Nickname: Rey del Compás (King of Rhythm) Leader and violinist 14 December, 1900 ~ 14 January, 1976

Juan D'Arienzo

Of the many tango orchestras, Juan D’Arienzo’s is definitely amongst my top-three. He had a life-long tango career - his first recording appeared in 1928 and the last one was made in 1975. Among his 1007 recordings*, I think there is hardly something that I don’t like. And he is definitely one the most important figures in tango history, because it was him who made the renaissance of tango in the 40s – the golden ages – possible. His music brought people back to the dance floor and made young people danced. “Young people like me. They like my tangos because they are rhythmic, nervous up-tempos… I keep on thinking that if there is no beat there is no tango.” said D’Arienzo.**

Talking about his music, I think I don’t need to write anything about it, because D’Arienzo already explained to us his musical style in his interviews, and some of them is available on the Internet. So for all of us, the best way to understand his music is to have a look what he said. Here’s the link “Tango has three things: beat, impact and nuances”.

What I’m doing here, is to do a short summary of what he told us. D’Arienzo’s style is rather constant, so it’s both easy and difficult to choose some sample clips to go with this article – too many good pieces and very difficult to pick a few even just among my favorite pieces. Finally, I decided that all the sample clips used here will be from his 1938-1939 recordings, the reasons being:

• it is extremely easy to identify his style in the recordings from this period;
• D’Arienzo recordings (from 1938 to early 40s) from this period are “classic” or “essential” for a milonga;
• this period’s recordings are the “starter” for those who don’t know about D’Arienzo at all;

and above all, I LOVE THEM! They always make me want to dance.

Two-four time

D’Arienzo’s tango always sounds up-tempos, because he played tango in two-four time instead of four-four time as many other do. The difference between the two is the number of accent beats you can hear (that’s why time signature is important in music). A simple diagram below shows the difference, the red spot indicates the main accent beat.

2 4

4 4

Generally speaking, a piece played in two-four time sounds more dynamic than it is played in four-four time. Here’s an example, listen and compare D’Arienzo’s version and Canaro’s version of “Derecho Viejo” – they are roughly the same speed, D’Arienzo’s one is in two-four time while Canaro’s one is in four-four time, listen to the accent beat.

4th Violin sounds like viola or cello

“The fourth violin appears as an essential element. It must sound like a viola or a cello.”

This is a very obvious characteristic of D’Arienzo’s music, you can hear that “viola or cello” sound in his tango, vals and milonga.

Piano is the foundation

“The foundation of my orchestra is the piano. I regard it as irreplaceable. When my pianist, Polito is ill, I replace him with Jorge Dragone. If something happens to the latter I’m at a loss.”

The piano has two roles, first to mark the tempo and the beat, second to decorate the melody, sometimes counter-singing, sometimes playing ornaments. In fact, D’Arienzo and Biagi had very similar idea about the role of the piano in the orchestra. Biagi was D’Arienzo’s pianist before he formed his own orchestra in 1938, and it was Biagi who helped D’Arienzo to establish the piano part. After he left, his successors continued to play the piano as Biagi did.

What he said about the singers…

Just a final note of interest: “Tango is also music, as is already said. I would add that is essentially music. In consequence, the orchestra, which plays it, cannot be relegated to the background to spotlight only the singer. On the contrary, it is for the orchestras and not for the singers. The human voice is not, it should not be another thing but an instrument more in the orchestra. To sacrifice everything for the singer’ s sake, for the star, is a mistake. I reacted against that mistake which caused the tango crisis and placed the orchestra in the foreground and the singer in his place.”

Singers who worked with him included Alberto Echagüe, Armando Laborde (both singers spent a total of more than 20 years with D’Arienzo in 3 different periods), Héctor Mauré, Jorge Valdéz and Mario Bustos.

Listening

Tango

Milonga

Val

* I got the number from Johan’s Juan D’Arienzo Discography site. A very useful internet resources if you want to study or know more about D’Arienzo. http://users.pandora.be/tangoteca/darienzo/index.html

** The thought stated here is found on www.todotango.com/english/biblioteca/cronicas/jdarienzo.html. The thoughts D’Arienzo stated there are from interviews in January 1974, two years before his death, for the “Siete Días” magazine, and in 1969 for the “Aquí Está” magazine.

Internet resources:

Biography
www.todotango.com/english/creadores/jdarienzo.html

Interview of the artist
www.todotango.com/english/biblioteca/cronicas/jdarienzo.html

Discography
users.pandora.be/tangoteca/darienzo/index.html

How and what to collect the artist’s CDs
www.milonga.co.uk/tango/darienzo.html

Related Items:

1. A Day with Piazzolla
2. CDs Review
3. Francisco Canaro
4. Rodolfo Biagi
5. Tango Music Shopping Guide: Tango Music in Hong Kong

Related Links:

1. La 2x4 FM 92.7
2. Milonga
3. Musica Argentina
4. Old record for tango music
5. Tamango

Last update: 05-08-2007 13:25