Description
Abstract
This paper examines a corpus of compositions classified as “cultured tangos” [tangos cultos] (Buch 2012), produced between 1890 and 2002 by composers educated in the tradition of Western Art Music and native from cities near the Mediterranean Sea: Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909 from Camprodón, Girona, Spain), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924 from Lucca, Italy), Darius Milhaud (1892-1974 from Marseille, France), and Salvador Ranieri (1930-2012 from Arena, Calabria, Italy). Through the analysis of musical notations, sound and audiovisual recordings, this study aims to identify stylistic-compositional techniques and intertextualities between this “popular” musical genre of Rioplatense origin (Novatti 2018 [1980]; Link & Wendland 2024) and Central European “Art Music” genres (suites, ballets, and piano pieces). Specifically, it seeks to explore receptions of Rioplatense tango’s “compositional styles” (Kohan 2010), “technical foundations” (Peralta 2012), and “essential elements for arranging” (Gallo 2018). This research seeks to expand the concept of “cultured tango” by proposing an internal classification and a historical reinterpretation that considers alternative perspectives on the influences, mediations, and cultural mobilities between different musical traditions shaped by diverse processes of globalization (Strohm 2018; Sperber 2023; Heile 2024) during the Age of Total War (c.1914-1945/50) and the Age of Interconnection (c.1945-2001). Ultimately, questions regarding cultural uses of tango will be addressed, such as how and why it was referenced in Western Art Music.
Keywords
Tango, Mediterranean, Western Art Music, Popular Music, Musical Analysis
Bibliography
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