Tango was born in Buenos Aires by the end of the 19 th century. European immigrants and porteños created a new social group and from this melting pot some cultural expressions began to arise. This was the beginning of tango, characterized by its extremely closed codes only accessible to low class people. The society to which tango was born listened and danced to polkas, mazurkas, habaneras and waltzes.
Somebody said that tango music is something more than a soft wave transformed into music, it is the deepest dance in the world, and the person who said those words was not an Argentinean. Truth is that it should be recognized that tango is the last step in the evolution of ballroom dancing. What began like a dance arrives to its highest evolution by the hand of big musicians who capture in their compositions the cultural richness of Buenos Aires. Tango lyrics refer to the city and its memories and become a portrait of Buenos Aires and its people. Nowadays this music surpassed itself and it is danced in the whole world. Some of its great singers and musicians were Carlos Gardel, Anibal Troilo, Astor Piazzolla, Juan D'Arienzo, Osvaldo Pugliese and Carlos Di Sarli.
Today, if you want to experience tango you have to visit the colourful neighbourhood of San Telmo with couples dancing in the streets for the tourists and bars and restaurants with their own tango shows.
"TO LOSE BY A NOD" (Gardel & Lepera)
To lose just by a nod of a good old colt
Who falters down right on the wire,
And on its way back seems to say:
"Don't you forget fella, you know you shouldn't ever make bets."
To lose just by a nod...the mad passion so fleeting
From some very coquettish and light- hearted young dove,
Who vows while she is smiling the affection she is lying,
And destroys all of my love in a bonfire.
To lose just by a nod
All of the craziness
Her kissing lips
Erases the sadness, calms down the bitterness.
To lose by a nod
If she ever forgets me,
What matters losing my life
A thousand times, to me, what to live for?
Countless disillusions, to lose by a nod...
I swore a thousand times not to fall
For one again
But if a flirting eye wounds me on passing by,
Her fiery lush sweet lips, one more time, I'd like to try!
To hell with horse races, I'm through with the gambling dens;
I'll never see again a dead heat
But if a dark horse looks like a banker next Sunday,
I'll go on tilt, that's just what I'll do!
To lose just by a nod
All of the craziness
Her kissing lips
erases the sadness,
calms down the bitterness.
To lose just by a nod
If she ever forgets me,
What matters losing my life?
A thousand times, to me, what to live for?
* The tango danced by Al Pacino in “Scent of a Woman” (directed in 1992
by Martin Brest) is “Por una cabeza”. The executive producers of that film considered including the tango “Vida mía”, but when they requested permission to do so, they found the fee fixed by the composer's heirs was too steep. So they opted for the tango composed by Gardel and Le Pera the royalties of which had already passed to public domain due to the deaths of both composers 50 years before.
