Superstition in Tango

[bastet]

The cyber tango post was interesting. It won't change what songs I do or don't like, but I might view differently the next guy I see grabbing his own crotch...

hurrr hurrr hurrr....

 

[Heather2007]

'Get Down and Get Widdit' I think has legs as a milonga/funk franchise - kewl

Ha, ha, ha - its mi roots. You know, you can take the girl out of Deptford and all that...:rocker:

 

[opendoor]

cross over threads

I agree totally to the following post. Because it fits into the context of superstitions and irrationalisms in TA as well.

.. One of the reasons I expended so much time and treasure in learning Argentine Tango is that it comes from another culture. Admittedly, I was first attracted to the very cool "moves" that are part of the dance, but there are other things that don't quite fit our "Contempory Western Civilization" attitudes. The differing roles of men and women are one example that always comes to mind. Learning about other societies, and the fact that not everyone thinks or acts like us is, I think, important. It's also important, again, my opinion, to accept that other cultures are no less "right" or "wrong" in how they do things. So, if you take the music and dance out of its cultural context, you aren't giving people the "full deal"....

 

[opendoor]

Why there are no di Sarli vids around?
A bandoneón player and friend of mine replied to this question

As a very common behavior the envy and jeaulosy came onto Di Sarli, with the​

purpose of ruin his carier a violin player start to spray the gossip that Di​

Sarli was a "yeta" or "Mufa" which means "Bad luck" and any disgrace that​

happened on the Tango community Di Sarli was blamed for that. That behavior it​

is very common in Buenos Aires, so many very well known musicians where in the​

list of "yeta" or "Mufa" I know that Antonio Agri, Jose Libertella, Charlo, and​

so many others where labelled in such way and the nick name was "innombrables"​

which means "do not say their names", Libertella was called "Libreta" which​

means "notebook", Di Sarli "El tuerto" or "Di Churla" the purpose was not to say​

their names because if you say it will be a bad luck for you, some people blame​

Di Sarli and Libertella when Osmar Maderna was killed in airplane crush, before​

they blame so many of them when Carlos Gardel was killed in airplane crush in​

Medellin-Colombia. Personally I just can think how much ignorants and stupid​

those people were, tecnhically was probed that in both cases was a real​

accidents/tregedy, in Medellin the accident was a Pilots mistake and in Osmar​

Maderna was a mechanical problems and on top of that they created de stupid​

"yeta" about the Tango "Adios Muchachos".So many famous they sing and play​

"Adios Muchachos" and made a lot of money on top of this song, Francisco Canaro​

left one of the greated fortune in Buenos Aires and he played thousand of times​

"Adios Muchachos".​

Di Sarli was the very well paid orchestra in Buenos Aires but he made some​

exceptions with some musicians, one of them was the violin player that start to​

spray the gossip about him, he paid him just the minimun allow by the union, the​

very well paid on that orchestra were Libertella and Alfredo Marcucci, they got​

enough money to buy a Pizzaria at the corner of the Obelisco in Buenos​

Aires,people in revenge of this they didn't go to eat pizza there and they have​

to give up and close the business.(community of Tangueros were nice on that​

time)​

Because of that jeaulosy, the privilegy of to get hire for movies was given to​

Canaro,D'Arienzo,Troilo and others but not Di Sarli because he was a "bad luck​

man" and the movie makers they do not want to take a chance to be screw up by​

any accident on the casting.!!!​

Because all of that crap Di Sarli gave up and he went to live in Rosario but​

later the musicians they called him back to finished his wonderful work until he​

passed away on 1960.​

 

[twnkltoz]

In answer to the original post, since I live in America, I follow local/American customs and not those from BsAs "just because". There are a very few people here who feel Gardel shouldn't be danced to in general and that song in particular, but most just go ahead and dance. I find it a challenge to be able to dance to any song, even if it's "not tango." I find the dance in the song and make the most of it and my partner. Maybe the end result is not always "tango", but I honestly don't give a flip. I'm not there to live up to someone else's expectations of what tango is. I'm there to connect to a partner and dance beautifully and interpret the music. Same thing in WCS. It's very freeing to be able to say, "Maybe this song isn't really tango/wcs/whatever, but what the heck...let's see what we can do to it anyway!" Some of my favorite partners have been to BsAs several times and taken many lessons from traveling maestros, and they manage to do the same...which is why I like dancing with them.

 

[Bailamosdance]

I love the dichotomy when the guru says "There are no steps and you just dance to the music" and then place 100 rules and codicils on what how and why you dance...

