Collection: Villoldo, Ángel Gregorio

Ángel Gregorio Villoldo Arroyo (1861–1919) was an Argentine musician and one of the pioneers of tango music. He was a lyricist, composer, and one of the prominent singers of the era. Villoldo transformed the Spanish tanguillos, the cuplés, and the habaneras, turning the continental genres into native Argentine rhythms.

When performing, Villoldo often played the guitar and harmonica and succeeded in telling stories by singing, which added to the entertainment of his audiences at ordinary cafés and joints.

In 1889, he published a compilation of cantos criollos (creole folk songs), including original lyrics that were meant to be sung with guitar. In 1916, he published other songs of deep national content, titled Argentine Popular Songs, commemorating the centennial of the Argentine Declaration of Independence.

He wrote a modern method to learn guitar with symbols, called Método América, published by the old Casa América in 1917. Together with Alfredo Eusebio Gobbi and his wife, the Chilean Flora Rodríguez—parents of band leader and violinist Alfredo Gobbi—he travelled to France to make phonograph recordings, hired by Gath & Chaves, a major Argentine company of that period. This gave impetus to Argentinian music in Europe and many of these records were also distributed in Buenos Aires.

The most important piece of music Villoldo composed was "El Choclo", which is notable for its melody and rhythm. During World War I, the Argentine journalist Tito Livio Foppa was at the German front when, at an official party, a musician played the piano to honour Foppa and attempted to play the national anthem, but in reality, the musician played "El Choclo", which he mistook for Argentina's patriotic song.