The waltz in creole and tango music.

Abstract

In this paper I study the creole waltz, widely known since the beggining of the XIXth century almost everywhere in the American continent. As a genre, it adapted and changed by allowing musics of the diverse geographic and cultural areas to influence and permeate it. In Argentina, at the beginning of the XXth century, it became part of the repertoire of tango performers and creole musicians that played zambas, chacareras, estilos, bailecitos, tonadas and creole waltzes with guitar accompaniment. The theoretical framework I have chosen to describe the models of the most common waltzes come from cognitive musicology (prototypes) and within this framework I have analyzed three works I consider prototypical during the first 30 years of the XXth Century, a period we can define by the appearance of a musical protofield where composers and performers of both tango and creole music merge. Musicians of the next generations chose one model over the other emphasizing features therefore producing a clear field distinction between tango and folk music.