 

[sixela]

It's actually not entirely internally inconsistent (but you're right it's ironic).

I won't play 'Adios Muchachos', but that 's out of respect for any porteño that might be around (or for anyone who knows the custom attached to it). But it's the DJ's job not to play it, not the dancers' job not to dance to it.

Although I confess I have refused to dance it once, but I just explained to my partner why I wouldn't dance it, and we did continue to dance the next tanda. I'm not superstitious, but that one started with 'Tú, el cielo y tú', and I can't help but feel that was the tango gods wanting to reward me ;-).

 

[opendoor]

... "There are no steps and you just dance to the music" and then place 100 rules and codicils...

You get your teeth very often into tango recently. Is a new branch of business coming?

...that one started with 'Tú, el cielo y tú'...

on this one actually no defensive magic really helps!

 

[opendoor]

I learned tango on Friday the 13th (October 2000). Before, I desperately tried to learn salsa for over 3 weeks. I was frustrated, it simply was too fast, too complex, just incomprehensible. After the salsa class that night I went disillusioned to the subway station. Then I happened to look through a cellar window: Couples danced in slow motion. Slow steps, gracefully and with dignity. I knew intuitively that this was my dance! I had to go in there. Further to the left I found the entrance to an intercultural corner shop. These are publicly funded neighborhood initiatives. I went through an adjoining bistro and several basement rooms. A strange music got louder and louder (today I know it was Bahia Blanca). This music crept like hashish through that corridors. I opened the last door and saw the couples dancing. On the opposite side of the room a woman stood up and embraced me. So I came to tango on a Friday the 13th.

Here are two comments on "el trece" in tango:

» VIERNES 13 | Superstición, Miedo y Tango

dni-tango.com

Alberico Spátola, la superstición y su tango ‘El 13’

“El año 1913 fue recibido por la superstición universal con similares agorerías que el 1900, cuando astrónomos de azotea y ...

www.cronicasdelaemigracion.com

And the d'Agostino-Vargas version of El Trece!

 

[Fanny-K]

The second tango was another foreign composition, Julio Sanders’ Adios Muchachos. - - - - - - - - I didn’t like the words either, which tell of a man’s farewell to his friends: he is going to prison because he has killed his wife’s lover. “Farewell!” Brought the song to a climax of bad taste. Murder is not my image of tango.

Adiós, muchachos, ya me voy y me resigno,
Contra el destino nadie la calla.
Se terminaron para mí todas las farras.
Mi cuerpo enfermo no resiste más.

Goodbye, boys, I'm leaving and resigning myself,​

No one shuts her up against fate.​

All the farras (parties) are over for me.​

My sick body can't take it anymore.​

Es Dios el juez supremo, no hay quien se le resista,
Ya estoy acostumbrado, su ley a respetar,
Pues mi vida deshizo con sus mandatos
Llevándome a mi madre y a mi novia también.

It is God the supreme judge, there is no one to resist him,​

I'm used to it, your law to respect,​

Well, my life got rid of his mandates.​

Taking my mother and my girlfriend too.​

To my humble knowledge and opinion, the lyrics refer to death by tuberculosis (TB), which were very common at the time.
Almost all of Gardel's songs are not danceable because they were played with guitar, not because of the lyrics. However some extreme lyrics are never played in milongas in Argentina.

 

[Fanny-K]

If your speaking about Por una Cabeza which is one of the first Gardel tango songs I ever heard, then yes - that did contribute to shaping my image of tango - and I think it's a gorgeous song just like I also like Adios Muchachos. I'd much rather have my vision of tango shaped by a beautiful song about a distasteful topic than by the odd horrible evening I had at certain milongas, or dancing with people with no appreciation or feel for the music. The MUSIC is the main reason I am drawn to tango, lyrics and all - happy or sad.

Of course there are happy lyrics in tango, but I think it's safe to say that the majority are not, for various cultural reasons, as set out in the quite intelligent discourse on the subject of tango lyrics in Masculinities: Football, Polo and the Tango in Argentina by Eduardo P. Archetti, and elsewhere.

Por Una Cebeza, compares a horse race with his love (desire) for a lady (likely a prostitute) he lost. He concludes gambling is a solution for the moment.

Por una cabeza de un noble potrillo

By a head of a noble young male horse​

​

Pero si algún pingo llega a ser fija el domingo
Yo me juego entero, que le voy a hacer?

But if any young male horse gets fixed on Sunday​

I'll play (gamble) whole, what am I going to do? ​

 

[Fanny-K]

Por Una Cebeza, By a head, you actually win or loose a horse race. I am no expert in gambling or horse races, but por una cabeza is in my modest knowledge, the first impression of what horse is the winner or not.

