The book "TANGO COURSE" by Horacio Salgán is the first written from a technical-musical perspective where the Maestro delivers all his knowledge in the construction of Tango and reveals his working methods of his 85 years of career. The purpose of this work is fundamentally to train the student in the execution of Tango. It is a study of Tango; piano, orchestral, rhythmic and harmonic details. It is intended for musicians and the teaching is facilitated with examples in small scores and with audio examples. In the website that is described in the chapter "Contents of the CD" you will find the audio examples that you can download as many times as you want and also listen online. 🎹 "Music is a great Tradition and that the creators receive from their predecessors and leave for their followers. Aníbal Troilo, Alfredo Gobbi, Carlos Di Sarli, Osvaldo Fresedo, Enrique Mario Francini, and others, contributed and enriched with their talent and their personal style to the elevation of Tango. Let's not forget them. " - HORACIO SALGAN 🎹
CHAPTER 6
HARMONY
In the early stages of the tango, as one would assume, the harmonic resources that were used were very limited when compared to those of today.
However, some tonal contrasts based on a simple harmony allowed for certain inspired moments in the compositions.
It is clear that the musicians of the time were not preoccupied with harmonic effects, but rather were concerned for the beauty of the melody and rhythm and were concerned with being expressive. As we get closer to the Decarean period, the importance of the harmonic effects and their charm becomes more and more evident in the tango. From the 1940's on, there was no limit to the amount or type of chords that were inserted.
We should be thankful for the music of films from the U.S.A. for introducing a multitude of important harmonies to our music.
There was so much gravitation toward this harmonic language, and it was identified so much with jazz and those movies, that they were labeled as "American chords". These chords were essen- tially unknown previously in our popular music.
It should be made very clear that the lack of an understanding of harmony was found only with popular musicians at the time, who, with few exceptions, did not have formal music training. Conversely, the classical musicians and composers who were involved with symphonies and cham- ber music did have knowledge of harmony, thanks to their schooling and training. They studied works from the Classical, Romantic, and above all the French Impressionist composers such as Debussy and Ravel.
I would like to point out that even though they did not have proper music theory training, many tango musicians have left us incredibly worthwhile creations. We know that this lack of training was the case and always occurs in any given period and given genre. We also know that the intuition of some composers may surpass that of a theoretical knowledge, sometimes with advantages over oth- ers with less natural ability.
The United States, with a grand vision for the future, and through the teachings of great musi- cians, facilitated highly educated musicians who acquired thorough knowledge and mastery of harmony.
Impressionist harmony has come to be almost a universal language, thanks to its constant, wide- spread use, and is commonly used in many other types of music.
The appealing charm of harmonic language is an important factor in tango music, but it should not be incorporated as if harmony were the only thing that matters. We have already mentioned the essential values of the tango, and the harmony should serve to complement them.
A fundamental premise that should always be used as a guide is to not use the same chord pro- gressions that are used in other musical genres, otherwise there will be an immediate association to another type of music through those chords, and the result will be a hybrid.
This can be avoided by simply using the chords in a different order, a different sequence, if you will.
Using chords prudently will enhance a composition, but abusing them will detract from the com- position and distort it. Given that each musical genre has identifying elements that distinguish it from others, so should the harmony in the accompanying chords be fitting to the genre in which they are