Learn to Play Tango Music
Let a trip to Buenos Aires and Astor Piazzolla's 'Four for Tango' be your guide
The last piece my colleagues in the Pacifica Quartet and I played before this vacation to Buenos Aires began was Astor Piazzolla's Four for Tango as an encore at a concert at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. That we played a tango before my excursion was serendipitous circumstance. Written for the Kronos Quartet in 1989, it is not surprising that many extended string techniques are employed, including portato glissandi, instrument slapping, and lija (a chirping sound achieved by bowing the string wrapping near the tailpiece). It is surprising that as modern as these things sound, they're actually traditional tango techniques from the 1920s.
This article, "Learn to Play Tango Music," is part of the Strings Archive, which you can access with a paid site subscription.
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