 

[MariaSAO]

That's so beautiful! Thank you!

I think we in Europe or North America understand too little from what Tango Argentino really is but that's ok. I have just a blurry image of men and women carrying their dark stories and dark souls in a night of party just to forget. For a night. Inventing wild movements on heart breaking music.

I do understand a bit of spanish but sometimes I am happy I do not understand more. There were nights when it made me sick to hear 'corazon' hundreds of times. I had a strange experience during one 'Ensuenos' when I felt that the music was so incredible beautiful and brought up so much emotion and I was wondering if it is actually appropriate to share that in the embrace with a stranger (which happened to be a phantastic dancer). Lost in the beauty of movements and music I tried to control showing what I feel. It was even more embarassing since I thought he was also touched, but that might have been only my own impression.

I go to Tango for the fever of dancing on beautiful music and that's all. I refuse to experience at a Milonga what Tango really means at its origins, even if I myself feel sometimes like those men and women.

 

[opendoor]

Mufa y Aureola
Just read an interview by Carlos Zito with Horacio Ferrer on José Otero's timeline. I found the comparison of Carlos di Sarli and Osvaldo Pugliese interesting. (Google can translate the text to some extent).

Carlos Zito -Hablando de Di Sarli, después de muchos años parece que se terminó la estúpida superstición de que traía mala suerte...
Horacio Ferrer - ¡Por favor, eso fue pura envidia! Después la ligó el pobre José Libertella, el gran bandoneonista creador del Sexteto Mayor. La yeta que le adjudicaban a Di Sarli se la habían trasladado a él. Es obra de envidiosos.
– Ahora, al revés, a otro gran director, Osvaldo Pugliese, se le atribuye ser un agente de la buena suerte. ¡Hasta existen estampitas del maestro con una aureola!
– Pugliese es muy querido, y se lo merece. Hay una cosa que siempre digo, y en la que fui escuchado: la trayectoria completa de la orquesta de Pugliese, con cuarenta años de evolucionar y de tocar, es mucho más importante para la música del siglo XX que lo que dejaron Los Beatles, que hicieron siempre lo mismo. Lo que pasa es que ellos tenían para su difusión la empresa Inglaterra, y nosotros la empresa Argentina. Es la verdad y nadie, pero nadie, me lo discute. El trabajo musical de la orquesta de Pugliese fue sencillamente extraordinario. Vos tomás “El rodeo” y tomás “Yunta de oro”, dos extremos, y ves que está la orquesta y está el estilo. Pero cómo evolucionó, cómo se enriqueció la orquesta: es una sinfonía maravillosa. Estaba como primer bandoneón el Tano (Osvaldo) Ruggiero, al que una vez, en París, le dije que era “el Pichuco” de la orquesta de Pugliese. ¡Quedó encantado con esa comparación! Y tuvo violinistas como Enrique Camerano y luego Oscar Herrero -Ferrer tararea el solo de violín del tango “Chiqué”, y agrega:. Camerano tenía esa cosa agitanada, que después imitó un poco Herrero-.
– Uno de los secretos del tango parece estar en su variedad de estilos.
– El tema de los estilos es el más importante en el tango, musicalmente hablando. La creación estilística en el tango es impresionante. Los estilos tienen una personalidad y una grandeza aristocrática. Fresedo, Di Sarli, D’Arienzo, Canaro, que con cuatro notas hacían su estilo inconfundible. Hay, por un lado, estilos de solistas, maneras –por ejemplo– de tocar el piano, que a veces se trasfunde a la orquesta, y por otro lado hay estilos orquestales. La orquesta de Di Sarli, a pesar de que algunos digan que no estaba escrita, sí lo estaba, aunque con muy poca cosa, con mucha sencillez, pero con una gran expresión que venía del piano del director. Toda la orquesta tocaba para el piano. Yo fui muy amigo de Félix Verdi, que era el primer bandoneón de Di Sarli, y me decía: “Siempre estaba buscando esos bordoneos, esas improvisaciones, y cuando se daba cuenta de que lo estábamos mirando, ¡tocaba en cuatro para disimular!".

​

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Mufa y Aureola
Just read an interview by Carlos Zito with Horacio Ferrer on José Otero's timeline. I found the comparison of Carlos di Sarli and Osvaldo Pugliese interesting. (Google can translate the text to some extent).

​

Interesting and news to me. But both were brilliant musicians.