Cuarteto Music and Dancing from Argentina: In Search of the Tunga-Tunga in Cordoba

"A solid study of a long-neglected tradition . . . [which] takes the reader through the history of the genre, describes the social context in which the music is played, and gives the reader full accounts of the major bands and musicians who play this contemporary 'people's' music."--Donald L. Hill, State University of New York at Oneonta

 

This benchmark study fills a gap in our understanding of regional styles of Latin American and Caribbean music and also sheds light on popular music around the world.
Cuarteto is the wildly popular working-class dance music associated today with thousands of inhabitants of Córdoba, Argentina. In this first study of the controversial, lucrative, and little-known musical genre,  Jane Florine describes the musical and sociohistorical context surrounding cuarteto and demonstrates how innovation has produced stylistic change in the music. Focusing on six bands, especially the group led by Carlos Jiménez, one of the most famous cuarteto singers, she illuminates the role of the individual in the processes that drive musical evolution. Examining the consequences of decisions like what music to play, how to play it, and who makes those choices, Florine tracks power struggles that evolve over the life of a band.
 The book includes song lyrics, musical transcriptions, diagrams, and photographs, and it describes the underlying accompaniment pattern of cuarteto, the tunga-tunga, which has been in place since 1943. It supplies theoretical background about musical change and provides information about typical cuarteto dance events and how to dance cuarteto. The account is personalized by Florine’s account of her own adventures performing and recording with Jiménez’s group.
 

Jane L. Florine is associate professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at Chicago State University. She has written numerous articles on cuarteto and popular Latin music published in journals such as Latin American Music Review, Popular Music and Society, and the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music.