CD sample with recordings of famous tangos
by Eduardo Rafael Silveira
[CD available upon request]
TANGO
The presentation underlines the amazing itinerary and development of the tango as a folk artistic musical form worldwide. Its influence spread as a dance and a song and has final acceptance by classical music performers and orchestras as a classical musical form worldwide. Tango includes visual, dance, and piano musical samples by pianist Eduardo Rafael Silveira, Guillermo Silveira's father.
The purpose of this presentation is to unveil the real process of acculturation of the TANGO musical form as a song, a dance, an instrumental piece, and an orchestral work. It shows the assimilation internationally during the twentieth century.
Starting in Africa as a dramatic rhythm and percussion instrument, the tango crossed the Atlantic to South America, by the Rio de la Plata, a river between Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The influence of the tango as a dance or as a song in these urban areas was promoted and became influential all over Europe and Latin America. Later on, when the tango became an international musical form presented by ensembles in the northern hemisphere, it turned into an international musical form performed by symphonic orchestras and classical performers.
The DC area has many groups of tango dancers, and ensembles perform tangos of all nations. There is a vague idea of the history of the tango and its origins. African Americans are really surprised to learn that the word "tango" is African. In the Spain of the nineteenth century, the word "tango" was used for a genre of flamenco.
Some place-names in Africa are called tango. In Spanish colonial documents the vocable is used in reference to the place where blacks celebrated their festive meetings.
This presentation also tells about the difference between each South American conception of the musical form, especially the ones that speak Spanish and Portuguese, main part of the melting pot component in all tangos and their subsequent internationalization.
The event recreates the circumstances of the different acculturations of the dance with live performance samples of the singing and dancing.
MP3 samples and pictures are available at http://guillermosilveira.tripod.com
Thanks for your support,
Guillermo Silveira, composer
From a family of musicians, Eduardo studied classical music and piano techniques with his aunt María Luisa Silveira, a famous teacher at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires.
Eduardo decided to study tangos and popular dances. He performs in tango and folk events such as Cafe Tortoni, Asociación Argentina del Tango, Academia Argentina del Lunfardo, and even Anglican churches, foundations or family parties, many times accompanying famous Argentine tango poet Bocha Gallo in cultural presentations since the 1950's.
Eduardo's family musical talents influence also the music of his younger son, whom the Washington Performing Arts Society called: "Washington's own composer, Guillermo Silveira".
El nombre del ritmo más popular del Río de la Plata está registrado en nuestra lengua desde 1837, registrado por el etimólogo cubano Esteban Prichardo, y todo parece indicar que su origen es africano, nacido en alguna de las lenguas llevadas a América por los esclavos. Sin embargo, debemos tener presente que ese tango primigenio poco tiene que ver con la música típica rioplatense inmortalizada por Carlos Gardel y Gerardo Mattos Rodrígues.
En efecto, en su Nuevo diccionario lunfardo, José Gobello recuerda que hacia la primera mitad del siglo xix se llamó tango a las reuniones de negros que bailaban al son de sus tambores. Para este autor, tango se origina en la primera persona del singular del presente de indicativo del verbo portugués tanger, que significa 'tocar un instrumento musical'.
Sin embargo, el musicólogo brasileño Nei Lopes cree que el nombre de este ritmo provendría más bien de tangu, que en la lengua africana quimbundo designa un movimiento de la pierna en algunos tipos de baile, mientras que otros autores señalan la lengua sudanesa ibibio, en la cual se llama tamgu a una danza con tambores.
Corominas se adhiere a la hipótesis del origen africano, pero recuerda 'cierta danza llamada tangue que aparece en el siglo XVI en Normandía', aunque él mismo admite que se trata de un vocablo de formación independiente.
Como ocurrió con otras palabras de origen africano, es posible que tango haya entrado a Cuba y a Sudamérica en forma separada, aunque con el mismo origen. El 'tanguillo' que hizo furor en Andalucía hacia la segunda mitad del siglo xix parece haber llegado desde Cuba, país con que el que esta región de España mantuvo siempre intenso intercambio cultural. Pero fue sólo en las postrimerías del siglo XIX que que el ritmo sensual de esta música suburbana empezó a hacerse oír en los arrabales de Montevideo y Buenos Aires.
"La fantástica historia de las palabras", libro de Ricardo Soca.