An unauthorized translation of a passage from the magazine Sherlock Holmes (published in Argentina in Spanish), quoted in Nueva historia del tango.
Sherlock Holmes, no. 86, April 29th, 1913.
Benedetti, Héctor. 2017. Nueva historia del tango: De los orígenes al siglo XXI. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores. p. 49.
Do you want some facts about the origin of the bandonión [sic]? Here you go: first of all, it is of German origin. That is where it came from in the beginning. It’s true, like you say, that it is somewhat analogous to the accordion.
Possibly, it might be a derivation. A variety. A variety of the form. Within the mechanism. Within the technique.
The folding box, after all . . . but the sound: this I assure you, is as different as the day is from the night.
If you have an ear to hear with. If you can feel. If you have soul. If you have ever been in love. If you have a sweetheart, you have to recognize that I’m right. […] That’s why, I tell you. It is really just the right sound for the tango . . . and for other things . . . […]
Like I was telling you. It was more than thirty years ago that the bandonión arrived for the first time in the Republic [Argentina]. It looked kind of funny, and this might have caused people to forget about it. Nobody wanted to learn how to play it. There were very few people who had the guts to go into a salon carrying it in a case. […] Before, they used to be embarrassed by how it looked. By its vulgarity.
Now, it’s starting to come into fashion.
There are a lot of people who are playing it. Those who make art with it. Now in some cafés you can hear the sound of the instrument, and more than one passerby will stop to listen. They come from far away. From the outskirts. Towards the center of the city.
In the Avenida de Mayo, it has already become part of the orchestras.
Could you tell me, Loduca, Who are the people from this area who know the bandoneon and its music well?
There are very few. In the first place, there is Santa Cruz, who has been playing continually for 15 years now, in a café on Santa Fe Street. He might be the one who knows it best. Augusto Berto also knows it. He has for a long time.
Reporting by Luis Sixto Clara.
Blogger’s note: Vicente Loduca was the first bandoneonist to bring tango to Paris in 1913 (he traveled there shortly after this interview). After returning to Argentina, he was very prolific as a composer and bandleader, especially during the 1920s. He is famous for the tangos “El Argentino,” “Sacudime la persiana,” “Juanita,” “Alma Atravesada,” and “Quique.”
The photo of Loduca is not from Nueva historia del tango.