European fash-ion. One of the most famous was the Armenonville,the Armenón to its customers. In order to attract clien-tèle in 1913, they decided to call for an open competi-tion to choose permanent musicians to play tangos. Itwas won by Roberto Firpo, pianist, to the disappoint-ment of the other contenders, who out of sheer spite,stabbed Firpo; one of Tano Genaro’s guitarists wasresponsible for it. However, this incident helped torecognize the piano as a leading instrument. Thephase of the brothel was opened and it was the begin-ning of the “typical orchestra.” Now that Firpo had ajob he decided to form a trío with Tito Rocatagliatta,violin and Eduardo Arola, bandoneón. They were sosuccessful that Max Gluksmann, producer, hiredthem for recording with the Odeón-Nacional. Thiswas due to the way Firpo played the piano: headorned the melody; with the right hand he executedthe accompaniment, whilst with the left one broughtfrom the low part of the piano keys, an octave chro-matic scale, which when descending to the treble imi-tated the characteristic strum of the guitar in a verypersonal style. He was doing well, and in 1914, addeda second violin and a flute to balance the heavy soundof the piano when playing old guard tangos, and nexta double bass, played by Leopoldo Thompson. Firpo’splaying allowed the piano to go up within the limits ofdecency; his sextet will originate his “typical orches-tra”, a name used for the first time by Canaro in theCarnaval of 1917 in Rosario. We have to add that inthe 40s came the formation of eleven musicians. Nowtango is accepted by society and its orchestra leaders,composers and singers have left behind their margin-al status, and in their place of work, they not only pre-miered their music but also wore their suits for thefirst time, they dressed impeccably; that is the case ofFirpo, Canaro, Fresedo and De Caro orchestras, notonly that, they also were educated which facilitatedthem to hobnob with the ruling classes. The lyrics alsochanged. Firpo’s tangos were of a romantic kind inwhich stand out: El apronte, El solitario, Fuegos artifi-ciales and, of course, El amanecer, tango, which is oneof the most successful pieces he wrote in 1912. It wasrecorded by de Basso in 1961 and by Pugliesi in 1964whilst Di Sarli recorded it three times.
MILONGA SENTIMENTALSEBASTIAN PIANA (1903-1994)
Kindly see information given in the first part of the pro-gramme. Milonga Sentimental was premiered by a quar-tet formed by the actresses Rosita Contreras, and PepitaCantero and by the actors García Ramos y Casaravilladuring the presentation of the revista named El sueñodel peludo. Later it was part of the repertoire of PedroMaffia who made it popular but it was Carlos Gardelwho recorded it when he was in the last period of hislife in Argentina in 1933.
OJOS NEGROS, TangoVICENTE GRECO (1888-1924)
Vicente Greco, bandoneón player and composer, wasborn in Buenos Aires and had eight brothers and sistersmost of them musicians. He started his musical career bysinging and playing guitar when he was just five years old.By chance he came across a concertina and trained him-self, quite casually; within a month he was playing theWaldteufel’s waltz but the person who introduced himinto the secret of bandoneón playing was SebastiánRamos Mejía (El Pardo) who suggested to his parentsthey buy him a real bandoneón. Friends and relativescontributed some funds and the boy got a bandoneón onhis 14th birthday – the most sought after present. Hemastered it very soon and was ready to face an audience.He played at the San Pedro, San Nicolás, Baradero, and
Rosario where he met interesting musicians likePrudencio Aragón, Ernesto Zambonini, Lorenzo “ElNegro,” Juan Borguessi and many more, all of them pro-fessional musicians from whom Vicente learned to per-fect his playing. He did not know much about writing hismusic on paper, but with the help of fellow musiciansmanaged to compose tangos that made him famous: Elpibe, El morochita, El perverso, Ki-Ki, Tiene la palabra,Rodríguez Peña, La viruta and El flete (the three lastones reached top ranks). It is said that there was amoment of inspiration by Prudencio Aragón, pianistand with his permission Vicente Greco composed thisimmortal tango Ojos negros (Black eyes), which waspremiered at a Café in La Boca; the lyrics are also byGreco. Afterwards, Troilo recorded it three times aswell as Salgán and Di Sarli in 1945.
EL CHOCLO, TangoANGEL VILLOLDO (1861-1919)
He was an influential figure who gave tango music thisspecial rhythm – so much of the River Plate sound. Hewas a man with no fear for tackling any available job:typographer, circus clown, horserider, and a prolificcomposer. His subjects for writing music were loveaffairs of people from bottom of society, he wrote hislyrics with no shame at all, mainly ridiculing society. Hesung accompanied by guitar and harmonica and enter-tained audiences in very poor cafés. Around 1889, hepublished his Cantos Criollos and thereafter Argentinepopular songs. He was the author of a method to learnguitar with symbols called “Method America.” He ful-filled the requirement of the times and went to Parisfor a series of recordings; hired by Gath and Chaveswhich helped to enhance Argentine music in Europe.One of the most important tangos was El Choclo (TheMaize) he also wrote the lyrics, and the first stanzasays: “… from a seed the plant is born which latergives us sweet corn, this is why my singing voice says Iam a humble person and since I am not somebodyelse, but no more than a tango singer, I whisper withoverjoy, it has surpassed the very best!” El Choclo wasknown since 1905 and was premiered one evening atEl Americano Restaurant, located at Cangallo andCarabelas of Buenos Aires. It was played by LuisRoncallo, pianist and was recorded later by the fol-lowing orchestras: D’Agostino, Canaro, TroiloFresedo, Piazzolla, Salgán, Sexteto Tango and manyothers.
LA CUMPARSITA, TangoGERARDO MATOS RODRIGUEZ (1897-1948)
Matos-Rodríguez studied in Montevideo and wrote alittle march for his circle of friends called LaComparsa and later on, Roberto Firpo, who wasworking at La Griralda Cafe in the capital city ofUruguay, was shown the partiture, and decided toamend it by including some scores of his own tangoLa gaucha Manuela and played it at the Café Iglesiasin Buenos Aires; it was an instant success. Moreover,around 1924, Pascual Contursi and Enrique Maroniwrote the lyrics to the music, for it was due to be sungin the play Un programa de Cabaret at the ApoloTheatre. And from then on has become a classicaltango of all times. Today, La Cumparsita is like ahymn of rioplatense music with over one hundredrecordings around the world including two by CarlosGardel. Matos Rodríguez continued writing and pro-duced la Mocosita, ¡Che Papusa oí!, Botija Linda, SanTelmo, Adiós Argentina, La Milonga Azúl and manymore.
Copyright © J Sylvester, LACCS 2006,All Rights Reserved
HOMERO MANZI(1907-1951)
VICENTE GRECO(1888-1924)
GERARDO MATOSRODRIGUEZ (1897-1948)
ANGEL VILLOLDO(1861-1919)
With gratefulthanks from
LACCS (2006)
