Dancers: Matthew Keating and Katie St Claire (Michigan Argentine Tango Club)

The Tango, created by early immigrants to Argentina, contains the homesickness and nostalgia of its creators and reflects their thirst for love and longing for a better life. While Nazareth’s Odeon has more traditional tango qualities, Stravinsky was coming from a very different place (literally and figuratively) when he composed his tango.

"Odeon"

Ernesto Nazareth was a Brazilian pianist and composer described as the “true incarnation of the Brazilian musical soul” by his compatriot Heitor Villa-Lobos. He composed and published over 200 works in his lifetime, 88 of which are tangos. Nazareth was an impressive sight-reader and improviser, and was hired to play in a variety of different settings including festivals, dances, music stores (to “demo” music for potential buyers), and Odeon Cinema waiting room. His Odeon tango, likely written during his time at the movie theater, is one of his best known pieces and has been arranged for many instruments and ensembles.

"Tango"

After settling in Hollywood in 1940, Stravinsky found himself with very little money; due to copyright ambiguities, he was unable to transfer his royalties from his works in Europe to America. His tango is the first composition he completed in America and was created with the decided intention to make money. A tonal piece written in straight 4/4 time and 4-bar phrases, this is a departure from Stravinsky’s usual style and was inspired by his trips to Mexico. Though more commonly known now as a chamber orchestra piece, it was originally written for piano.

“...he spent several days in early October writing a tango specifically with a view to commercial exploitation. Although the Tango is often regarded as a piano piece, the three-line sketch is actually the short-score of a work for band or instrumental ensemble, and the object was to add words to it and turn it into a popular song. It is this commercial intention that accounts for the straightforward dance-hall metrical regularity of the piece, compared with the quirky stylizations of the tango in THE SOLDIER’S TALE - a concession that shows a hitherto unheard-of readiness on Stravinsky’s part to compromise in order to break into the marketplace.”

-- from Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971