You are on page 1of 19

History of Tango – Part 3: La Guardia Vieja

Part 1

Between 1860 and 1915 Buenos Aires experienced an exponential


growth. The “Gran Aldea” (Great Village) became a cosmopolitan
city, which, despite its isolated geographic location, was one of the
greatest cities of the world.
It was during this period of time of multiethnic and multicultural
interaction, that tango developed its unique characteristics and
became a cultural identity, a philosophy of life and a lifestyle. Its
name was not mention in well-mannered conversations. It was
rising up protected and cared for by very strong people, the only
ones who would not care about its bad reputation and defy the
rejection by the comfortable, afraid and obedient society. It
needed to develop in places that were prohibited to a society that
denied that a completely new creature was coming to life. A
creature that was not a child of a well established family, in the
portrait of religions and hypocritical political speeches. A being
that was happily excited to deal with the chaos of unpredictability,
with all that can’t be rationalized, accounted for and fit in the big
plan laid out by the ruling classes for the population of that corner
of the world.
Even when tango began to enter family homes and broadly
accepted social events, the name tango would not be used as the
label to refer to it, nor would the musicians use this term to
describe the orchestras.
The dance technique that today we associate to tango and
milonga, the “cortes and quebradas”, was in its origins a dance
technique created by the “chinas” and “compadritos” and applied
to all kinds of danceable music played in Rio de La Plata:
“mazurca”, “polca”, “habanera”, “cuadrilla”, “lanceros”, waltz
(called “vals cruzado” when danced in this way), “pasodoble”,
“Spanish tango”, tango and milonga.
Later this technique of dancing remained in Argentine tango
(referred at the time as “tango criollo”), milonga and vals criollo,
because these music styles were better suited to it.
On September 9, 1862, four men and two women were put in jail
for dancing “tirando cortes y quebradas” at a conventillo of
Paraguay 58 (today, in Puerto Madero). The police report does not
mention tango or milonga.
It was on September 28, 1897, that for the first time we find that
the “cortes and quebradas” are elements associated to the
choreography of a particular music called tango. It is at the play
written by Ezequiel Soria “Justicia Criolla”:
“Era un domingo de carnaval

Y al “Pasatiempo” fuime a bailar.

Hablé a la Juana para un chats

Y a enamorarla me decidí.

En sus oídos me lamenté

Me puse tierno y tanto hablé,

Que la muchacha se conmovió

Con mil promesas de eterno amor.

Hablé a la mina de mi valor

Y que soy hombre de largo spor,

Cuando el estrilo quiera agarrar

Vos, mi Juanita, me has de calmar.

