The slaves
supplied to South America came principally from the Congo, the
tribes of the Gulf of Guinea, and Southern Sudan. In various
dialects of these areas, tango meant closed, shut off. The slave
trader called tango the gathering places of slaves in both Africa
and America. In the Diccionario Provincial de Voces Cubanas
(1836), of Estaban Pichardo, tango is defined as "get-together of
newly-arrived blacks to dance to drums or kettledrums. In Buenos
Aires, tango referred, as early as the early 16th Century, the
houses where the blacks carried out their dances." Some documents
of the 19th Century used the word tambo instead of tango, which
for the newcomers meant drum, the percussion instrument used for
those dances. The word mulonga (like its plural, milonga ) is a
term of quimbunda origin, of the language spoken by the Angolan
blacks of Brazil, that means word, according to the Diccionario de
Vocabulos Brazileiros (Rio de Janeiro, 1889).
The tango
and the milonga, while different genres within Argentine music, are
closely related. But how so? And, if they are different genres, what is
the tango milonga? A misleading use of these terms has only contributed
to generate more confusion. This article, although not a comprehensive
musicological or historical study of these genres, aims to answer these
questions and to clarify the terms.
The milonga, which precedes
the tango in history, was a solo song cultivated during the 19th Century
by the gaucho (a sort of Argentine cowboy) in the vast rural area known
as the Pampa. It derives from the payada de contrapunto, in which two
singers (payadores), accompanying themselves on the guitar, improvised
on different topics in a competition-like practice. The verses were
octosyllabic quartets structured in a musical period of eight measures
in 2/4. The term milonga is an African-Brazilian term that means words,
that is, the words of the payadores. It may be named rural milonga in
order to distinguish it from later developments of the genre.
Around
1880, through the Conquista del Desierto (the conquest of the desert),
the Argentine government made possible the fencing of the Pampa and the
subsequent distribution of the land into large properties for
aristocratic owners and small plots of land for European immigrants, who
were arriving in Argentina in large numbers. This forced the almost
nomadic gauchos to settle down in the poorest suburban areas of the
capital, Buenos Aires. Their adaptation to city life was difficult, and
frequently they lived marginal lives of crime. Eventually they were
called compadritos, a word used to denote a person with an aggressive
character.
The relationship between the compadritos and the
African-Argentine population in the Buenos Aires suburbs gave birth to
the tango dance, which started as a result of the compadritos’ mockery
of the black people’s dances with an important difference: the blacks
danced separated and the compadritos danced embraced. Diverse historians
affirm that the word tango derives from the name (in the slang of the
black people) of their dancing places, known as tambos and, later,
tangos . It is widely accepted that the mocking new choreography was
taken to the brothels by the compadritos before tango music really
existed as such. Eventually, music was created to fit this dance, and it
is not strange that the rural milonga and the habanera, in fashion at
the time, influenced it. Trial-and-error adaptations to the new dance,
bringing together the rural milonga of the gauchos, the habanera of the
European immigrants, and the African-Argentine dances in the melting pot
that was Buenos Aires, created a mixture called
tango.
The rural milonga had some particular
characteristics: binary meter (2/4) and the following rhythmic pattern:
A triplet frequently replaced
the dotted eighth-sixteenth notes, and the following syncopated figure
could also appear:
The guitar accompaniment was structured over "spread"
tonic and dominant chords, as in this example: These
characteristics of the rural milonga were also present in the early
tangos of the 1900s. The tango El Choclo (1903), by Angel Villoldo, is a
clear example of the influence of the rural milonga in the early tangos:
2/4 meter, the rhythmic pattern of the dotted eighth-sixteenth plus two
eighth notes, and simple harmonies, usually alternating tonic and
dominant chords:
Small ensembles formed by flute, violin, and guitar
gave the rural milonga a peculiar timbre that the first tangos would
keep. These types of ensembles would also be present in the brothels,
the gathering places of the compadritos, where the early tangos were
first played. The tango’s features described above are characteristic of
the period comprised between the tango’s origins and 1920. This period
is also known as the age of the Guardia Vieja (Old Guard). During that
time, the rural milonga survived as a countryside genre independent of
the tango. From 1920 to approximately 1955 the tango underwent
significant transformations. During this period, known as that of the
Guardia Nueva (New Guard), three different types of tango appeared:
tango milonga, tango romanza, and tango canción. The tango milonga is
often called milonga interchangeably with the latter, producing
confusion between the terms. Other names given to the development of the
tango during this period are tango de corte milonga or milonga urbana.
