Francisco Canaro
- Royce Chau
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	Violinist, leader and composer 26 November, 1888 – 14 December, 1964 Nickname: Pirincho

His Contributions

To introduce such an important character, I have to start telling a bit about his history, without knowing that, you may not be able to fully appreciate his contribution to tango.

He was the pioneer in two aspects. First, he was the one who incorporated the double bass into a tango orchestra at around 1920s, and later on the double bass became part of a standard tango orchestra. Second, he was the first one who incorporated a singer into the tango orchestra at around the same time. When such a practice first started, the singer only sang the brief main theme - “estribillo” (bridge)  - of each tango. Since the singer’s part was well adopted, it soon became very popular and the role of the singer became more important. By the end of 1930s, almost every tango orchestra incorporated singers.

As a composer, he had a lot of compositions, yet no one exactly knows among them how many were his own compositions and how many were bought from others. No matter what, you can easily recognize some of them, like “Se dice de mi” (milonga, sound clip 1 ), “Pampa” (tango, sound clip 2 ), “Arrabalera” (milonga, sound clip 3 ) and “Sentimental gaucho” (tango, sound clip 4 ), these are many DJ’s hot choices. And as a performer, spending more than 50 years in the tango world, the number of recordings he made was amazing. Researchers in this field suggested that the figures were between 3500 and 7000. So it is almost no hope to collect all his recordings.

Another thing which is worth to note is that Canaro had two playing groups. One was the orchestra under his name, another one was a group named after his nickname called “Quinteto Pirincho”. This group was formed in 1937, it had 2 bandoneons, 2 violins, a piano and a bass without vocalist. This group specifically played music in pre-1920 style.

His musical style – before 1940

It is difficult to describe his musical style, some even said that he did not have a definite musical style, because he did not aim at producing sophisticate music and he preferred to adapt his music to the general public; put it simply, he followed the crowd’s taste and played in the way people like. However, there are two things almost everybody agrees: his music is rhythmic and with elementary harmony.

	:: Texture		:: Harmony
	For dancers, his music is never difficult to appreciate, because he used all the very basic elements in music and turned them into nice dancing pieces.  If you listen to his music, you can easily hear the melody and the beat (in 4 times); for dancers, they are almost the most important parts to be known.  The texture of his music is always simple and clear, part of the orchestra (most of the time the piano and the bass) takes care of the beat, part of the orchestra the melody (the bandoneons and the violins); sometimes they do both together, sometimes they separate. There are always some decorative phrases going with the main melody, but they always remain subordinate and never irritate your ears. Listen to “Hotel Victoria”. (tango, sound clip 5)		The harmonic structure is also very basic, it is never complicated. The chord arrangement is properly done, very easy to take and accept. You can almost find nothing which is not comfortable to your ears, they are always pleasing and building up the melody. Piazzolla did not appreciate Canaro’s music much, part of the reasons being that they were harmonically elementary. It is true that Canaro’s music are not very advanced in terms of its harmonic arrangement, yet they are perfect for dancing – simple enough to understand and grasp when you are on the dance floor. Hence, we can understand why Canaro attained a big success during his time, and why nowadays dancers still love his music.

.:: Instrumental arrangement ::.

Canaro was a traditionalist amongst his peers.  Although he was a pioneer in some aspects, he followed tradition when it comes to instrumental arrangement. To understand this, I have to mention another tango musician here, Julio De Caro, who, in contrast, innovated tango music in terms of instrumental arrangement.  Julio De Caro was the first person who gave the instruments in a tango orchestra a role to play solo: solo here means not just playing alone, but also a chance to show off the skills of the musicians and the talents of the instruments.

So going back to Canaro.  The instruments in a tango orchestra formed a collective, their roles were to play together, among them no instrument, no matter under what circumstances, had a more important role than the other.  Some instruments even played the main melody and some played the beat.  The music was arranged in a manner that you will not have an impression that the instruments that played the main melody were the most important instruments or the representations in the orchestra. Therefore, you cannot find a solo section like those in Biagi’s music in Canaro’s piece.

His music after 1940

Canaro’s music after the 1940s became more complicated when compared to his earlier pieces, but he also maintained roughly these characteristics.  I must say that all these cannot help you much to recognize his music when you are on the dance floor if you do not know him. However, at the same time, you can easily recognize his music when you know him; because you will know that he had quite a few famous tunes that you must have already heard at least one or twice.  If you like them and feel they are very good for dancing but do not know to whom these tunes belong, then from now on please remember that they are from Francisco Canaro.

I personally love his music and am particularly fond of his milongas.  I think the simplicity of his music is just beautiful, and has the power to reach everyone on the dance floor.  So far no cinema, no theatre and no street in Argentina has been named after him, II guess it is probably because of his personality.  Yet his contributions to tango music and the quality of his music are worth to be recognized and appreciated.

3 of my favourite Canaro milongas:

• Milonga Brava (milonga, sung by Roberto Maida) (sound clip 6)
• Reliquias Portenas (milonga) (sound clip 7)
• No Hay Tierra Como La Mia (milonga, sung by Ernesto Famá) (sound clip 8)

© 2003 Royce Chau.  All rights reserved.

Reference:

• An article written by Néstor Pinsón and Julio Nudler on the TodoTango website
• An article on Cybertango website
• CD Booklet, El Bandoneon “Quinteto Pirincho, Direccion Francisco Canaro”
• CD Booklet (written by Roberto Daus), El Bandoneon “Francisco Canaro y su Quinteto Pirincho, Nobleza de Arrabal 1937-1941”
• CD Booklet (written by Mario Andrioli), Harlequin “Francisco Canaro, Adios Muchachos 1926-1938”
• Nardo Zalko (2001), Le Tango: Passion du Corps et de l’esprit. Toulouse: Milan.

Sound clips:

1. Se dice de mi (milonga, sung by Carlos Roldán) – From CD “Milongueando Con Canaro” (Reliquias)
2. Pampa (tango) – From CD “Las Grandes Orquestas Del Tango, Francisco Canaro” (BMT)
3. Arrabalera (milonga) – From CD “Quinteto Pirincho” (El Bandoneon)
4. Sentimental gaucho (tango) – From CD “Las Grandes Orquestas Del Tango, Francisco Canaro” (BMT)
5. Hotel Victoria (tango) – From CD “Alma Tanguera, Francisco Canaro y su Orquesta Típica 1927-1939” (BMT)
6. Milonga Brava (milonga, sung by Roberto Maida) – From CD “Alma Tanguera, Francisco Canaro y su Orquesta Típica 1927-1939” (BMT)
7. Reliquias Portenas (milonga) - From CD “Las Grandes Orquestas Del Tango Francisco Canaro” (BMT)
8. No Hay Tierra Como La Mia (milonga, sung by Ernesto Famá) – From CD “Alma Tanguera, Francisco Canaro y su Orquesta Típica 1927-1939” (BMT)