Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango Instrumental Music

This book offers an inside view of Argentine tango music in the context of the growth and development of the art form’s instrumental and stylistic innovations. It trace tango’s historical and stylistic musical trajectory in Argentina, beginning with the guardia nueva’s crystallization of the genre in the 1920s, moving through tango’s Golden Age (1932–1955), and culminating with the “Music of Buenos Aires” today. Through the transmission, discussion, examination, and analysis of scores, manuals of style, archival audio/video recordings, and live video footage of performances and demonstrations, ... More

This book offers an inside view of Argentine tango music in the context of the growth and development of the art form’s instrumental and stylistic innovations. It trace tango’s historical and stylistic musical trajectory in Argentina, beginning with the guardia nueva’s crystallization of the genre in the 1920s, moving through tango’s Golden Age (1932–1955), and culminating with the “Music of Buenos Aires” today. Through the transmission, discussion, examination, and analysis of scores, manuals of style, archival audio/video recordings, and live video footage of performances and demonstrations, the book frames and defines Argentine tango music as a distinct expression possessing its own musical legacy and characteristic musical elements. Part I establishes parameters for tango studies by describing and defining the art form’s musical elements, historical and stylistic trajectory, and arranging and performance techniques. Part II provides ten in-depth profiles of representative tangueros within the genre’s historical and stylistic trajectory. The book traces these tangueros by linking common elements of their compositional techniques and performance practices. For each profile, the chapters provide a biographical sketch, define the tanguero’s stylistic traits, and analyze a representative piece including an overview, a listening chart of a specific performance by the tanguero, and a close reading of the score. Through this focused examination of tangueros and their music, the book shows how the dynamic Argentine tango grows from one tanguero linked to another, and it concludes that the composition techniques and performance practices of each generation of tangueros is informed by that of the past.