Tango Music For All: Francisco Canaro

Saturday 28 July 2012

Orchestras: Francisco Canaro, Quinteto Pirincho

Singers: Ernesto Famá, Carlos Roldan, Instrumental

Period: 1938-1947

As time went by, the milongas of Canaro became faster and faster. In the period between 1932-1937 the speed was ranging from 76 to 90 bpm. 76 is rather slow (e.g. Milonga Sentimental), 90 starts to be reasonably fast (e.g. Milonga de Antańo). Suddenly in 1938 songs started to speed up and after that period they ranged from 96 bpm to 116 bpm (116 is a really fast milonga - e.g. Requebrada).

Personally, as a dancer, I like most of the songs recorded between 1938 and 1939. One can find amongst them "hits" like: Reliquias Porteñas, La Milonga de Buenos Aires, No Hay Tierra Como La Mía and many others... Similar to many other orchestras something changed in the beginning of the 1940ies. The later milongas are less enjoyable and more difficult to dance.

DJ comment:

As written above, the milongas from the later period are very fast. For that reason they might not be appreciated by some less experienced dancers. Milongas sung by Carlos Roldan are very good, playful but not very easy to dance. Quite many times I have seen dancers (even pretty advanced ones) leaving the dance floor in the middle of tanda.

So you'll probably need to be a bit more careful while playing the later milongas of Canaro, but still they should be in the repertoire of every DJ. There are lots of great songs to choose from.