Countless titles and lyrics of tangos, milongas and waltzes contain the term "soul", and the like in our everyday language, its meaning is not always the same.
For the Hebrews and Greeks, the soul is the union of the body and the breath of life or spirit. a soul that can live outside the body is not conceived. «He returned the soul to the body!», We say when someone is recovering from a serious matter. Thus, it would be something invisible and immaterial living beings possessing.
The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language has many definitions of "soul", the first of them: "Principle that shapes and organizes the growing dynamism, sensitive and intellectual life ". followed: "In some religions and cultures, spiritual and immortal substance of human beings ". After, He gives several examples of use. Tangos happens in the same but with some nuances.
And in the title of the work one can elucidate the idea, although it is often ambiguous. At times, illustration of the score gives us a help to discover the concept. In the case of letters, Metaphors can facilitate their intention, attending the context surrounding the end in the course of the plot.
To better analyze this, we conducted a survey of titles in scores and discographies. further, Search letters known topics. When the word is in the title and the work has lyrics, usually quickly it clarified the matter.
There are two tangos titled "Alma", one of them, the most widespread, Juan Sarcione letter carries and uses the word in the strict sense they attached the Greeks and the Hebrews: «alma, never despair / because if you die / kill my heart ". It is something that can not be separated from the body, Here the soul is life.
There is a harbinger of death "Me too", when he says: "I'm feeling old / behind the life./ dawn goes Today I looked at the mirror / and I feel my soul is overdue". And if there is any doubt, ends: "And it's not live, fight up / cool forgetting that they die '.
In the waltz "Desde el alma", there is a small variation: the wounded soul, the deep sense of who lives heartbreak. Here, the tormenting disappointment, It does hurt a soul, but does not kill and less leaves the body. "Alma if both have hurt you / why do you refuse to oblivion?». Similar is the case of "Alma en pena" when he says: «Alma… that're worth wandering / Come to your door / beseech him crying '. In "Almita wound", Enrique Cadícamo uses a title more than eloquent or "Nostalgias" when he says: "My soul weeps fantoche / lonely and sad tonight…»
As we see the pain of the soul it is difficult to cure but can be palliative as in the case of "My sad night (Lita)”: "Percanta that amuraste me / the best of my life / leaving the wounded soul / and thorn in the heart", and later: "For me there is no consolation / and so I'm getting drunk / pa 'forget your love".
Another idea very different found in "Alma bohemian", in this letter of Juan Andres Caruso soul he expresses a trait of personality, bohemian vocation: "Pilgrim and dreamy / sing / I want my fantasy / and crazy poetry / is in my heart". Could have been: "in my soul", instead of "heart".
In "Alma de loca", alluded to an apparent way of life that he is not what is in his true soul: "Milonguera, bullanguera, that the soul goes mad / that with joyous laughter, vibrated cabaret…" But later: "Who thought milonguera…/ You were going to show his true colors by putting serious and sad / wrist modestita to a poor and worthless ". Al fin, its real soul emerges.
In "My Soul", everything seems easier, He is the beloved woman. The man looks asleep and soul calls, almost a proper name, but thickens at first when said bis: "I rondo single in the calm / to know if you have soul…». Here, instead, he wonders if good. As in "We're the same", but in this case, with the certainty that it is not: "Soulless beauty, ice statue…»
Eladia in his tango "With the wings of the soul", uses the term as the energy of the spirit and puts wings: "With the wings of the soul I deployed wind / unraveled the essence of my own existence…». The name "with heart and soul" there is a tango, vals and milonga one, without considering their lyrics, we can say that transmits energy title. It is a term used for extreme stress.
Other use but which abounds in many tangos, It is referred to in "I took a tango in the soul". It is a very significant title, which refers to the place where the essential things are. Marks a paradigm that will be repeated on many pages, in which it states that the tango takes deep inside, It is saved in the soul. Something similar, referring to a double paradigm, We found in "Alma porteña": «Tango, you're the soul porteña…». Tango and its city seen as symbols that make up an archetype of the inhabitant of Buenos Aires. Another case, in “My city and my people”: "Buenos Aires!/ For my soul there will be no geography / better than the landscape / of your streets…». Or in "Almagro": «Soul neighborhood…».
Also backwards, the city with soul, as in "Melodía de arrabal": "Neighborhood…neighborhood / that you have the restless soul / of a sentimental sparrow ». The porteño gives a soul to his most endearing place.
