The word mulonga (like its plural, milonga ) is a term of quimbunda origin, of the language spoken by the Angolan slaves, that means word. So "Mulonga" means "word" and "Milonga" means "words" or palabrerio "many words". Gauchos used to gather and organize "Payadas", a contrapunto in which two singers or payadores, accompanying themselves with the guitar, improvised on different topics. One would start singing in verse about a subject (God,life, death, love, etc) and the other one would answer. The black slaves did not understqand the payadas very well and started to call them "Milonga" or "many words", in time the event and also the place where those events took place were called "Milonga". The "word" competition in time was followed by "some type of dancing". Before the tango was born people gathered at the payadas and danced. The word Milonga defined both the payada, the place where the event took place and the dance that followed. We use(in Argentina) the word "Milonga" with both meanings today. One in reference to the "event" - We go to the Milonga (meaning a place where we dance), we call Milonga a type of dance (The Milonga one of the three Argentine ballroom dances, vals and tango being the other two). We also by extension call "Milongueros" those that go to the milongas. We use in slang the word milonga in reference to "Many words". Somebody comes to you with a long complain, you may say "no vengas con esa milonga", (Do not come with such a long complaining discourse). We could use the saying "La vida es una milonga" (lIFE IS A MILONGA) meaning that life is the long history of a drama). That type of milonga which had some variations from area to area, was called "Milonga Campera" or "Milonga Sureña) . Campera means "from the country side" Sureña means "from the south". This milonga campera exists today. It has a more monotonous rhythm and the lyrics are usualy very funny. the payadores and payadas exist as well in our country side holiday celebrations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RItiz8hXJEA&NR=1 Example of payada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzRV737zes&feature=related Example of payada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4BfOyvZGXc A payador sings to Jose Hernandez the person that wrote "El martin Fierro". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA9ooCWzyfM&feature=related Example of Milonga Campera - The music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkk-OGdoR7M Example of milonga Campera - The dance Best regards, Sergio _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=PID23384::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:NF_BR_sync:082009 _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
