Re: tempo in these times

["Irwin L. Singer" <singer @NRL.NAVY.MIL>]

At 02:52 PM 11/15/01 -0600, Frank G. Williams wrote:
>To my mind . . . classical musicians who seemed to have the skills to pull
>off tango still had the poorest understanding of the music.

         There is truth in the statement that classical musicians (meaning
trained in European-styled music) can't emulate the tango masters.  It is
the latter whom I love dancing to and/or listening to: Pugliese, Canaro, de
Caro, Piazzolla, Salgan, all magnificent musicians who bring us "Rio de la
Plata" style tango.   But like many gringos, I had to be brought into the
tango experience note by note.  Two hours at "Tango Argentino" in the '80s,
a few moments of Tango Project ("Scent of a Woman") in the '90s, followed
by several years of attending tango concerts given by my wife and four of
her musician friends.  The group, classically trained (two violins, cello,
bass and piano) but without a permanent bandoneonist (not unusual in the
USA), decided nonetheless to bring the full range of tango repertoire to
the concert-going US public.
         After five years, I bear witness to the fact that a full range of
the public have become fans of tango music.  Along the way, for every
tanguero who dismissed them as "sounding too Hollywood," there were dozens
of others (Turks, Armenians, Europeans, Latinos and good-old middle
Americans) who wept at concerts and passionately pleaded for more concerts
and recordings. The group, who initially called themselves "Tango Passion,"
paid heed to their fans (and ignored their detractors) and went on to
produce several CDs, develop an educational outreach programs for grades
K-6 ("The Story of Tango," a Cinderella parable) and put on a yearly Tango
Festival in Washington DC.  Today, the group now known as "QuinTango"
counts as loyal fans hundreds of Washingtonians (tangueros and the
Clintons, among them) and thousands of others across the country who took a
chance to hear something different (two thousand gave them a standing
ovation when they soloed with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in
September).  QuinTango continues to enthrall audiences who had never
experienced with their ears the evocative music that we tangueros have
trained our bodies to feel.  I suggest that it is the playing skills that
come with classical training that has helped American audiences accept the
pulse-quickening poetry that we call tango.

Irwin Singer  (who hopes his wife agrees with this assessment).