Tango is a single word with multiple manifestations. It is dance, instrumental music, song, cultural phenomenon, complex art form, national symbol. The literature on tango is abundant, international, and growing. The Cambridge Companion to Tango is a welcome addition, bringing together 20 contributions from a diverse set of writers with local and global focus. Each chapter includes helpful suggestions for further reading on the topic. The book is complemented by an open-access website, https://www.tangocompanion.com (hosted by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship), which offers illustrative audio, musical, and film links, diagrams and charts, photos, and scores, as well as background on the two editors and their fellow contributors.
After a context-setting introduction by the editors, the first chapter sets the stage for the rest by providing a brief history and trajectory of tango from its origins in the nineteenth century. The following chapters are organized broadly into four categories: tango...
