We will assimilate this concept to the dynamic that can be observed in the growth of the living beings, marking clearly the different stages of its existence. After the innovation that produces a cut-off is produced, the musical framework starts to standardize when the new tendency is adopted massively, until the next evolution turning point.

From this point of view, the first cut-off would be its massive bursting in as a musical genre, event that we can ascertain by the documents that occurred in the Carnival dances of 1903, even though it was a popular genre in them since several years before that. From then on, organizers looked after emphasize the playing of tango, advertising in an open competition the quantity and novelty of the songs. The places where this happened were the dance halls that gathered the working classes and immigrants, as well as the downtown theatres set up with dance floors.

That forces us to reconsider the much talked about “rejection” supposedly provoked by tango, as well as the years in which it was “accepted” publicly as a musical genre, normally assumed ten years later.

In this halls and theaters, the orchestras that interpreted the music were integrated by numerous performers with academical knowledge, led by a director well versed in orchestration. All in accordance with the dimensions of the places and the high amount of people converging, that demanded a high sound to “fill” the space. Therefore the incipient groups, called later “típicas”, made up of trios and quartets, were left out.

On the other side, the record industry, still in its beginnings took the maximum care possible in the musical quality of the recordings, because the record was an expensive product, and the buyers would not have accepted a bad value for their money. This fact could explain the delay of the típicas in get to be recorded.

This makes it possible for us to establish a second cut-off in our analysis, given its documentary appearance in sound recordings of one of them, a privilege that had the one lead by the bandoneon player Vicente Greco. Listening to these recordings from the beginning of 1910 we can get to some conclusions.

The first one is that it was possible to record even with a small number of performers (a quartet in this case). In that case: Why wasn’t it done before? Let’s remember what we said before in terms of the minimum of quality demanded to the interpretations, a requirement hardly fulfilled in the performances of this orchestra, which at times is out of tune and loses the tempo. Having been obvious the commercial decision of using the most popular orchestra (and presumably better) to assure the sales, it can be concluded that at those times, these type of orchestras were formed by performers of scarce technical and musical knowledge. And that’s why they didn’t record.

These comments are not made with a pejorative intention, because we are conscious of the importance of these orchestras in the reinforcement of tango, being ultimately the milestones of its evolution. But it must not be sublimated or mystified the virtues of these pioneers as it’s often done, a praise that is not in accordance with the musical testimonies that they have left. We must add that some of them were able to evolve as musicians in the following years, being able to reach the same level as some colleagues rose in the conservatories.

Another conclusion that these recordings from Greco allow us to reach to, is the preponderancy that was given in the recording to the bandoneon. If we rule out that it was a technical error, since the recording activity was more than ten years old, we must conclude that it was due to the attraction and importance given to this importance in the orquestas típicas, evidenced in the reputation that Vicente Greco had as a performer.

A different chapter deserves the importance of the phonograph as a diffusing vehicle of tango, which until 1910 it was already performed by bands or orchestras in theatres and halls. And from then, by the típicas. This reproductive system had a contradictory effect, imposing in a given time a given form or style of performance and then, when it evolved, changed into its killer, mutating the popular taste, adapting it to the new forms. For example, the phonograph imposed the bands and took them out of circulation after Pacho; those that tried to record, let’s say until 1914, they had a disaster in the amount of records sold.

Enrique Binda.

(Note from SentirTango: We will publish the second and third part of this article, in the future in this same section)