After many years of dancing Argentinean tango, I have gradually become more and more interested in understanding and now playing the music. This year I joined an amateur orchestra that meets once a month in Toulouse in order to gain experience as a pianist in this type of formation. We are coached by a professional (Argentinean) musician who is an accomplished pianist and bandoneonist. An Orquesta Tipica in Argentina plays music for dancing tango. This type of orchestra had its heyday in the 30′s and 40′s mainly in Buenos Aires, before the days of recorded and broadcast music. In its original form it goes back to Julio De Caro in about 1924 and was a sextet consisting of 2 bandoneons, 2 violins, piano and double bass. Ours is an extended Tipica as (this year) we have several pianists (taking turns), 2 double basses, 3 violins, 2 cellos, one clarinet, one flute and about 5 bandoneonists. The music is specially arranged for the different instruments by our coach Fernando, a huge task in itself.
Tipica Toulouse, Ausonne
We also play well-known arrangements that are publicly available (Piazzolla, Troilo, Exposito, Salgan…). The musical themes are often quite simple, but their arrangement into a successful, danceable piece of music is a highly specialized task and in fact was often left to specialists who excelled in this art. Towards the end of the year we will share the results of our rehearsals by performing several concerts in and around Toulouse. This year the program contains about 12 pieces, of which 2 are waltzes (tango vals), 4 are milongas and the rest tangos. Yesterday we had one of our monthly practice days followed by a small concert (for dancers) in the evening.
Tipica Toulouse, Ausonne
A great pleasure and satisfaction comes from playing this often incredibly sophisticated music and seeing that it can be successfully danced to.
