All You Have To Know About La Cumparsita - the most famous argentine tango
La Cumparsita is widely viewed as the anthem of tango music. Originally composed by Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodriguez in 1917, the 100th anniversary of La Cumparsita was marked by tango concerts and all sorts of tributes in 2017.
For those who may be unfamiliar, La Cumparsita is one of the most famous tango songs, and it is more than likely that one has encountered it at some point.
if you are Tanguero - you dance it or listen to it at the end of every Milonga you ever attended. It marks the end - the last song of the last tanda.
Such was (and is) the fame of La Cumparsita that it has allegedly over 2,700 versions, thus contributing to its continuous global prominence and use in popular culture. Various movies — such as the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh starring Gene Kelly — used the La Cumparsita as part of their soundtracks. Singer Julio Iglesias’ 1996 cover of the song was also a hit, and even cartoons like Tom & Jerry incorporated La Cumparsita at one point. To this day, La Cumparista remains a favorite accompaniment to gymnastic routines and was even played in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
But how could such a song gain so much prominence that even after a hundred years, it continues to captivate not just the hearts of tangueros and tangueras, but people from all over the world?
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The Young Man from Montevideo
There’s been some contention as to what age Uruguayan composer Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodríguez created the La Cumparsita — some sources say he was only 17, while others say he was 19 — but one thing was for sure: the young man had not expected his composition to gain such renown. After its completion, he agreed to sell the sheet music for a measly 20 pesos.
Matos Rodríguez, fondly called “Becho” by close acquaintances, was, according to The Origin of La Cumparsita, “studying architecture around the time he composed ‘La Cumparsita,’ which he wrote on the piano of the Federación de Estudiantes of Uruguay.
The tango, whose title translates to ‘the little parade’, was first played in public in the old Café La Giralda in Montevideo, by Orchestra Roberto Firpo.
La Cumparsita starts at 4:27, because of course - since this is the most well-known song - they had requested it!
During Becho’s teenage years, Café La Giralda or La Giralda Café on Avenida 18 de Julio, at the corner of Calle Andes in Montevideo, was a trendy place, though certainly not one frequented by the upper classes or those who generally viewed tango as a socially unacceptable affair.
An article One Hundred Years of “La Cumparsita” describes the dual nature of Calle Andes around the time the La Cumparsita was first played: “In 1917, Calle Andes had a split personality: on the Avenida 18 de Julio side were the theaters frequented by the general public;
the other side of the avenue embraced sinful Montevideo, the city of cabarets and brothels, where the revelry included the scandalous tango. Known as ‘the underbelly,’ the area still preserved remnants of the wall — extending toward the coast — that had enclosed the original city.”
It is no surprise, however, that the young Becho would find familiarity in such a place, considering that his father, Emilio Matos, was the owner of a popular local cabaret called Moulin Rouge. According to La Cumparsita (Tango’s Most Popular Music) – Is it Uruguay’s or Argentina’s?, “His exposure to the music in his father’s cabaret must have had an influence on the young Becho. Rodríguez’s first recognized work is said to have been his best, a piece he called La Cumparsita.”
A Pièce de Résistance for a Pittance
Even before the rest of the world recognized La Cumparsita’s merits as a masterpiece, Roberto Firpo, a prominent figure in tango music, would be the first to grasp the potential in Becho’s composition.
According to a post from Brisbane House of Tango: “In his own words, Firpo said of that fateful evening on February 8, ‘One night at The Giralda, a famous and classic café in Montevideo, a young boy — likable but somewhat timid — approached me and asked if he could talk to me for a few minutes… He left a very modest score with me. It was “La Cumparsita.” I played it on the piano and liked it. After some adjustments to the score, I released it with extraordinary success, as much due to the fact that it was a great tango as the fact that its author was a boy [from] Montevideo. When I returned to Buenos Aires, I released it in the cafés, and Montevideo’s success was repeated.’”
The original version by Rodriguez:
The little masquerade
of endless miseries parades
around that sickly being
that soon will have died
of shame.
That’s why
on his (death) bed
he sobs, grieving
remembering the past
that causes him this suffering.
La cumparsita
de miserias sin fin desfila
en torno de aquel ser enfermo
que pronto ha de morir
de pena.
Por eso
es que en su lecho
solloza acongojado
recordando el pasado
que lo hace padecer.
Maroni and Contursi’s version:
Si supieras,
que aun dentro de mi alma,
conservo aquel cariño
que tuve para ti…
Quien sabe si supieras
que nunca te he olvidado,
volviendo a tu pasado
te acordaras de mi…
Los amigos ya no vienen
ni siquiera a visitarme,
nadie quiere consolarme
en mi afliccion…
Desde el dia que te fuiste
siento angustias en mi pecho,
deci, percanta, que has hecho
de mi pobre corazon?
Sin embargo,
yo siempre te recuerdo
con el cariño santo
que tuve para ti.
Y estas en todas partes
pedazo de mi vida,
y aquellos ojos que fueron mi alegria
los busco por todas partes
y no los puedo hallar.
Al cotorro abandonado
ya ni el sol de la mañana
asoma por la ventana
como cuando estabas vos,
y aquel perrito compañero
que por tu ausencia no comia,
al verme solo el otro dia tambien me dejo
If you knew,
that still within my soul,
I keep the love
I had for you…
Who knows, if you knew
that I never forgot you,
returning to your past,
you would remember me…
The friends do not come
not even to visit me,
nobody wants to console me.
in my affliction…
Since the day you left
I feel anguish in my chest,
tell me, woman, what have you done
with my poor heart?
Nevertheless,
I always remember you
with the holy love
that I had for you.
