"La cumparsita" (little street procession, a grammaticaldiminutive ofla comparsa) is atango written in 1916 by the Uruguayan musicianGerardo Matos Rodríguez, with lyrics by ArgentinesPascual Contursi andEnrique Pedro Maroni [es]. It is among the most famous and recognizabletangos of all time.[1][2]Roberto Firpo, director and pianist of the orchestra that premiered the song, added parts of his tangos "La gaucha Manuela" and "Curda completa" to Matos' carnival march ("La cumparsita"), resulting in "La cumparsita" as it is currently known.[3][4] "La cumparsita" was first played in public in the old Café La Giralda in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Tango Museum of Montevideo stands currently on that site.[5]
The title translates as "the little parade", and the first version was a tune with no lyrics. Later, Matos Rodríguez produced a version with lyrics that begin: "The parade of endless miseries marches around that sick being who will soon die of grief."[6] However, the most popular version of the song is accompanied by lyrics by Pascual Contursi and Enrique Pedro Maroni, and is also known as "Si supieras".
The song was originally a march, whose melody was composed in early 1916 by an architecture student in Montevideo, an 18-year-old man named Gerardo Hernán "Becho" Matos Rodríguez, the son of Montevideo's Moulin Rouge nightclub proprietor Emilio Matos. On 8 February 1916, Matos Rodríguez had his friend Manuel Barca show the music sheet to orchestra leaderRoberto Firpo at the cafe called La Giralda. Firpo looked at the music and quickly determined that he could make it into a tango. As presented to him it had two sections; Firpo added a third part taken from his own little-known tangos "La gaucha Manuela" and "Curda completa", and also used a portion ofGiuseppe Verdi's "Miserere", a chorus and duet from the operaIl trovatore.[7][8] Years later, Firpo reported the historic moment as follows:
In 1916 I was playing in the café La Giralda in Montevideo, when one day a man was accompanied by about fifteen boys – all students – to say he brought a carnival march song and they wanted me to review it because they thought it could be a tango. They wanted me to revise and tweak the score that night because it was needed by a boy named Matos Rodríguez. In the 2/4 [march time signature] score there appeared a little [useful melody] in the first half and in the second half there was nothing. I got a piano and I remembered my two tangos composed in 1906 that had not had any success: "La gaucha Manuela" and "Curda completa". And I put in a little of each. At night I played the song with "Bachicha" Deambroggio and "Tito" Roccatagliatta. It was an apotheosis. Matos Rodríguez walked around like a champion... But the tango was forgotten, its later success began when the words ofEnrique Maroni [es] andPascual Contursi were associated with it.[9]
Firpo recorded the song in November 1916 forOdeon Records: Odeon release number 483.[7] He used the recording studio of Max Glücksmann in Buenos Aires, and employed two violinists, onebandoneon player (Juan Bautista "Bachicha" Deambrogio), and one flute player to join him as bandleader on piano.[10] The song was pressed as the B-side of a 78 rpm release, and had only a modest success, fading in familiarity after several years.[10]
Lyrics to the song were written by the Argentine Pascual Contursi in 1924, and soon became a hit. This version of the song is considered the most widely known tango song in the world, closely followed by "El Choclo".[11] Contursi recorded the song under the title "Si supieras" ("If you knew"). Living in Paris at that time, Matos Rodríguez discovered, that the song was a big hit, when he talked with Uruguayan violinist and tango orchestra leaderFrancisco Canaro, who was playing the tune at Paris engagements as "Si supieras". Canaro told Matos Rodríguez the song was "all the rage by all the orchestras".[10] Matos Rodríguez spent the next two decades in various court battles over royalties, and finally succeeded in ensuring, that "La cumparsita" was re-established as the title of the song. However, Contursi's lyrics became intimately associated with the song.
Canaro formulated a binding agreement in 1948, one which would end the lawsuits. He determined that 20 percent of all royalties would go to the estates of the lyricist Contursi and his business partner Enrique P. Maroni. The other 80 percent of recording royalties would go to the estate of Matos Rodríguez. Canaro established that future sheet music printings would show Contursi's lyrics in addition to less well-known ones written by Matos Rodríguez, and no other lyrics.[10]
Famous versions of this tango includeCarlos Gardel's and performances by orchestras led byJuan d'Arienzo,Osvaldo Pugliese andAstor Piazzolla. "La cumparsita" is very popular atmilongas; it is a common tradition for it to be played as the last dance of the evening.[12]
The song was named cultural and popular anthem of Uruguay by law[13] in 1997.[14][15]
InBilly Wilder's 1950 filmSunset Blvd., Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and Joe Gillis (William Holden) tango to “La cumparsita" during her New Year’s Eve party on a tile floor recommended to her by fellow silent movie star Rudolph Valentino. When Norma opens her arms, Joe jokingly replies “Not on the same floor with Valentino!”
In the 1951 filmValentino, when Valentino (Anthony Dexter) and Joan Carlisle (Patricia Medina) appear at the producer Mark Towers' (Otto Kruger) birthday party, they dance to the tune of "La cumparsita", which persuades Towers to cast the unknown Valentino in a major film.[16]
In Wilder's 1959 filmSome Like It Hot, "La cumparsita" is played by a blindfolded Cuban band during a scene in whichJack Lemmon dressed in drag dances with overstated flair in the arms ofJoe E. Brown who thinks Lemmon is a woman ("Daphne – you're leading again").[17] During the filming in 1958, actorGeorge Raft taught the other two men to dance the tango for this scene.[18]
Media related toLa Cumparsita at Wikimedia Commons
