Milonga

1.  Milonga can refer to an Argentine, Uruguayan, and Southern Brazilian form of music which preceded the tango and the dance form which accompanies it or;
2. to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced.
The term milonga comes from a similar expression that means "lyrics".

Music

The Milonga originated in the Río de la Plata area of Argentina and Uruguay and has its roots from various European music (i.e. mazurka). It was very popular in the 1870s.

The song was set to a lively 2/4 tempo, and often included musical improvisation. Over time, dance steps and other musical influences were added, eventually giving rise to the tango.  Despite 2/4 formula, rhythm is irregular. It is syncopated*, consisting of 8 beats with accents on the 1st, (sometimes also 2nd) 4th, 5th, and 7th beats.

*Syncopation: a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be stressed. "If a part of the measure that is usually unstressed is accented, the rhythm is considered to be syncopated.  More simply - syncopation a general term for a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm; a placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur. .

Dance

In a book published in 1883 Ventura Lynch - a noted contemporary student of the dances and folklore of Buenos Aires Province noted the influence the African Argentine dancers had on this dance.

Ventura also noted the popularity of the milonga. "The milonga is so universal in the environs of the city that it is an obligatory piece at all the lower-class dances.  It is danced too in the low life clubs around...[main] markets, and also at the dances and wakes of cart-drivers, the soldiery and compadres and compadritos.

Distinctive elements added from the African Argentine candombe* were quebradas, improvised, jerky, semi-athletic contortions, the more dramatic the better, and cortes, a suggestive pause, or sudden break in the figures of the dance. Unlike in the then "Tango" of that group, however, where these movements were danced apart, they were now danced together.

Jose Gobello suggested that the mazurka was also altered in the districts close to the docks. This Africanized milonga-tango was frowned upon, and found wholly unacceptable by some sections of Argentine high society.

Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango and requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more "rustic" style than Tango.

There are different styles of Milonga:

1.  Milonga Lisa (Simple Milonga), in which the dancer steps on every beat of the music;
2.   Milonga con Traspié, in which the dancer uses Traspiés or contrapasos (changes of weight from one foot to the other and back again in double time or three steps in two beats) to interpret the music.
Thus, dynamics may be danced without having to run fast or without the use of much space.

Candombe is a drum-based musical style of Uruguay. Candombe originated among the African population of the South American country's capital, Montevideo (the largest city, the capital and chief port of Uruguay) and is based on Bantu African drumming.

 

Origins

In the third decade of the nineteenth century (1830’s) the word candombe began to appear in Buenos Aires, referring to self-help dancing societies founded by persons of African descent." the term means "pertaining to blacks" in Ki-Kongo. In Buenos Aires it meant more than a dance or a music or a congregation, but all of the above.

Candombe the dance was a local fusion of various African traditions. A complicated choreography included a final section with wild rhythms, freely improvised steps, and energetic, semi-athletic movements. Afro Argentines accented the hips, and Afro Uruguayans accented the shoulders.

"Los Mulatos" - Pedro Figari

Side note:  According to George Reid Andrews, the historian of Buenos Aire's Black communities, after the middle of the nineteenth century younger blacks in particular abandoned the candombe in favor of dances from Europe such as the mazurka. Meanwhile, whites began to imitate the steps and movements of blacks. Calling themselves Los Negros, upper class portenos in the 1860s and 1870s blackened their faces and formed one of the carnival processions each year.

A new dance, which embodied the movement and style of the candombe, and called a "tango" with couples dancing apart, rather than in an embrace, was created by the African-Argentines of Mondongo the year 1877. So wrote a man who identified himself as "Viejo Tanguero" in a September 1913 article in Buenos Aires's first mass circulation popular newspaper.

In a book published in 1883 Ventura Lynch - a noted contemporary student of the dances and folklore of Buenos Aires Province noted the influence the African Argentine dancers had on the…the milonga …

Candombe's origins lie in the Kings of Congo ceremonial processions from the period of African slavery in South America. Candombe is related to other musical forms of African origin found in the Americas such as Cuban son and tumba and Brazilian maracatu and congadas.

The form had evolved by the beginning of the 19th century and was immediately seen as a threat to the elites, who sought to ban the music and its dance in 1808.

Candombe's Afro-Uruguayan origin of identity lies in that throughout the Americas only Montevideo, Uruguay actively cultivates this African Beat, while it is common in West Africa, and would be recognized there today for what it is: a beat that calls forth people: Las Llamadas (The Calling).
That said, there can be no doubt that from a musicological point of view, it represents the southern most expression of African music in the Americas, and has been so for centuries.