‘Pirincho‘
Musician, violinist, leader and composer – (26 November 1888 – 14 December 1964)
He launched his career in 1906, when he was only eighteen, with a trio in the town of Ranchos (province of Buenos Aires). He Which today is the head of the General Paz district, 120 kilometers south from Buenos Aires and 83 km from La Plata. In 1908, he composed his first tango, “La barra Fuerte”, and over time he gave us simple but brilliant tangos such as “Pinta brava”, “El Chamuyo”, “El Internado”, “El Pollito”, “Matasano”, “Charamusca”, “El Opio”,, “Cara Sucia” and about 3,800 other songs, and pretty much every Milonga one dances to today.
His waltzes deserve the quote for having rhythms typical of his great personality: “Vibraciones del alma”, “Corazón de oro”, “Dos corazones”, “Parece mentira”, “El jardín del amor”, “Quisiera amarte menos”, “Allá en el monte”, “Soñar y nada más”, “Viviré con tu recuerdo”, “Tú y yo” and others.
Not only were they his successes, because in all musical motifs he imposed works that the people tired of repeating. This is how they came out, in addition to tangos and waltzes, rancheras, marches, milongas, Creole airs, etc., in whose mix we find the songs “Yo tuve un amorcito”, “Te quiero”, “Yo no sé por qué te quiero”, “La ribera”, “La muchachada del centro”, “El bichito del amor”, “Dónde hay un mango”, “Envidia”, “Adiós”, “Pampa mía”, “El taita ladrón”, “El Tigre Millán”, “Tango de la mula”, “Cuando el corazón”, “Casas viejas”, “No hay que hacerse mala sangre”, “Tangón”, and so many more!
The man was a workhorse to say the least. Which is to say that he recorded more often and more frequently than any other tango orchestral lead in history. His works dwarf everyone else’s by orders of magnitude. Just to give you an idea of the sheer volume of work that the man produced: He recorded with Ernesto Famá 213 times, Roberto Maida 175 times, Ada Falcon (one of his lovers) – 155 times and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
Here’s just a small list of the singers (who recorded with Canaro): José Muñiz, Roberto Díaz, Ernesto Famá, Agustín Irusta, Roberto Fugazot, Carlos Gardel, Ignacio Corsini, Roberto Ray, Charlo, Roberto Maida, Francisco Amor, Carlos Galán, Carlos Roldán, Eduardo Adrián, Domingo Conte, Ricardo Ruiz, Guillermo Rico, Carlos Dante (in Paris), Enrique Lucero (Mariano Mores’s brother), Armando Barbé, Jorge Ayala, Marcelo Paz, Mario Alonso, Juan Carlos Rolón, Enzo Valentino (for a movie in November 1961), Carlos Lombardi (Brazilian).
Canaro worked with so many luminaries, and so many artists that to keep it all in your head would be ridiculous to do so but here’s just a few prominent ones: Roberto Firpo , Eduardo Arolas , Osvaldo Fresedo , Bachicha , Agustín Bardi , Anselmo Aieta , Tito Roccatagliata , Rafael Tuegols , Vicente Loduca , Carlos Marcucci , Leopoldo Thompson, Juan Carlos Bazán , Samuel Castriota , Julio Pollero , Luis Petrucelli , Luis Cosenza , Ciriaco Ortiz , Mariano Mores , Oscar Sabino just to name a few.
It was a fifty-five-year career which lasted until the time, one day in 1964, when was talking on the phone with an official of the Odeon label, about a next recording session when Death began to haunt him relentlessly. He lived with an addiction to work. That juvenile adventure with a trio, his violin alongside Martín Arrevillaga (mandolin) and Rodolfo Duclós (guitar), became a landmark in tango history and in all our Argentine music.
In his memoirs, Canaro tells us who his first flutist was. He appeared to him on their initial tour. After his debut in Ranchos, the road was leading him until he found himself in San Pedro. There he requested for a musician and they recommended him someone known as El Cuervo, who according to what Canaro said, was a fat Indian whose face seemed to be the one of a crow. He included him in the group, he was just that, a flutist, but he had a problem, between one piece and another, he used to fall asleep. He never knew his real name.
Nobody recorded more and there was a time when all the authors and composers looked for him to record something for them, since with this the popularity of his works and the corresponding monetary income were assured. Such was his attraction.
Sample Tango Music by Francisco Canaro
The songs below are representative of tango music as a whole. There are three types of Tango music that you’ll hear at a Milonga (a tango dance party):
1.) Tango, which is 4/4 time, meaning there are 4 beats per measure.
2.) Milonga, which is a style of music, a dance party itself, and a style of dance done to the style of music. Milonga music is typically 2/4 time, meaning there are 2 beats per measure and has a very distinctive type of rhythm which is known as the ‘Habanera’ Rhythm.
3.) And lastly there is Vals music which has a very distinctive ‘lilt’ to the music indicative of 3/4 time signature or 3 beats per measure.
Hotel Victoria – Tango Example
Desde El Alma – Vals Example
Silueta Porteña – Milonga Example
Habanera Example Used In Milonga Music.
