The dance originated in Buenos Aires and Montevideo during the late 19th century. The music however, was a fusion deriving from Europe.
By 1912, dancers and musicians traveled to Europe. The first city to adopt Tango was Paris, followed by London, Berlin and it quickly spread to other capitals.
In 1916, Roberto Firpo already an accomplished band leader with a successful sextet of, 2 bandoneons, 2 violins, a double bass, and a piano. Firpo heard a march by Uruguayan Geraldo Matos Rodriguez, adapted it and created the #1 most popular tango of all time "La Cumparsita".
The dark era of tango was from 1955 to 1983. The fall of the military in Argentina, in 1983, was the start of Argentineans to be proud of their heritage, the tango.The problem was there were no teachers, no dance halls, a huge void. Slowly, people who had been dancing in the Golden Age felt comfortable to dance again, and fortunately, passed their information on. The dance also hit it's revival in the 80's with the opening in Paris of the show "Tango Argentino" and the Broadway musical "Forever Tango".
Click for Firpo's "La Cumparsita"
Click forJuan D'Arienzo's "La Cumparsita
***"La Cumparsita" denotes the last song of the night at a milonga. Many dj's may play more than one version.
Classification and Orchestra names over the last century:
Julio De Caro, Edgardo Donato, Osvaldo Fresedo, Pedro Laurenz, Juan D'Arienzo, Rodolfo Biagi, Angel D'Agostino, Miguel Calo, Ricardo Tanturi, Lucio Demare, Carlos Di Sarli, Enrique Rodriguez, Anibal Troilo, Alfredo De Angelis, Osvaldo Pugliese, Francisco Canaro