That is to say, for tango, places and even objects can have souls, in this sense, we cannot ignore “Alma de bandoneón” and the exquisite metaphor that the protagonist makes when he discovers his existence in the instrument: «I just understand well / the despair / that makes you moan / You are a caterpillar that wanted / to be a butterfly before dying!».
Also soul can mean the main part of anything, the one that gives it vigor and strength, the one that tempers it. In this sense it appears in "Cordón": «Hard as the soul of a pediment…».
Another variant is in "Back", where the soul is shown as a refuge from feelings but also as the breath of life: «Live / with a clinging soul / to a sweet memory / that I cry again.». The same in the verses of “La cumparsita (If you knew)”By Pascual Contursi and Enrique Maroni: «If you knew / that still inside my soul / I keep that affection / that I had for you.». This idea of deposit or refuge, so much love feelings, as of fear and nostalgia, is in infinity of tangos: «And even if I want to love you I can't anymore / because inside the soul I am afraid», central passage of "Afternoon", that beautiful page of José Canet.
The soul is so ethereal that, sometimes, is in the letter and is not named by name, like for example in “A song”: "Let's see, woman! A little more rum / and close the calico robe / I saw your heart / naked in the glass / trembling when listening / that song ». The man uses a beautiful metaphor, of subtle eroticism, almost imperceptible and confesses that he saw her breasts and reached her soul.
The Cases of Distracted or Wrong Souls is an excellent finishing touch for this short essay.. The first is found in "Three Hopes" where the character recognizes: «Otaria soul that is in me». And the second in "Che bandoneón": "If the soul is in orsai". In both, the soul is foolish or wrong, outside the circumstances of the situation, out of focus. These metaphors, so raw, sarcastic but at the same time smiling, they are undoubted proof of the originality and the immense talent of two pillars of tango, Enrique Discépolo and Homero Manzi.
List of titles:
“Alma”, by Federico Scorticati and Juan Sarcione
“Alma [b]”, by Domingo Julio Vivas and Gerónimo Gradito
"Tired soul", from Fidel Del Negro
"Soul, heart, and life" (false), by Adrián Flores
"Artist's soul", by Diógenes Chávez Pinzón
"Soul of the bandoneon", by Enrique Santos Discépolo and Luis César Amadori
"Bohemian soul", by Roberto Firpo and Juan Andrés Caruso
Soul of jet, by Ernesto de la Cruz and Máximo Vago
"Soul of an Indian", by Augusto Gentile and Pedro Numa Córdoba
"Alma de loca", by Guillermo Cavazza and Jacinto Font
"Malevolent soul", of E. de la Cruz and Eduardo Beccar
"Soul of milonga", by Salvador Grupillo and Bartolomé Chapela
"Soul of milonga [b]”, by Carlos Warren and Juan Baüer
"Soul of milonga [c]”, by Julio Falcón
"Soul of milonga [d]”, from Francisco Álvarez
"Soul of a woman", from G. Cavazza y J. Font
"Soul of a woman [b]” (v), by Virgilio Carmona and Eugenio Cárdenas
"Clown's Soul", by Raúl Saraceno and Antonio Pérez
"Soul of serenade", by Marcelo Sobredo and José María Tasca
"Alma desakatada", by Raúl Peña and Marcela Bublik
"Sore soul", Angel Wells and H. Matta
"Sore soul [b]” (v), Enrique Maciel
"Sore soul" (v), by Pedro Datta
"Suffering soul", Anselmo Aieta and Francisco García Jiménez
"Galician soul" (v) by Carmelo Imperio, Donato Racciatti and Enrique Soriano
"Gaucho soul" (v), by Pedro Datta and José Fernández
"Gaucho soul [b]” (style), by Juan Sarcione
"Gaucho soul [c]”, of R. Firpo
"Wounded soul", by Paco Berón and Adrián Resnik
"Lyrical soul", by Ernesto Baffa and Daniel Lomuto
"My soul" (v), by Diego Centeno and Héctor Marcó
