Who Was The Composer of 'Guitarra Que Llora'?

According to the info available in the Oscar Alemán online-discography Les Loups (Gastón Bueno Lobo, haw g & Oscar Alemán, g) recorded the shown 'Guitarra Que Llora' (Victor 80839 - A, mx BAVE-44058A-2) on c. May 2nd, 1928 for Victor in Buenos Aires. This was the initial recording of the tango, on the label it was credited to 'Gastón B. Lobo' as the composer. Up till now this was the only known version of 'Guitarra Que Llora' featuring Les Loups, but another version from about the same time with added lyrics by Enrique Cadícamo and sung by vocalist Augustín Magaldi is also said to feature Les Loups as accompanying guitarists.


This version of 'Guitarra Que Llora' was recorded for Victor on May 25,1928 according to discographical info including scan of the label supplied by Johan of tangoteca@telenet.be. The shown label, however, does not mention Les Loups - only 'Solo con guitarras' is stated, but among tango discographers it has been assumed that the guitar accompaniment with Magaldi's vocal was performed by Les Loups, further sustained by statesments that claimed this version was "una revolucionaria versión en la que utilizó una guitarra hawaiiana" (in English: 'a revolutionary use of the Hawaiian guitar'). However, when listening to the recording, no audible sign of a Hawaiian guitar is registered by this listener, only a conventional guitar picking the accompaniment supported by another guitarist playing chordal rhythm, barely audible. The picking style of the audible guitar resembles the one supplied by Oscar Alemán on the Les Loups recording of 'Guitarra que llora', but it could as well be another guitarist, who had learned the accompaniment from listening to the version by Les Loups or by studying the written score that was published. From the profile of Augustin Magaldi at Todo Tango we know that Magaldi's regular accompanying guitarists in 1928 were Diego Centeno and Ángel Domingo Riverol.

Further, we had the following message from Sam Brylawski of the Victor discography project (http://victor.library.ucsb.edu): ""I wish that I could assist you with "Guitarra que llora" on 80944. I do know that the matrix number was BAVE-44269-3, but can't confirm Les Loups at the session. The Victor blue history card, the source of the matrix number, states only, "con acc. Guitarra."." - It seems that it's not possible to draw the conclusion that Les Loups participated in Magaldi's recording of 'Guitarra Que Llora', but the assumption that Les Loups actually were in the studio with Magaldi on May 25, 1928 may depend on the shown Victor label of the issued record. Here 'Guitarra Que Llora' is credited to 'G.B.Lobo - O.M. Alemán - E.Cadicamo', the latter known to be the writer of the lyrics. However, this info further makes things complicated, as you now have both G.B. Lobo and O.M. Alemán as composers of the music. On the label of the recording by Les Loups shown above only Lobo is credited as composer of the music! The score of 'Guitarra Que Llora' as shown above also gives credits to both G.B.Lobo and O.M. Alemán as composers of the music.

To make things even more complicated regarding the composer of 'Guitarra Que Llora' Johan of tangoteca@telenet.be also forwarded scans of the shown version of the tune by vocalist Angel Vargas accompanied by orchestra directed by Armando Lacava recorded July 9,1954. On the label the composition is credited to 'Enrique Cadicamo - Oscar M. Alemán', the former wrote the lyrics, while Alemán is credited to be the composer of the music. Johan further mentions another recording by Angel Vargas of 'Guitarra Que Llora' with accompaniment by Angel D'Agostino orchestra from June 15, 1942 that also only states Alemán as the composer of the music. Moreover, Johan has searched the SADAIC (the Argentinian author and composer's organisation), but could not find registered composer information on 'Guitarre Que Llora'.

We urge readers to supply further info, if possible. Who was the composer of 'Guitarre Que Llora'?

Jo