ARGENTINA & URUGUAY MUSICAL HERITAGE TANGO Perhaps the most popular type of music for listening in these two countries is the home-grown Tango, which is also far-and-away the genre that they are most known for. Born in the 19th century working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Tango grew in the following decades to become a mainstream form of music. It is performed instrumentally and usually accompanied by song. However, it has had its biggest impact, especially internationally, in the form of dance. Tango ensembles are typically sextets consisting of piano, double bass, two violins, and two bandoneons, an accordion-like instrument that lends a very distinct sound to Tango music. However, other combinations of instruments in quartets, quintets, and even octets are also common. The most formidable figures in the history of Tango are widely considered to be Carlos Gardel, Anibal Troilo, and Astor Piazzolla. CARLOS GARDEL Carlos Gardel was a second-generation Tango performer who helped popularize the music in the 1920s and 1930s with an inimitable voice that captured the hearts of "portenos" (nickname for Buenos Aires residents). To this day, seventy years after his death, Gardel is heard daily on radio and even on the cable TV channel dedicated to Tango. Gardel devotees say that "he sings better every day". He is known for many pieces, but perhaps the most popular one is "Mi Buenos Aires Querido" (My Beloved Buenos Aires). ANIBAL TROILO Anibal Troilo formed a Tango ensemble in the 1940s endowed with some exceptional musicians who helped the music evolve into newer forms. "Pichuco" as he was known, improvised on the pieces of his colleagues, adopting what he saw as positive innovations while omitting what he believed did not add anything to the music. ASTOR PIAZZOLLA One of Troilo's bandoneon players, Astor Piazzolla, eventually broke away from Troilo to form his own ensemble, but his biggest accomplishments were as a composer who wrote innovative pieces from the 1940s until he was incapacitated by a brain hemorrhage in 1990. Among his most admired works are "Adios Nonino", which he wrote upon the death of his father and three pieces written with poet Horacio Ferrer in the 1960s; "Balada para un loco", "Chiquilin de Bachin", and the little opera "Maria de Buenos Aires". TANGO TODAY Today Tango is performed in the many different styles and forms developed over the years. The music from seventy years ago is equally respected, admired, and most importantly, played and listened to as newer compositions and styles. This makes for a very rich musical heritage of great interest to the listener and dancer. The wide repertoire and variety of interpretations can be seen, experienced and appreciated at the many Tango Dinner Shows and Milonga dance halls available to visitors in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Their popularity is also evident in the ample selection of such music available