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September 29, 2008
Letters from Buenos Aires #3
Letters from Buenos Aires
Beatriz Dujovne
I head towards Avenida de Mayo today Thursday September 25th 2008. More precisely to Professor Enrique Binda’s second class at the National Academy of Tango. Teacher and students do not kiss in his class, we do not seat in a circle either. But I have another class before this one with a different teacher; in his class we seat in a circle and we do kiss.
Always a little shocked by cultural differences when I return to my first culture, I relish all this kissing. It happens like this: if I am the first one to arrive, each student who comes after me kisses me and whoever else is there. When the teacher arrives, he kisses all of us. The last to arrive bends down seat by seat to look us in the eye and kiss us. The kissing continues with each new arrival until the teacher begins the class. Anyone coming late is greeted by the teacher who interrupts himself to extend a welcome: “Hola Ricardo, como estas?”. Small nuances like the looking at each other in the eye before kissing, the kissing itself, and the self- interruption of the teacher, remind me why the eminently connecting tango was born and has been sustained by this interpersonally glue-making culture.
Enough about kissing. So, I am here going to share the notes from the non-kissing class. Last week, Binda had “proved” to us, with musical selections, that many “innovations” attributed to Julio De Caro (i.e. introduction of solo instrumentals, “contracantos” of violins) were already present in Firpo’s 1913 and Fresedo’s1922 recordings.
Binda is a researcher who does not hesitate to contradict the “official” history when his data show otherwise.
Today’s class will covers some highlights of music and singing developments from 1922 to 1924.
From a vintage edition of a De Caro’s book, Professor Binda shows us the picture of the orquesta Minotto where De Caro made his debut as the first violinist. We listen to “Fruta Prohibida” by Delfino, recorded by Victor in 1922. We notice the music to be rather repetitive. Without the variations, the subtleties or the expressivity that we had heard in the Fresedo orquesta last week. The Minotto orquesta had no particular characteristics, De Caro’s presence in it did not add anything, Binda says.
From 1922 we listen to “Viaje al Norte”, by Cobian’s sexteto, with its characteristic Cobian’s melody, with Petrucelli and Maffia in bandoneons, and Julio De Caro on violin. Binda and the knowledgeable members of this class find Cobian’s orquesta considerably less interesting than the rich Fresedo’s. (Anecdote: Cobian recorded this piece before he left for the United States in 1924, thus the title: “Trip to the North” [1924 is Binda’s research date, as opposed to the 1923 date find in publications]). Under his boss Cobian, Julio De Caro composed a tango named “Fresedo”, an expression of admiration and gratitude to the man who, since the 1910s had been the leading tango composer, arranger, and director. De Caro composed this tribute not to his boss Cobian, but to Fresedo.
Binda tells us anecdotes about De Caro’s early days as an orquesta director. He was hardly able to get good paying gigs and, to keep his orquesta together, paid his musicians out of his own pocket (without their knowledge); they performed at a bar a few blocks from the Academy of Tango in Avenida de Mayo. After about a month, when he was running out of money, a foreign impresario hired him to play at the luxurious Palais de Glace with a very high salary to play at dancing teas and dinners for the aristocracy. This unexpected success opened the door to recordings with the Victor company. This company had traditionally recorded cream of the crop musicians, while Odeon was less discriminating. To be recorded by Victor was, thus, a major step for De Caro.
“Todo Corazon” from August 1924 by De Caro’s sextet featured two bandoneons (Petrucelli [first bandoneon] and Maffia), and Francisco De Caro on piano. This is the only recording with these two bandoneon players. Petrucelli left soon thereafter and Laurenz joined. De Caro’s orquesta had far more liveliness than Cobian’s.
After listening to De Caro we listened again to “Sollozos” (1922), the Fresedo piece played during the previous class, with Cobian on piano, Roccatagliata in violin, and solos of bandoneon.
Binda reminds us that these great musicians were "practically children" between ages 22 and 24!
We spend some time appreciating how slow the development of singing was during the late 1910s and the 1920s. Singing lagged far behind the fast developing music.
In the rather mediocre voice of Ignacio Corsini, an actor who found his way into singing, we noticed his difficulties sustaining certain notes in “Patotero Sentimental” (1922).
On the other hand, Rosita Quiroga, the “Gardel” female of tango song, recorded “De mi barrio” in 1923. She was a fully mature singer by that time. She sang with expressiveness, invitingly, almost a cappella. The orquesta was background to her voice.
“Mia”, one of the first tangos that Azucena Maizani recorded in 1924, shows us that it would take Maizani several years to achieve the quality that Rosita Quiroga had reached a year earlier. With this recording Professor Binda closed the evening.
Impressed by my fellow students’ knowledge of tango music and history, I observed when Binda played specific songs (at times they dialogued with the teacher). I asked three of the men (as we descended down the white marble stairway hugging the turn of the century elevator) why were they attending this class if they knew so much. They had some “holes” in their knowledge and this teacher knows so much that it brings it all together for them, I was told. I was amazed one of them had identified “Almita Herida” during the two seconds Binda (by mistake) put it in the recorder and quickly removed it. Already in Avenida de Mayo at 9:30 PM, I asked him about his background. He was not a musician, not even a dancer, he replied. He had a “good ear”, a wide collection of recordings and loved tango. And you, they asked, what brings you to this class? “I come from dancing….” They seemed pleased and almost in unison they said: there is only one tango that cannot be separated: “music, dance, poetry and singing”.
Posted by beatriz at 08:49 PM | Comments (1)
Against
Seth's Blog: It's easy to be against something
It's easy to be against something
...that you're afraid of.
