Jealous in Buenos Aires, as a Dane proved it actually takes one to tango

Jacob Gade’s Tango Jalousie is the most popular piece of music ever written by a Dane – one of the greatest evergreens in the annals of musical history.

Christopher Follett

Back in the 1970s it was estimated that the work was played somewhere in the world every minute of the day, a feat only equalled by the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’, and today the royalties continue to pour in, providing funds for the prestigious Jacob Gade Prize for Young Musicians.

Its composer was Jacob Gade (1879-1963) – no relation to Denmark’s greatest romantic composer Niels W Gade – who hailed from Vejle, Jutland. A country-dance fiddler with no formal training, Gade had a brilliant career as a violin virtuoso, band leader and popular conductor of light music in Copenhagen’s restaurants and theatres. And as a composer of over 60 works, mainly salon music and revue songs, Gade became the leader of the big orchestra at the Palads Cinema in 1921.

The work that was to become the best known tango piece in the world was originally composed as music to accompany the screening in Copenhagen of Donald Crisp’s classic film ‘Don Q Son of Zorro’, starring Douglas Fairbanks, in 1925 at the height of the silent film era.

Gade’s career as a performing musician was brought to an end by the arrival of ‘talking films’ with their own sound in the early 1930s, and he retired to the country, living off the ample royalties from his work and trying his hand at more serious composition.

A Latin legacy
The tango is a Latin American dance in duple rhythm with long gliding steps and sudden pauses: a wickedly sensual dance form laden with torrid sexual innuendo, so it is strange that a Dane from the other side of the globe should have written such a masterpiece of the genre.

The tango dates back over 100 years to Buenos Aires in Argentina and Montevideo in neighbouring Uruguay, where it is thought to have developed among the abjectly poor African immigrant population from Niger and Congo in local slum quarters and bordellos. The instrument most associated with the tango, the bandoneon, was a German invention– again a piece of immigrant culture.

Today the tango has progressed up the social scale to the ballrooms of Europe and America; in Finland it has become almost the national cult dance, spawning an active Finnish school of ‘new tango’ composers.

Led by the great Astor Piazzolla, the key tango composers are Argentinian, but Gade must rate highly as the greatest composer of what is dubbed ‘the European tango’.

International hit
‘Tango Jalousie’ became famous all over the world when celebrity conductor Arthur Fiedler and his famed Boston Pops Orchestra recorded the piece in 1935. Released as a single by RCA Victor, Fiedler’s version of the tango sold over 1 million copies – the first major hit orchestral record ever. ‘Tango Jalousie’ appears in many different variants.

A text for the tango, written by American Vera Bloom, was sung by the legendary Vera Lynn to British troops during World War Two; the piece has since been recorded by world tenor Placido Domingo and violinist Yehudi Menuhin; and Danish contemporary composer Per Nørgård paraphrased Gade’s work in his 1967 work ‘Tango Chicane’.

Jalousie is published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen in Copenhagen in various versions: for symphony orchestra, salon orchestra, concert band, percussion, wind quintet, violin and piano, flute and piano, accordion and piano solo. The piece continues to bring in around 1 million kroner a year in royalties.

The Jacob Gade Prize (worth 50,000 kroner) is awarded every year to a promising young musician, so Gade’s ‘Tango Jalousie’ continues to play an important role in the Danish musical world – 95 years after its premiere at the Palads Cinema.

TOP STORIES

  • Navigating big love, big moves and big feelings

    Navigating big love, big moves and big feelings

    Experts believe it takes seven years to move into a new culture, according to leading Danish psychologist Jette Simon and therapist Vibeke Hartkorn. For expat couples, the challenges of starting a new life together in Denmark can put pressure on relationships, but emotions-focused therapy can help.

  • More and more Danes are working after retirement age

    More and more Danes are working after retirement age

    Politicians debate a lot these days about when you can retire. The reality shows that an increasing number of Danes like to work, even if they can withdraw from the labor market. Financial incentives help.

  • Environmental activist fears death in prison if extradited to Japan

    Environmental activist fears death in prison if extradited to Japan

    Canadian-born environmental activist Paul Watson has been in prison in Greenland for almost 100 days awaiting an extradition decision for a 14-year-old offence against a Japanese whaling vessel that he calls a “minor misdemeanor”. The 73-year-old had previously passed through Ireland, Switzerland, Monaco, France and the USA without trouble, before Greenlandic police arrested him in July.

  • Denmark too slow to ease recruitment rules for non-EU service workers, say industry associations

    Denmark too slow to ease recruitment rules for non-EU service workers, say industry associations

    When the Danish government in January presented the first of its schemes to make it easier to recruit foreign labour from outside the EU, it was hailed by the healthcare and service sectors as a timely and important policy shift. But while healthcare changes have been forthcoming, the service sector is still struggling, say the directors of the industry association Dansk Industri and one of the country’s largest private employers ISS.

  • Jacob Mark had it all coming in rising SF party – now he quits

    Jacob Mark had it all coming in rising SF party – now he quits

    SF became Denmark’s largest party in the EP elections in June. In polls, the left-wing party is breathing down Socialdemokratiet’s neck. It is a tremendous place to be next in line in Danish politics. But today, 33-year-old Jacob Mark announced he is quitting politics at the threshold of the door of power.

  • EU leaders toughen stance on return of irregular migrants

    EU leaders toughen stance on return of irregular migrants

    EU leaders agreed last week to speed up returns of migrants irregularly entering the bloc. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is pleased, describing Denmark’s previous attempts to pitch a stricter asylum and migration policy to the EU as “like shouting into an empty handball hall in Jutland”. But not all leaders are enthusiastic.

Connect club

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.

Sign up here

Career

  • Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 of September, The Copenhagen Post will be at International Citizen Days in Øksnehallen on Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Admission is free and thousands of internationals are expected to attend

  • Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Chisom Udeze, the founder of Diversify – a global organization that works at the intersection of inclusion, democracy, freedom, climate sustainability, justice, and belonging – shares how struggling to find a community in Norway motivated her to build a Nordic-wide professional network. We also hear from Dr. Poornima Luthra, Associate Professor at CBS, about how to address bias in the workplace.

  • Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality, home to Denmark’s largest infrastructure project – the Fehmarnbelt tunnel connection to Germany – has launched a new jobseeker support package for the accompanying partners of international employees in the area. The job-to-partner package offers free tailored sessions on finding a job and starting a personal business.

Want to advertise your job with CPH Post?

Contact us

Jobs