Undoubtedly, Sebastián Piana was the pioneer of the tango milonga
with his Milonga Sentimental, composed in 1931 with lyrics by Homero
Manzi. It enriched the simple harmonies of the rural milonga and opened
a whole range of rhythmic, melodic, and poetic possibilities. Many other
composers followed his path: some of the most representative productions
are La trampera (A. Troilo), La Puñalada (P. Castellanos), Nocturna (J.
Plaza), and Taquito Militar (M. Mores).
A lot of tango milongas
were performed in fast tempos, heavily marking the accents, giving them
a solid rhythmic character. It is probable that this fact contributed to
a popular confusion that describes the tango milonga as a "tango in a
fast tempo". This representation fails to explain the existence of the
slow tango milonga, like Sebastián Piana´s Milonga Triste (1936), or
Astor Piazzolla´s Milonga del Angel, among many others. The confusion
grew when some tango historians invented the term orquesta milonguera
for orchestras that had a great sense of rhythm. The main
characteristic of the tango milonga (both slow and fast) is the presence
of the rhythmic patterns of the rural milonga, like those of figures 1
and 2, and other patterns like in the following examples:
Astor
Piazzolla, the internationally known creator of the New Tango, who
revolutionized the traditional tango by introducing elements of
classical music and jazz, used the tango milonga rhythm as an essential
part of his style. His use of the 3+3+2 rhythmic pattern (emphasis on
the first, fourth, and sixth eighth notes in a 4/4 bar) derives from the
mutation of the rural milonga rhythm typical of the guitar accompaniment
(see figure 2). He used this pattern in several fast and slow tango
milongas as well as in many of his other compositions, often combining
them with other rhythmic cells. The impressive work of Astor
Piazzolla had a great influence in tango music and marked a path
followed by the musicians of his and the next generations. The so-called
post-piazzolleanos, among them Rodolfo Mederos and Pablo Ziegler, could
not find yet an alternative to the Piazzolla esthetic proposal. Tango
musicians currently face the challenge of redefining the tango milonga
for the XXI Century. As tango bandleader and virtuoso bandeoneonist
Aníbal Troilo said, "Tango has the habit of waiting".
Endless controversies exist concerning tango
history, specially regarding its origins. The following bibliography
presents sources that explore the diverse and contradictory
theories:
The tango
and the milonga, while different genres within Argentine music, are
closely related. But how so? And, if they are different genres, what is
the tango milonga? A misleading use of these terms has only contributed
to generate more confusion. This article, although not a comprehensive
musicological or historical study of these genres, aims to answer these
questions and to clarify the terms. 
Around
1880, through the Conquista del Desierto (the conquest of the desert),
the Argentine government made possible the fencing of the Pampa and the
subsequent distribution of the land into large properties for
aristocratic owners and small plots of land for European immigrants, who
were arriving in Argentina in large numbers. This forced the almost
nomadic gauchos to settle down in the poorest suburban areas of the
capital, Buenos Aires. Their adaptation to city life was difficult, and
frequently they lived marginal lives of crime. Eventually they were
called compadritos, a word used to denote a person with an aggressive
character. 
Small ensembles formed by flute, violin, and guitar
gave the rural milonga a peculiar timbre that the first tangos would
keep. These types of ensembles would also be present in the brothels,
the gathering places of the compadritos, where the early tangos were
first played. The tango’s features described above are characteristic of
the period comprised between the tango’s origins and 1920. This period
is also known as the age of the Guardia Vieja (Old Guard). During that
time, the rural milonga survived as a countryside genre independent of
the tango. 
From 1920 to approximately 1955 the tango underwent
significant transformations. During this period, known as that of the
Guardia Nueva (New Guard), three different types of tango appeared:
tango milonga, tango romanza, and tango canción. The tango milonga is
often called milonga interchangeably with the latter, producing
confusion between the terms. Other names given to the development of the
tango during this period are tango de corte milonga or milonga urbana.
Undoubtedly, Sebastián Piana was the pioneer of the tango milonga
with his Milonga Sentimental, composed in 1931 with lyrics by Homero
Manzi. It enriched the simple harmonies of the rural milonga and opened
a whole range of rhythmic, melodic, and poetic possibilities. Many other
composers followed his path: some of the most representative productions
are La trampera (A. Troilo), La Puñalada (P. Castellanos), Nocturna (J.
Plaza), and Taquito Militar (M. Mores).
