Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Part 1
Villoldo finds humor in daily life events. In 1906 the Police Chief
of Buenos Aires ordered a fine of 50 pesos to those who say
“piropos” (compliments) to a woman in the street, and Villoldo
composes “Cuidao con los 50!”. He tries to get extra
advertisement for his song, so he goes to the street and start to
“piropear” to every woman he sees, expecting to be denounced
and fined, making of his song a way of protest, but all he got was a
sweet “viejo enamorado” reply from one lady.
Around those years, “El esquinazo”, another of his
compositions, is prohibited to be played at “Lo de Hansen”
because the crowd beat their glasses on their tables accompanying
the song, breaking them, making it too expensive for the business.
In 1907 he was sent by the department store Gath y Chaves, the
most successful of Buenos Aires at the time, to make some of the
first tangos and Argentine music recordings to Paris with Alfredo
Eusebio and Flora Gobbi (the parents of the great orchestra
conductor Alfredo Gobbi). The recordings of Villoldo songs,
already successful, potentialize their success.
Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. The sound quality on
the phonograph was bad and each recording lasted for one only
play. Edison’s phonograph was followed by Alexander Graham
Bell’s graphophone. It could be played many times, however, each
cylinder had to be recorded separately making the mass
reproduction of the same music impossible with the graphophone.
On November 8 1887, Emile Berliner, a German immigrant
working in Washington D.C., patented a successful system of
sound recording. Berliner was the first inventor to stop recording
on cylinders and start recording on flat disks. The first records
were made of glass, later zinc, and eventually plastic. A spiral
groove with sound information was etched into the flat record.
The record was rotated on the gramophone. The “arm” of the
gramophone held a needle that read the grooves in the record by
vibration and transmitting the information to the gramophone
speaker. Berliner’s disks (records) were the first sound recordings
that could be mass-produced by creating master recordings from
which molds were made.
These inventions where taking place at the time that tango was
becoming more and more popular, and are of vital importance to
the history of tango.
Being in Paris, Villoldo subscribed to the Authors and Composers
Association of France, following which then created in Buenos
Aires in 1908 “La Sociedad del Pequeño Derecho”, precursor of
“SADAIC”, created by, among others, Francisco Canaro, Osvaldo
Fresedo, Augusto Berto, Agustín Bardi, Enrique Santos Discépolo
and Francisco García Jiménez. This institution and its precedent,
“Círculo Argentino de Autores Compositores de Música”, and
“Asociación de Autores y Compositores de Música”, play an
important role in the history of tango and its existence, since
thank to them, the authors, composers and musicians of tango
were able to make a living.
Back in Buenos Aires, in 1908, we could find Villoldo playing in
La Boca, at the “Café Concert” of Suarez and Necochea streets, the
center of tango of the moment, where, in different places, Canaro,
Greco, Firpo and others were playing. Villoldo performed a solo
act, playing guitar, harmonica (attached to his body in the manner
of Bob Dylan), singing, storytelling, and standup comedy and
dancing.
From that year is his milonga “Matufias, o el Arte de Vivir”,
which is seeing as precursor of Discépolo’s “Cambalache”.
Villoldo was also journalist and wrote plays.
In 1913 he writes the lyrics for “El 13”. This will be his last great
hit. Tango changes and “La Guardia Vieja” is giving place to “La
Guardia Nueva” and the tangos that Carlos Gardel recorded with
Contursi’s lyrics. In 1917 the duet Gardel-Razzano made their first
recording with a Villoldo’s song; “Cantar eterno”. It was the
magic of tango linking the two eras.
[1] Was a person whom driving a team of horses pulled a vehicle
that was stuck in the mud or in need of help in a hill climbing.
[2] Quarrelers who use knives to fight.
[3] José Gobello “Historia del Tango”, “La Guardia Vieja”,
Editorial Corregidor 1977, page 364.
Read also:
• History of Tango – Part 1
• History of Tango – Part 2
• History of Tango – Part 4
Bibliography:
• “Crónica general del tango”, José Gobello, Editorial Fraterna,
1980.
• “El tango”, Horacio Salas, Editorial Aguilar, 1996.
• “Historia del tango – La Guardia Vieja”, Rubén Pesce, Oscar
del Priore, Silvestre Byron, Editorial Corregidor 1977.
• “El tango, el gaucho y Buenos Aires”, Carlos Troncaro,
Editorial Argenta, 2009.
• http://www.todotango.com/english/