Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of Tango music".
The bandoneon is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is a typical instrument in most tango ensembles. As with other members of the concertina family, the bandoneon is held between the hands, and by pulling and pushing actions force air through bellows and then routing air through particular reeds as by pressing the instrument's buttons. Bandoneons have a different sound from accordions, because bandoneons do not usually have the register switches that are common on accordions. Nevertheless, the tone of the bandoneon can be changed a great deal using varied bellows pressure and overblowing, thus creating potential for expressive playing and diverse timbres.
The music of Argentina includes a variety of traditional, classical and popular genres. One of the country's most significant cultural contributions is the tango, which originated in Buenos Aires and its surroundings during the end of the 19th century and underwent profound changes throughout the 20th century. Folk music was particularly popular during the 20th century, experiencing a "boom" in popularity during the 1950s and 1960s thanks to artists such as Atahualpa Yupanqui and Mercedes Sosa, prominent figures of the Nuevo cancionero movement. In the mid-to-late 1960s, the countercultural scene of Buenos Aires originated Argentine rock, considered the earliest incarnation of Spanish-language rock for having an autochthonous identity that differed from that of England or the United States. It was widely embraced by the youth and since then has become part of the country's musical identity as much as traditional music. According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, Argentina also "has one of the richest art music traditions and perhaps the most active contemporary musical life.
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Rioplatense Candombe celebrations, Spanish-Cuban Habanera, and Argentine Milonga. It was frequently practiced in the brothels and bars of ports, where business owners employed bands to entertain their patrons. It then spread to the rest of the world. Many variations of this dance currently exist around the world.
Tango is a style of music in 2
4 or 4
4 time that originated among European and African immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay. It is traditionally played on a solo guitar, guitar duo, or an ensemble, known as the orquesta típica, which includes at least two violins, flute, piano, double bass, and at least two bandoneóns. Sometimes guitars and a clarinet join the ensemble. Tango may be purely instrumental or may include a vocalist. Tango music and dance have become popular throughout the world.
Candombe is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed candombe in its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Nuevo tango is both a form of music in which new elements are incorporated into traditional tango music, and an evolution of tango dance that began to develop in the 1980s.
Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It typically has a 2
4 or 4
4 rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in patterns such as ABAB or ABCAC. Its lyrics are marked by nostalgia, sadness, and laments for lost love. The typical orchestra has several melodic instruments and is given a distinctive air by the bandoneon. It has continued to grow in popularity and spread internationally, adding modern elements without replacing the older ones. Among its leading figures are the singer and songwriter Carlos Gardel and composers/performers Francisco Canaro, Juan D'Arienzo, Carlos Di Sarli, Osvaldo Pugliese, and Ástor Piazzolla.
Tango, a distinctive tango dance and the corresponding musical style of tango music, began in the working-class port neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay); on both sides of the Rio de la Plata.
Neotango is a distinct genre of tango which goes beyond it both in music and in dance. It is a global movement in which the music includes tracks from all over the world, instrumental and vocal, distinct from the tango in that it includes only modern music recorded in the last 30-40 years, and can be danced using the tango's biomechanics. As a dance form it is still evolving. It is a 'living' globalized tango dance form of the 21st century.
Mariano Chicho Frúmboli is an Argentinian tango dancer. He is regarded as one of the founders of tango nuevo, and he is best known for his musicality and creativity while improvising.
Gustavo Naveira is an Argentine tango dancer and teacher who contributed to the detailed analysis of the movements of dancing to Argentine tango.
Figures of Argentine tango are elements of Argentine tango.
Fernando Egozcue is an Argentinian guitarist and composer.
German Cornejo & Gisela Galeassi are an Argentine tango dance duo. They have been dancing together since early 2011, currently dancing for German Cornejo's Dance Company (GCDC), performing as lead dancers for the company. , Gisela and German won the title of World Tango Champions in 2003 and 2005, respectively, at the Campeonato Mundial de Baile de Tango . Both German & Gisela have appeared in numerous TV shows, Films and have toured extensively throughout the world. They have been judges in regional tango championships in Chile, Spain, Italy, Colombia and Japan. The duo is mostly known to Anglo-speaking audiences for their appearance in the American reality television show ¡Q'Viva!: The Chosen. and recently in America's Got Talent. They were winning finalists in Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony's TV show Q Viva culminating in the Las Vegas stage show of the same name in May 2012, at the Mandalay Bay Arena. In June 2012 they were JLO's special guest artists at her first-ever concert in Buenos Aires.
Milonguero is a style of close-embrace tango dancing, the name coined by Susana Miller and Oscar "Cacho" Dante from the Argentine word "milonguero". Milonguero is a term for a skillful and respectful tango dancer who holds a reverence for the type of traditional social tango that is danced at milongas in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two uses of the term do not coincide: many dancers who are considered to be milongueros do not dance milonguero-style tango.
Alberto Bernardino Paz was an Argentine tango historian, teacher, and dancer. Alberto taught the traditional, social tango of the Buenos Aires salons, together with its codes and culture, to North Americans and Europeans.
Tango Argentino is a musical stage production about the history and many varieties of Argentine tango. It was created and directed by Hector Orezzoli and Claudio Segovia, and premiered at the Festival d'Automne in Paris in 1983 and on Broadway in New York in 1985. The Mel Howard production became a world-wide success with numerous tours culminating with a Broadway revival in 1999–2000. It set off a world-wide resurgence of tango, both as a social dance and as a musical genre. Tango Argentino recreates on stage the history of tango from its beginnings in 19th-century Buenos Aires through the tango's golden age of the 1940s and 50s up to Piazzolla's tangos. Most of the dancers in the show did their own choreography.
Lorena Ermocida is an Argentine tango dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Roberto Herrera is an Argentinian dancer, choreographer and dance teacher, known for the Tango.
