[TANGO-L] Versions: tango vs. milonga, same composition

[Kos Zahariev <Kos.Zahariev @EC.GC.CA>]

On the subject of different versions of the same composition..

If you listen to Banda Municipal de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires from 1908, it is
interesting to hear tangos played, as they were, in the high 70s BPM
(beats-per-minute) - almost like the slow milongas of Canaro except still
slower just a little bit (Canaro's are low 80s). I guess then you see how a
milonga is just a sped-up version of a tango with a characteristic milonga
beat pattern (or vice-versa - a tango is a slowed-down milonga with a tango
beat pattern). 

Here are a few examples of the same composition that survived into the 1930s
and 1940s and beyond both as a tango and as a milonga arrangement. For
whatever conspiratorial reason, they all start with "El..":

El Apache Argentino, as 
        a tango by Francini-Pontier, 
        a milonga by Racciatti.

El Apronte, as
        a tango by D'Arienzo,
        a milonga by Firpo (I suppose Firpo's was intended to be a tango, but
it is very hard to see it with a milonga beat and being as fast as Canaro's
slow milongas at 82 BPM).

El Cabure, as
        a tango by Di Sarli,
        a milonga by Racciatti.

El Lloron, as
        a tango by Cambareri,
        a milonga by Canaro or Firpo (incidentally this is the only
composition whose milonga version is nothing more than a sped-up tango - no
changes in beat pattern).

El Otario, as
        a tango by Canaro,
        a milonga by De Angelis.

El Portenito, as
        a tango by D'Arienzo or Orquesta Tpica Victor,
        a milonga by D'Agostino.

All of these are very interesting to listen to and even harder to recognise if
you don't have them playing one after the other.

El Búlgaro