"My soul [b]”, by Domingo Cuestas and Mario César Gomila
"My soul [c]”, of Maria Isolina Godard
"My soul [d]”, from Emilio Ferrer
"My soul [e]”, of Panizzi
"Passionate soul" (v), from José I. Rivero and Liliana de Capaccio
"Poetic soul" (v), of R. Firpo
"Soul of Buenos Aires", by Vicente Greco and Julián Porteño
"Porteña soul [b]”, of Francisco Pacosta
"Porteña soul [c]”, by Aldo Maietti
"Porteña soul [d]” (milonga), by Antonio Polito and Francisco Laino
"Soul that cries", of C. Martinoli
“Alma tanguera”, by Mario Licarse
"Soul and heart", de Juan Varna
"Soul and heart" (false), no data (by Bonavena orchestra)
"Soul and feeling" (v), J. Milano
"Soulmates", by Juan Salomone y L. Jacobone
"Almita", by Julio Weinberger and Hugo Zamora
“Almita [b]”, from Las Bordonas, Daniel Yaría and Javier Amoretti
"Wounded Almita", from Juan C. Cobián and Enrique Cadícamo
"Alleys of the soul" (song), by Beatriz Lockhart and Nelson Pilosof
"As a soul in pain", by David Barberis and Enrique Tubito
"With soul" (m), by Juan Carlos Cirigliano
"With a tango soul", by Juan D’Arienzo and Carlos Waiss
"With soul and nerve", by Juan Polito, Carlos Lazzari and Ángel Guevara
"With soul and life", by Raúl de los Hoyos and Emilio Fresedo
"With soul and life [b]” (milonga), by Carlos Di Sarli and Héctor Marcó
"With soul and life [c]” (false), by Ricardo Brignolo
"With a blind soul", from Charlo
"With tango in the soul", by Carlos Figari and Miguel Bucino
"With the wings of the soul", by Daniel García and Eladia Blázquez
"Body and soul", José Basso and Juan Pueblito
"From the soul", (v), by Rosita Melo and Homero Manzi
"From Alberdi's soul" (v), by Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez
"Echoes of the soul" (v), by Ernesto Bianchi and Antonio Ziccaro
"The soul of the street", by R. de los Hoyos and José A. Ferreyra
"The soul of the payador" (m), from Angel Greco
"The soul of tango", by V Pérez Petit, J.M. González and Luis Viapiana
"The soul that feels", by José Servidio and Celedonio Flores
"The universe of your soul", by Miguel Ángel Barcos y N. Philosopher
"In the chest of my soul", by Santos Maggi and Primo Antonio
"Fever in the soul" (v), de Arnaldo Barsanti
"Flowers of the soul" (v), by Juan Larenza and Lito Bayardo
"Graffiti of souls" (m), by Lito Vitale, Lucho González and Adrián Abonizio
"Cry of the soul", of C. Di Sarli
"Cries of the soul" (v), by Adolfo Pérez and José Horacio Staffolani
"My soul goes towards you" (v), by Lucero Villegas
"Wailing of the soul", of C.A.. A word
"Wailing of the soul" (v), by Dante and Domingo Puricelli
"It rains in my soul" (c), by Mariano Mores
"I feel it in the soul", by Roberto Giménez and Reinaldo Yiso
"Mother of my soul" (v), by Roberto Díaz y Gómez
"Mother of my soul" (v), by Reinaldo Yiso
"Martyrdoms of the soul" (v), by Antonio Bonavena and A. Legüero
"My soul hurts" (v), by José L. Padula and Lito Bayardo
"As long as there is a truth in the soul", de Litto Nebbia
"Oh mother of the soul" (v), by Jaime Vila and José Fernández
"Complaints of the soul", by Guillermo Barbieri
"Complaints of the soul [b]” (v), by D.Vivas and Juan Mazaroni
"Complaints of the soul [c]”, by Mario Canaro
"Rolled of the soul" (c), de Antonio Di Benedetto y D.C.. Rocatti
"Without soul and without God", by Mapera and Carlos Minotti
“To I swear (With all the soul)” (v), by Juan Carlos Cambón and Héctor Demattei
"The whole soul"; by A.Polito and Nicolás Trimani
"Storm in the soul" (v), by José Luis Padula y Cadícamo
"A good soul", by Aquiles Aguilar and José María Contursi
"A scam in my soul", by Jorge Dragone and Elba Cristian
"Vibrations of the soul" (v), by Francisco Canaro
"I have a tango in my soul", by Osvaldo Sosa Cordero
Source: Ricardo García Blaya – Todotango.com