And you are everywhere,
piece of my life,
and those eyes that were my happiness
I search for them everywhere
and I can’t find them.
To the abandoned bedroom
now not even the morning sun
shows through the window
the way as when you were there,
and that little dog [our] partner
that because of your absence would not eat
on seeing me alone the other day also left me.
As you see from the lyrics, just as Por Una Cabeza, La Cumparista might not be the best song for the Wedding Dance. Just saying…
A post from The History of La Cumparsita relates pianist Domingo Alonso’s experience of that moment when Becho met Firpo. Alonso supposedly wrote in his book that “Firpo's expert eye was aware at first glance of what he was examining, and that he immediately secured the authorization to adapt it and to arrange it. Hence, Rodriguez sold the score and copyright of a tango he had written — a masterpiece the public would adore forevermore — for the paltry sum of only 20 pesos! Money was exchanged quickly, the score was received, and the Breyer publishing house herein owned the piece.”
Despite the small earnings, Becho spent it on the typical pastime of that era: horse racing. According to Panorama of the Americas, “With that money jingling in his pocket, he headed for the Montevideo racetrack and put it all on one horse, ‘thinking I could increase my fortune many times over. The horse was named Skat and lost by a head.’”
With the kind of luck he was having, it likely did not occur to the young Becho that his La Cumparsita would turn out to be one of the most recognizable tango songs of all time, though it would not gain fame overnight.
In fact, the first time Firpo recorded it for Odeon Records, La Cumparista was included only as a B-side and garnered little success. It wasn’t until 1924, many years later, that Becho’s masterpiece would gain the prominence it has, though not in the way he might have envisioned.
Can you see Grisha shining among all the ladies during Followers Technique Workout? La Cumparsita solo choreography during Classy Heels
La Cumparsita’s Resurgence
According to La Cumparsita - the most famous tango song, La Cumparsita ended up being forgotten for many years until it was performed for a series of theater plays called “A Program of a Night Club” on June 6, 1924. The post further elaborates: “On this day, Leopoldo Simari's company had a play in the Apolo theater called 'A Program of a Night Club', an original by Paschal Contursi and Enrique P. Maroni. The process was that each play required a special tango (in fact, as a result of this process, some famous tangos came to light). For the play, Paschal Contursi wrote a scene called 'If you knew' and, as was the custom, decided to connect it to the music of a tango already composed (without authorization of the composer). For this scene was selected [an] already forgotten tango. The actor and singer was Juan Ferrari. Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi added words to it and renamed it to Si Supieras without Rodriguez's consent.”
It was only a matter of time before the revised version of La Cumparsita became known all over the world, especially since the renowned Carlos Gardel also made his recording of the Si Supieras.
Later on, according to brisbanehouseoftango.com, “Rodriguez learned of the song’s popularity through orchestra leader Francisco Canaro while they were in Paris. Canaro himself played ‘Si Supieras’ and told Rodriguez, ‘I told him how it had resurged again and how it was the rage by all orchestras; that Paschal Contursi and Enrique P. Maroni had composed a very pretty scene and adapted to the score and that Carlitos sang it to Gardel with extraordinary success.’”
Following this discovery would be two decades of lengthy court cases that fought over copyright issues and royalties concerning La Cumparsita. In 1948, Canaro, who was at the time the president of the Argentine Society of Authors and Composers, came up with a legally binding agreement that put an end to the lawsuits.
It was agreed upon that the estate of Contursi and Maroni, due to the success of the revised lyrics, would receive 20% of royalties while Rodriguez’s estate would receive 80%. Additionally, any new printing of La Cumparsita’s sheet music would specifically include both the lyrics from Rodriguez, as well as those of Contursi and Maroni.
First Dance, Last Song
As much as La Cumparsita is celebrated as one of the most famous tango songs, not everyone had a positive opinion about it. One such individual was Astor Piazzolla, a virtuoso of the bandoneon, who described La Cumparsita as one of the worst musical pieces ever written.
““It’s the most frighteningly poor thing in this world (speaking of the D-C-A-F rhythm). Nevertheless, if you add a bass note to enrich it and pour on top of it the melody, you can create a counterpoint that raises the conventional melody. It is like an ugly person that dresses nicely — it improves his looks. That’s how La Cumparsita is improved — with good clothes.””
Despite this, however, La Cumparsita has continued to be so popular that it has become, interestingly enough, the traditional first dance at Turkish weddings and the last dance at milongas.
A blog post from so-tango.com looks into this fascinating phenomenon, though the author can only surmise as to why La Cumparista is often chosen as the last song in milongas. The post theorizes that La Cumparsita’s revised version was more like a farewell song due to its heartbreaking lyrics, which is why it is the unofficial final song in milongas since people would be saying goodbye to each other afterward.
Additionally, the author’s research could not yield any specific reason why La Cumparsita has become the dance Turkish newlyweds love to share on their big day.
Many of them do not often understand the Spanish lyrics and mainly use the instrumental version, suggesting that the language barrier may have contributed to its popularity.
The meanings of both the original lyrics of La Cumparista, and its revised version talk about misery, death, and suffering, making La Cumparsita is a rather odd choice as a wedding song for couples in general.
Learn more about La Cumparsita from our friend Richard in the Netherlands! And sign up to his channel with excellent music tutorials!!!
Lasting Legacy
Legal disputes and controversies aside, La Cumparsita has proven itself to be Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodríguez’s legacy that has outlived even the memory of its creator.
Because of its ability to tug at the heartstrings, whether one encounters the original or revised lyrics, it would not be surprising at all if La Cumparsita remains popular for another hundred years or more.