Y ella callaba y entonces yo

Hice prodigios de ilustración,

Luego, en un tango, che, me pasé

Y a puro corte la conquisté.”
And also:
“Qué cosa más rica…! Cuando bailando un tango con ella, me la
afirmo en la cadera y me dejo ir al compás de la música y yo me
hundo en sus ojos negros y ella dobla en mi pecho su cabeza y al
dar vuelta, viene la quebradita… Ay! hermano se me vá, se me
vá… el mal humor.”
The following year, in 1898, “El entrerriano”, the first
Argentine tango registered by a known author, was published.
This was the time before recordings, when the music was
commercialized by publishing it in music sheets. The author,
Rosendo Mendizábal, was an Afro-Argentinean born in 1868 (and
died in 1913). Coming from a wealthy family, he was able to study
piano. His lifestyle made him squander his fortune, and so he
began to teach piano lessons and to play in all kind of brothels
and dancing houses, from the ones of the poorest clientele, to
those visited by the wealthiest people, like “Lo de Laura
(Monserrat)”, in Palermo, Paraguay 2512, where he premiered
“El entrerriano”, and dedicated it to Ricardo Segovia, a
landowner born in Entre Rios, who gave Rosendo a $100 bill. This
was a common practice among composers, before the benefits of
authors’ rights.
Before the publication of tangos, they became known only from
the authors playing them over and over again in many places.
When a tango was fortunate enough to be accepted by the
audience, it was frequently requested, contributing to the
recognition of the piece and its creator. Sometimes another
musician would like a song and learn it by listening to it, and then
incorporate it to his repertoire. But since the time that it began to
be written, it was easier to propagate it. Eventually, musicians
were able to play more and more varied songs, city sponsored
orchestras, military and police bands and club’s orchestras would
be able to play them, contributing to a greater and more efficient
divulgation of tango. It was also the way it could surreptitiously
enter the family homes, hidden between piano methods and
Chopin’s waltzes. And, it made possible the printed rolls for
“organitos”, which played a major role in initial spread of tango,
and prepared the ears of those who liked tango from the
beginning to accept a new instrument that became central to
tango and transformed it: the bandoneon.
Enrique Santos Discépolo’s father, José Luis Roncallo (who was
presumably the one that first suggested tango music for them)
and Ángel Villoldo (who probably wrote “El Choclo” to be
played through this media) were involved in the construction of
the first locally made cylinders for organitos.
Related to this need of mobility that the primitive tango required
to spread itself and survive, was the portability of the instruments
of its origins. The guitar was the “criollo” (autochtones)
instrument par excellence, which the payadores choose to
accompany their singing. It is, indeed, a privileged instrument to
accompany the human voice, but the payadores that were already
laureate and socially accepted, wouldn’t, in general, risk losing
their contracts playing such dubious music. The violin was also a
very popular instrument. Wind instruments rose in popularity to
the extent that they showed up more and more in bands and
theatre orchestras of the time. The harmonica also played a
powerful role, especially in the hands of Ángel Villoldo.
These instruments that first played tango allowed its music to be
frisky, lively and shaky because they were high pitch and light
instruments than can easily be played fast. Later, with the
introduction of the “bordoneos” (melodies and bridges played in
the lowest pitch range of the guitar strings), the incorporation of
the concertina and the Italian accordion, it will start a process of
slowing down that will reach its depth with the bandoneon and
the lower pitch string instruments. It is during this period that the
bandoneon became the most characteristic instrument of tango.
In 1899, “El Pibe” Ernesto Ponzio (1885-1934) publishes “Don
Juan”.  “El Pibe” Ponzio played the violin “sacando
chispas” (extracting sparks from it), according to the testimony
left to us by Gabino Ezeiza. When his father (also musician) dies,
he needed to help his family, and went to play in canteens, dance
parties and on the streetcars. Soon he was asked to play at the
most famous places of the time, like “Lo de Hansen”, “Lo de
Laura”, “Lo de María La Vasca” and “Lo de Mamita”, Lavalle 2177,
among many others. At this last one, it is said, he premiered
“Don Juan”, dedicating it to Juan Cabello, a well known
“compadre del arrabal” porteño.  This tango was the first one
recorded with bandoneon by Vicente Greco and his orchestra in
1910.
In 1924, when playing in Rosario, he shot and killed a man, and
was condemned to 20 years in prison. He had other previous
violent incidents on his record, but he was pardoned in 1928 and
returned to playing. According to his wife, he was not a violent
person. He was handsome, kind and always smiling, even when
playing, but his talent, his overwhelming energy and charm as
musician, dancer, artist and person, provoked the envy and
jealousy of those for whom beauty does not regard respect and
tried to impose their mediocrity with shear force. “El Pibe”
Ernesto considered a lack of honesty with himself, with those who
he loved and with his art, to retreat in the cases of being insulted
by disrespectful attitudes to people and what it is beautiful in life.
He stood for his thoughts and ideals in every moment, even
difficult ones, and dealt with the consequences.
The only recording of “El Pibe” Ernesto Ponzio is in this scene
from the first sound film made in Argentina, “Tango!”, of 1933,
playing his most celebrated composition:

ERNESTO PONZIO - JUAN CARLOS BAZAN - " DON


JUAN "

