The Discology Section is designed to help deal with the problems involved in tango music tagging and reviewing, for Music Cataloging and Tanda Making being as the two most important offline 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 presentation of a big bunch of given tracks usually from one selected 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.

It is basically my own way of tagging music over the years, perhaps a bit tech-heavy and history-focused compared with some other discography websites. I hope someone finds it useful and that it contributes, even just a little, to the world of tango.

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

• similar lyrics themes

Ideal tandas bring to the audience consistent feelings, which let the DJs get accurate expectation on reactions. 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 instinct. It would be beneficial to the tango community if someone 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 of where to get recordings, but a manual on how to play with these recordings when you have them in hands. 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 (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.