The Discology Section is designed and tailored to help with the problems involved in tango music tagging and reviewing, for Music Cataloging and Tanda Making as the two most important offsite tasks for Tango DJs.

The nature of it is in-depth source hunting and research based on the discographies of the Orquestas Típicas. While the basic idea is to catalog and tag tracks, in real practice, one must take into account all elements that could affect the rendering of a big bunch of given tracks, especially when from the same orquesta. These relevant elements include but are not limited to: musicians (genealogy), singers (style), labels (sound technology), pitch (tuning), speed (tempo), style (arrangement), lyrics (themes), etc.

Basically, it is about my own way of tagging music over the years. It perhaps appears more technology and history-focused compared with some discography websites. I hope someone finds it useful and that it contributes, even just a little, to the world of tango music.

The Ideal Tanda

My concept as a Tango DJ is to summon the orquestas to the milongas through their recordings, creating an evocation of the bands performing live. This leads to the definition of an ideal tanda:

• same orquesta (and singer)

• same musicians, as the key talents play significant roles in an orquesta, e.g. D’Arienzo-Biagi, Troilo-Goñi, Caló-Maderna/Francini/Pontier, etc.

• same period. Usually relates to similar tempi and studio technology

• same label. Different studio settings produce drastically different sounds. E.g. Víctor/Odeón Laurenz.

• same pitch affects color and warmth

• same lyrics themes (optional)

Ideal tandas bring to the audience consistent feelings, which let the DJs get more accurate expectations and results. For orquestas with abundant recorded resources, e.g. Canaro, D’Arienzo, it is relatively easier to achieve the goal.

Some would argue that making tandas of the same key is doable, but it sounds monotonous and no bands will do this in live concerts and gigs in reality (not only tango). An advanced viable approach is to practice harmonic mixes with selected keys in tandas, which I’ve rarely intentionally tried rather than following my ears. It would be beneficial to the tango community if we could confirm all the performance keys of important recorded tangos.

Tags and Catalogs

Before referring to the orquesta pages, it is suggested to have sufficient materials of decent quality at least for some certain orquestas. This series is not a guide on where to get recordings, but a manual on how to play with these recordings when you already have them. Below are the tags I use:

• Date: official recording dates.

• Title: officially registered titles

• Genre: if no exception, only Tango, Milonga, Vals

• Era: reflects the changes of key musicians; arrangers (the invisible musician) are also part of the game

• Singer: excluded recordings that are not intended for dancing at all

• Label: the big four are Víctor, Odeón (various sub-labels), Music Hall and T.K.

• Masters: 78rpm (coarse-groove), Micro (45/33rpm microgroove), Tape (reel-to-reel), Tape-S (stereo tapes)

• Pitch: piano tuned at 435hz, 440hz or 442hz.

• Speed (Tempo): 125bpm (tango), 100bpm (milonga), and 200bpm (vals) are very clear boundaries. The time signatures of tangos are usually 2/4 on scores, but often played in the manner of "marcato en cuatro" (hence the numbers are doubled for convenience). Milonga is strictly 2/4. Vals are 3/4 or 6/8. (Table 1)

• Styles of Lyrics and Singers also help build narratives, or mix singers (when necessary). These categorizations are general since the boundaries are not crystal clear.

  • Lyrics: Divided into 4 categories (Table 2)

  • Singer Style: Defined 3 types with “yin (introvert)” and “yang (extrovert)” (Table 3)

Filters

Filters are applied to all main tags except for Date and Pitch. Singer Styles are suggested by colors. An extra search function allows further filtering which allows searching by any content (e.g. year, lyrics, pitch).

The database focuses on studio recordings. Live, radio, film, etc. recordings are not included.

- Please contact me if you see any mistakes.