<div class="player-unavailable"><h1 class="message">An error occurred.</h1><div


class="submessage"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frL0EEVRjrA"
target="_blank">Try watching this video on www.youtube.com</a>, or enable JavaScript if it is
disabled in your browser.</div></div>
In 1899 they closed the last “Academias” that remained in
Montevideo, while the tango came to wider audiences entering the
theater, tents, circuses, dance halls and cabarets. Following this
development, the original “tango canyengue” was transformed
and made more “decent”, smoothing or eliminating completely
the “cortes y quebradas” and the most straight forward sexual
elements of its practice, giving birth to the tango “salon”, also
known as tango “de pista” or ‘liso”.
Most of the precursors of tango music were also well recognized
as great dancers.

Ángel Villoldo (1861-1919) is considered by many “El padre del


Tango” (The father of Tango), and unanimously considered the
most representative artist of the Guardia Vieja. Little is known
about his childhood, and the information about his youth is many
times contradictory. From an interview made to him by the
newspaper “La Razón” in 1917, we know that he was
“cuarteador”[1] of “La Calle Larga” (The Long Street, today’s
Montes de Oca) at the time that his interest in music appears, and
that he sung and played guitar and harmonica.
Between 1879 and 1886 he was typographer at the newspaper “La
Nación” and Jacobo Peuser’s print, conductor of the carnival choir
“Los Nenes de Mamá Viuda”, libretista for choir societies,
herdsman in two slaughterhouses of Buenos Aires, clown at
“Raffeto” circus.
Around 1900 he began to be known as payador, composer and
singer in “Corrales Viejos” (Parque Patricios), Barracas, La Boca,
Constitución, San Telmo, Palermo, and in Recoleta for the
celebrations of the Virgen María in September. At these
celebrations, big tents were erected for several days. They started
to be frequented by “compadres” and “cuchilleros”[2], so its
original character was replaced for another, less family oriented,
of alcohol, dancing and knife fighting. At these gatherings, in
which the life of a man was of little value, everyone respected
Ángel Villoldo, who performed there his first tangos.
The tango was still in development and had not yet achieved a
defining shape. The first works of Villoldo were milongas of
payador style that described characters and current events of the
places that he frequented. These first songs are very valuable
testimonies of these times and its people. Like this milonga that
makes reference at the known rivalry between cart drivers
(carreros) and streetcars drivers (cocheros):
“El Carrero y el Cochero”, listen…
Villoldo’s lyrics are “cheerful, wittily talkative, sometimes in jest,
but never bawdy. The compadres of his stories are reliable
criollos, as its creator, who recently left the horse on the outskirts
of the city, men in whom the knife is not yet ostentatious bravado,
but defense of honor and cause”[3].
His rise to fame came in 1903 when the singer Dorita Miramar
sung “El Porteñito” in the varieté Parisiana, of Esmeralda
Street, obtaining a great success. Pepita Avellaneda had already
sung several of his compositions a year earlier on Avenida de
Mayo. Soon other female singers included his songs in their
repertoire. In the same year, 1903, José Luis Roncallo premiered
“El Choclo” at the restaurant “El Americano”, labeling it as
“danza criolla”, since the category of the place did not admit
including tangos in the playlist. After the truth was known, the
audience demanded it to be played every night. It was not publish
until 1905.

At Christmas day in 1905, Villoldo is woke up at 7 am by Enrique


Saborido who was up all night writing a song and needed a lyric
for it. He knew that Villoldo was fast, that he could improvise
verses as a payador. The night before, at Christmas Eve, Saborido
was mocked by his friends for paying too much attention to the
Uruguayan singer Lola Candales. They challenged him to write a
song for her. He took the challenge and promised to have the song
ready to be sung by Lola next day. At 10 am they presented to Lola
“La Morocha”, which she premiered that night. This tango was
of great success, not only in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Argentina
and Uruguay, but copies of the music sheet were taken to many
port cities around the world by the school-ship Fragata
Sarmiento.

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/

You might also like