Tango, more commonly called tangos in flamenco usage, is one of the palos of flamenco. It is a lively form in binary or quadruple metre and is considered one of the basic styles of flamenco. Tangos may be sung, played on the guitar, or danced, and are closely related to tientos, which use the same basic compás at a slower tempo. The dictionary gives separate definitions for several musical and dance uses of the word, including the Rioplatense tango and the flamenco palo.
Flamenco writers have also pointed to early Andalusian documentation of the word. José Blas Vega cited an 1814 Cádiz manuscript, Apuntes para la descripción de la ciudad de Cádiz, in which tango appears in connection with popular dances and festivities in Cádiz.
This earlier use of the word tango should not be confused with Argentine tango, which later developed as a distinct Río de la Plata music and dance tradition.
Form and compás
Tangos are usually described as being in or binary metre. The Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco describes them as a cante executed in 4/4 and notes that they may be performed in a variety of tonalities. In practical flamenco teaching, tangos are usually counted in four-beat cycles, with a steady and danceable pulse.
A simple count may be represented as:
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1 2 3 4
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or, in an eight-count pedagogical cycle:
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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These counts are teaching devices rather than fixed notation. In performance the compás is shaped by guitar strumming, palmas, footwork, llamadas, remates and the phrasing of the cante.
The rhythmic character of tangos distinguishes them from rumba flamenca. Rumba often has a more flowing, open and syncopated guitar accompaniment, while tangos usually have a more clearly marked flamenco compás. Tangos also differ from tanguillos, despite the similar name; tanguillos have their own rhythmic and historical identity, especially in Cádiz carnival and flamenco traditions.
Poetic form
The poetic form of tangos is commonly a copla of three or four octosyllabic lines.
Musicological writing on Argentine tango has nevertheless discussed the possible role of tango andaluz among the many nineteenth-century forms circulating around the Atlantic. Pablo Kohan criticizes overly simple origin stories in which Argentine tango is imagined as a mixture of "candombe", "milonga", "habanera" and "tango andaluz", arguing that such explanations often lack a clear methodology. Kohan instead summarizes the better-supported view of the Antología del tango rioplatense, according to which the term tango was widely used in the Americas as a synonym for the habanera, an American dance created through the mixture of European, especially contradanza, elements. Tientos are generally more solemn, slower and more spacious, while tangos are faster and more festive or danceable.
In performance, the two forms are often joined. A singer or dancer may begin with tientos and then accelerate into tangos. This creates a dramatic contrast: the tientos section allows expressive, slower development, while the tangos ending brings rhythmic release and a livelier atmosphere.
This relationship also makes tangos important pedagogically. Students often learn tangos and tientos together because they share a rhythmic basis while requiring different expressive approaches.
Relationship to rumba flamenca
Tangos are sometimes compared with rumba flamenca because both are binary-metre flamenco forms and both can be lively and danceable. However, they are distinct palos. Rumba flamenca generally has a more flowing and syncopated guitar pattern, while tangos more strongly emphasize the marked flamenco compás.
Rumba also has a different historical development, including strong connections with Cuban and Afro-Cuban rhythmic materials and twentieth-century popular flamenco. Tangos, by contrast, are usually treated as one of the basic traditional flamenco styles, with roots in nineteenth-century Andalusian dance songs.