“The cumparsita” is a tango whose melody was created and written in the early 1917 by the Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. Shortly after, and at Matos Rodríguez’s request, it received musical arrangements from the Argentine Roberto Firpo who, subsequently, played it with his orchestra for the first time in public on April 19, 1917, at the La Giralda Confectionery, located in Independence Square in Montevideo. Its most popular lyrics belong to the Argentine Pascual Contursi. It is considered one of the most widespread tangos worldwide.
Singer Carlos Gardel and renowned orchestra directors – from Juan D’Arienzo to Osvaldo Pugliese – successfully added “La cumparsita” to their repertoire.
“La cumparsita” is the popular and cultural anthem of Uruguay, according to a law passed in 1998 by the Uruguayan Legislative Power.
La Cumparsita: a bit of history
“La cumparsita” was initially created as a march, composed in 1917 by the young architecture student Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. Although it was said that he had composed it for the carnival troupe formed by the Federation of Students of Uruguay, precisely to use it in the celebrations that were about to take place. He named it “Cumparsita” in homage to the carnival standard of the Federation, which had the word “cumparsita” written instead of “comparsita”, because that was how a friend of the students pronounced the word in cocoliche (a mixture of Italian and Spanish).
It was premiered by Roberto Firpo at the La Giralda café in Montevideo in 1917, although due to a numbering error on the records, it is sometimes said to have premiered in 1916. Nowadays, the Tango Museum operates in that historic site in Montevideo.
Although the year is a matter of debate, in 1916 Firpo premiered “La cumparsita” at the La Giralda café in Montevideo, and made the oldest recording of the piece (Odeón 483). Firpo always maintained that he included in the original theme, presented by Matos Rodríguez, a part of his tangos “La gaucha Manuela” and “Curda completa”, although only a phrase from “La gaucha Manuela” can be heard at the beginning of the third part of the tango, and a section of “Miserere…” by Giuseppe Verdi (IV act of “Il Trovatore”) which is also not recognized, and proposed to sign it jointly, to which Matos opposed.
Until 1924, “La cumparsita” was an instrumental tango “completely forgotten,” according to the judgment of Juan Carlos Marambio Catán. Precisely because it lacked lyrics, it was not performed by the orchestras of that time, which accompanied the rise of the so-called tango-song (whose greatest exponent was Carlos Gardel). Matos, for his part, had sold the rights to the Breyer Hnos. firm, representative of Casa Ricordi in Argentina.
On June 6, 1924, Leopoldo Simari’s company premiered a little play by Pascual Contursi and Maroni titled “A cabaret program” at the old Apollo theater. By those years, there were no popular theatrical works that did not include the premiere of one or two tangos to ensure success with the audience. In the second act of that play, the singer Juan Ferrari sang for the first time the verses composed by both authors to the music of “La cumparsita”: “If you knew / that still within my soul…”.
The piece was on stage for a very short time because neither this new tango nor the bitter satire of “La mina del Ford” in the voice of the actress Luisa Morotti managed to save its mediocrity. However, the new tango had an unexpected success. Carlos Gardel, the quintessential Rioplatense, began to sing it that same year and recorded it for Odeón with the guitars of Ricardo and Barbieri. From then on, its musical values were rediscovered and, as Víctor Soliño said, “La cumparsita began to climb the few steps that remained to reach the peak of glory.”
Matos learned in Paris — through Canaro — about these news regarding his tango. He turned to the aid of Dr. Calatayud, a young Uruguayan lawyer, who carried out the legal actions to undo the sale of the rights to Breyer Hnos. and prohibit “La cumparsita” from being played with lyrics or verses that were not those that Matos himself had signed as his authorship: “The parade / of endless miseries passes…”. This lyric, which was deposited in the National Library on November 9, 1926, was recorded by the singer Roberto Díaz with the orchestra Los Provincianos, although it is not the most widespread.
After Pascual Contursi’s death on March 16, 1932, Hilda Briano (his widow) and Enrique P. Maroni (his partner) initiated legal actions for damages against Matos Rodríguez for recognition of rights as co-authors of the work in question. It was a very long lawsuit that was resolved when Matos had also died. On September 10, 1948, Francisco Canaro issued his arbitration award to which the parties had finally submitted, settling the issues regarding the percentages for performance rights, photomechanical rights, and inclusion in films. Thanks to this award, the benefits generated by this tango are distributed 80% to the heirs of the Uruguayan Matos and the remaining 20% to the heirs of the Argentines Contursi and Maroni. The same ruling also resolved that those who want to register future editions of “La cumparsita” may do so using only one of the two aforementioned lyrics, prohibiting the use of any other lyrics. This last provision of the arbitration award responds to the fact that this tango has at least two other lyrics and perhaps a third, which are presumed to have been written with the intention of being attached to the music of Becho.
La Cumparsita in the world
Several musical artists have made their own versions of this tango, including:
Shakira, Julio Iglesias, Julio Sosa Orquesta Típica Tokio, Ranko Fujisawa, Raffaella Carrà, Violentango, Desi Arnaz, Xavier Cugat, Boston Pops, Milva, Mantovani, Frank Pourcel, Nino Rota, Jinny and The Flamboyants, and many more.
The remix of the song “La Cumparsita” by Plef is an example of how tango has influenced Uruguayan rap. “La Cumparsita” is one of the most famous tango songs and has been interpreted in many versions and remixes over the years. Plef decided to create his own version of the song to pay tribute to its centenary of creation and add his own style and perspective.