And it's easy to be afraid of something that you don't understand.
Posted by joegrohens at 03:06 PM
September 23, 2008
Letters from Buenos Aires #2
Buenos Aires, September 18, 2008
Beatriz Dujovne
Avenida de Mayo was completed with its full European splendor for the one hundredth anniversary of the city in 1910. Many of its restaurants and cafes have been there since that time. So has the hotel where Garcia Lorca stayed.
Spanish immigrants used to congregate in these establishments. I know that for a fact. I was there among them during my childhood. I felt privileged as a seven year old when my uncle Jose took me on his Saturday night outings to Avenida de Mayo where he met his friends from Galicia, Spain. As the only child at the restaurant table I got a lot of attention, but soon got bored listening to their reminiscences about the old country. Once, to alleviate my boredom I got up and moved around for a while holding what I thought was Jose’s hand. Instead I looked up and discovered the person was a perfect stranger. I became frightened for a second, until I spotted my uncle watching me from a short distance, wondering what I would do when I realized I was holding onto a stranger. That event did not become a trauma. Maybe back in my unconscious it adds to my delight when I embrace a stranger tango dancing.
Today I went by myself to the National Academy of Tango, which is located in Avenida de Mayo above historic Café Tortoni, whose manager told me last year about his recollections of when the intellectuals and artists of the XX century gathered there: our poets Jorge Luis Borges, Alfonsina Storni, Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, our painter Quunquela Martin, our tango singer Carlos Gardel, Italian dramaturge Luigi Pirandello. Wishing I had been part of those times, I climbed the marble steps of the academy, the same ones that our poet Horacio Ferrer (yes, the one who wrote the lyrics for Piazzolla’s songs), its director, climbs every day. I am in the building where the Museum of Tango is housed, where Anibal Troilo’s bandoneon stays, where it comes alive only on special occasions. Last year Raul Garello played it. I was there and watched Ferrer stand up when the instrument entered the room in the hands of Garello. And he stood up until the bandoneon was carried out of the room. I believe he had his right hand on his heart.
I take the luscious turn-of-the century elevator to the second floor (I like its feel, never miss an opportunity to touch it) and look for the “History of Tango in the Twenties” course in which I have registered. The instructor is the historian who tango academicians respect. The only one that does not believe in the abundant narratives and mythology passed as history, the one who only writes and teaches what he has personally researched and documented from articles in newspapers of the time or at the National Archives. His name is Enrique Binda. He is best known as the co-author of a classic book: “Tango en la sociedad portena 1880-1920” [Tango in the portena society 1880-1920]
I would like to share a few notes from the first class (I missed the 3 previous classes) with those of you who are tango music connoisseurs. But first let me share a cultural observation. I arrived 10 minutes late (oops…) expecting he would frown at me. But he stopped the class, came towards me, introduced himself and welcomed me.
He continued talking about the musical quality of first tango cancion (sung tango) “Mi Noche Triste”, recorded by Gardel with accompaniment of guitars. We tend to think of it as a great tango but the country sound of the music needed to evolve into tango music. It took three years for a tango song to have musical quality. This first quality tango song was Milonguita, in 1920. We listened to the original recordings of both “Mi Noche Triste” and “Milonguita”.
Piracy of recordings is not a contemporary phenomenon. It existed as early as 1915. A factory located in Porto Alegre, Brasil, recorded with its own label the work of Argentine artists. Bringing a few of those old pirated records, Binda let us touch them and inspect the labels.
He then played for us the 1920 recording of “El Rodeo” with Delfino on piano and Fresedo on bandoneon. We then heard “Sollozos” (1922) by Fresedo’s orquesta with Roccatagliata on violin and Cobian on piano. Binda guided us to notice the several instrumental solos in this piece. Some of the novelties that Fresedo introduced were credited to De Caro who came on the scene later.
From the fall of 1922 Binda played “Almita Herida” by Fresedo’s orquesta, featuring another solo by Cobian. In “Firulete” from 1922 we could hear new sounds (cymbals) which Fresedo later discarded. Binda pointed out that new “timbres” were explored by Fresedo, even though there is a tendency to believe tango music had to wait for those new timbres until Salgan and others appeared on the musical scene later.
From the Orquesta Tipica Flores he played “Buena Mano” (1922), which did not have the esthetic sense of the balances, tensions and richness of Fresedo.
A reading of his class notes, which he graciously gave me to catch up with the material I had missed, clarified the main point of the lecture. In spite of his great respect for De Caro, Binda asserted that many “innovations” attributed to De Caro (i.e. introduction of solo instrumentals) were already present in 1922 in Fresedo’s recordings. The same is true about the “contracantos” of violin; they had been introduced by Firpo in 1913. Binda also found the “acompanamiento armonizado” in the hands of Cobian during his work with Fresedo in 1922, and to some extent In Delfino 1920. Fresedo is an example of “a style rich in colors, alternating solo passages with pianissimos and tuttis in excellent concurrence”.
I am amazed at the high quality education that Binda is imparting with a boom box that has to be adjusted constantly for quality of sound, at all the research he has done for his passion of writing a documented history of tango. I imagine he did it without a grant, in his own time, at his own expense…but I will find out this and more when I meet one-on-one with him at Café Tortoni, as we arranged.
I walk out wishing that the thousands of foreign dancers who go to Buenos Aires could know that there are dozens of workshops on tango music and history like this one simultaneously offered throughout this city.
Posted by beatriz at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2008
Music Selection for Beginning Class
I have made an iMix for my beginning tango class.
Joe's Tango iMix 1 Click to listen and download items. (Requires iTunes.)
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