Enchanted Tangos - Bella Sanders

 

Jealousy

Enchanted Tangos
Bela Sanders and His Orchestra
Telefunken LGX 66045
Made in England
1956

From the back cover: New ballroom dances always seem to provoke violent reactions. Even the graceful, elegant waltz was once denounced as being "wicked and immoral." But perhaps the biggest wave of indignation was caused by a gay, exotic dance-step from the Argentine.

The United States got their first glimpse of the tango when the "Revue of 1911" was produced in New York; that same year saw the South of France go tango-crazy; in 1912 George Grossmith danced the tango with Phyllis Dare in "The Sunshine Girl" at London's Gaiety Theatre.

During the early months of 1914 the new dance was condemned by both the German Kaiser and the King of Italy. A lecturer at a conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, declared that the tango was a reversion to the ape and a confirmation of Darwin's theory.

A medical point of view came from a New York doctor. In April, 1914 he announced that a new disease could be added to such occupational ailments as housemaid's knee and miner's elbow. "Tango foot' was the name he gave it. About the same time a reader of the 'New York Times' sent a letter to its editor: "About Christmas time in 1913," he wrote, "I decided to abandon doctors and began to learn the Tango.. Within two weeks practically all symptoms of indigestion left me."

"Tango Teas' became more and more popular. Fashionable society was stepping gayly to the intoxicating habanera rhythm. It was not long before the entire dancing public had taken the tango to its heart. Soon the tango had become an established favourite in ballrooms all over the world.

The origins of the tango go back a long way. How the rural peace of seventeenth century England joined with the dark forests and sunbaked hills of equatorial Africa to create this most cosmopolitan of dances makes a fascinating story.

An English country dance, popular in the days of Cromwell and the Stuart kings, crossed the Channel into France, where it became the contredanse. Another fifty years and it had penetrated the Pyrenees, the Spanish calling it the contradanza.

The Conquistadors took the dance to Cuba, its name changing to the Danza Habanera, or 'Dance of Havana'. Reintroduced into Spain halfway through the 19th century, it became popular as the Habanera.

Most famous of habaneras is El Areglito, written by a Spaniard, Sebastian Yradier, who published it in Madrid in 1840. There it was heard by the composer Bizet, who borrowed it to use in his opera Carmen.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, slave-traders made huge profits out of shipping Negroes from the West Coast of Africa to the new colonies in the Americas. These Negroes took with them their own cultural traditions, notably those of music and the dance. Vicente Rossi, in his book 'Coasas de Negros', has suggested that a Negro onomatope for drum-beat (tan-gó) gave a name to the dance which later emerged among the migrants in cities at the mouth of the Rio Plata. Certainly a dance called the tangano was popu- lar among Negroes in the West Indies and Haiti during the 18th century.

The tango first seems to have been danced in the cafés and dance-halls of the "Barrio de las Ranas' – a district lying close to the docks of Buenos Aires. An earlier dance, the habanera del café, at its height during the Spanish-American war, provides a link be- tween the Cuban Habanera and the Argentine Tango. The milonga, another Argentine dance, was also absorbed into the tango around 1900; the quicker variety of tango is in fact an adaptation of the milonga.

The swaying rhythm of the habanera is shared by both the Argentine and Spanish tangos, although as dances they have nothing in common. The Spanish tango is a spirited solo dance for a woman, nearer the gipsy flamenco tradition than that of the Spaniards.

In Buenos Aires, Montevideo and other great cities of the Argentine and Uruguay, the tango was being danced at the beginning of this century. Dark-haired girls in wide skirts, vividly beautiful, moved to its exotic rhythms, partnered by men dressed as gauchos, wearing spurs on their high riding-boots.

Such a powerful, exciting dance could not long be contained within the land which gave it birth. Soon the whole world went tango-mad. There have been plenty of modern dance-crazes-the Turkey Trot, the Charleston, the Bunny-Hug, the Big Apple-but most now exist only as a page in ballroom history. The vitality of the tango made it more than a nine-days wonder. Today its graceful movements and buoyant, captivating rhythms are as popular as they have ever been.

Enchantment is what both dancers and listeners experience as they respond to the magic spell of the tango. In this selection of your favourite tangos, Bela Sanders and his orchestra bring you this fascin- ating dance-music at its gayest and most colourful.

Donato's well-known A media luz makes a stirring beginning, pizzicato strings alternating with gentle woodwinds, while underneath surges the dark rhythm of the habanera.

Tango espagnole conjures up a vision of lovers dancing in moonlight under the white walls of a legendary Spanish city, castanets purring above the low song of the cicada.

Drum-beats usher in Malando's ever-popular Olé Guapa. An intricate flourish of violins, a subtle rhythmic balance between the strings, the jaunty voice of the accordion-all these make up a vivid, unique performance.

Orchestral richness is the outstanding quality in Bela Sanders' interpretation of Filiberto's sensual tango, Caminito. Once again violins swirl in an exciting crescendo as the orchestra plays La Palomita.

Tango reni, brisk and lively, has muted trumpets answered by soaring strings, in contrast to the tran- quillity of Luna Rossa, where flute and woodwinds evoke the dreamy Mediterranean scene.

Few melodies are better loved than the familiar Hear my song, Violetta. Violins hold sustained chords in a dynamic orchestration of this tender, romantic tune.

Soulful yet dramatic, there is a hint of wistful mel- ancholy as accordions play the moving theme of Plegaria. In Donne vatra the strings are finely balanced, unusual voicing and contrasts heightening their purity of tone and phrasing. Violins pursue the haunt- ing melody of Poesie, cellos providing a rich counterpoint.

Few tangos are better-known than Gade's poignant Jalousie. A warm yet sparkling performance by Bela Sanders' orchestra makes a fitting climax to his se- lection of 'Enchanted Tangos'. – CHARLES FOX

A Media Luz
Tango Espagnole
Ole Gupa

Caminito
La Palomita
Tango Reni
Luna Rossa
Hear My Song, Violetta
Plegaria
Donna Vatra
Poesie
Jealousy