Message of Thanks from Sue |
After three weeks in the tango capital of the world, I feel like my tango has improved greatly. This is an invitation to all milongueros to dance with me and tell me if you agree. I loved my Buenos Aires vacation, but I'm very happy to return to my dear friends
at home.
Thank you, Joseph Leung
I want to thank Joseph Leung for our hour-long texting session trying to connect me to the Internet, and impossible task, considering a broken router. I never did get the WI FI fixed.
From Terri about last week
Through the miracle of modern electronics, this newsletter continued
to be delivered to our Firehouse friends for the two weeks that I was in Buenos Aires. From New Jersey, Fran, Pat, Steve and Terri contributed their parts and Tibor entered the week's wine and food contributions. Meanwhile, I, in Argentina, wrote my portion, consolidated the collaborative product, and sent it all out. Pretty impressive! Buenos Aires is my favorite home away from
home, and I was just itching to go. Fortunately, I was able to leave my baby (That would be Firehouse Tango) worry free because we have incredible friends who are more than willing and able to keep the Firehouse fires burning brightly - And from what I can see, they did that in spades. I'm thrilled to be back What joy to return and be welcomed so enthusiastically by our dear Firehouse friends! As much as I loved Buenos Aires,
I'm absolutely thrilled to be back home. I love you all. Thanks, thanks, and more thanks to the Firehouse Tangueros Huge helpings of gratitude go to all of you who brought food and drinks; set up; cleaned up; and kept the Firehouse fires burning brightly while we were gone. We are very aware that our trip would be impossible without an enormous amount of help from the folks back home.
The logistics - The Superhero Team Special thanks to Terri Lopez, Steve Turi, Fran Chesleigh, and Pat Altman for making the whole shebang such a great success. Terri, with Steve's help, planned; ran operations; and coordinated setup and cleanup (and that's not all.) Fran and Pat executed the milonga lessons to perfection. These folks fielded the problems and glitches that seem to arise every week. The
tasks involved in running Firehouse are monumental, and we are incredibly fortunate to have so many fabulous friends willing to step in whenever needed. The newsletter This Firehouse Tango newsletter has been published nearly every week since March, 2002 and thanks to Fran and Pat, the past two weeks were no exception.
Among his countless talents, our remarkable instructor, Fran Chesleigh, is a professional writer. As
always when I am out, he and his equally extraordinary assistant, Pat Altman, flawlessly and with a style of their own, take over the task of writing the Firehouse Tango newsletter. I, helped by the aforementioned modern technology, then send out their handiwork directly from my apartment in Buenos Aires. This awesome duo is usually found at "Fran's Table" in the alcove closest to the DJ table. They are always happy to answer your Tango questions or show you how to
do something you might have missed, so make sure to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to learn from the best. Superman Steve Turi was Clean-up Editor. and Terri Lopez was Other Stuff Editor.
The music - DJ Richard Ariza Aren't we fortunate to have such a wonderful DJ in our Firehouse Family? I heard the music was marvelous. What a pity I couldn't have been there! Once again,
Fran's tribute to Richard was over the top. Knowing Fran, I can tell you that he doesn't throw his praise around lightly. Here's some more information about Richard: he hosts the delightful Friday afternoon milongas at Triangulo WWW.TANGONYC.COM. He has guest-DJ'd at many New York and New Jersey milongas, and we've had the pleasure of his company - not to mention DJ expertise - quite often at the Firehouse. If you haven't been to Triangulo, you don't know what
you're missing. You'll find information below in this newsletter about Rich's Friday afternoon at Triangulo..
Next Thursday, March 3, Birthday of Nathan Amitai
Ladies, do not miss this chance to tango with this awesome tanguero. Nathan will start with Vicky, Then he gets to dance with all of the ladies,
but I intend to get to him right after Vicky. It will be awesome. We're so happy that he is a member of our Firehouse family.
Thursday, March 10 No celebrations - Just great dancing and socializing
Thursday, March 17 - Maribel,
Carl, St Patrick
Maribel Soto birthday
Maribel has been coming to Firehouse for almost two years, and nobody loves it as much as she does. She's a terrific dancer, so all of you Firehouse tangueros need to take advantage and join in the birthday tango.
St. Patrick's
celebration
To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I plan to make corned beef and cabbage with potatoes for Thursday, March 17th. I'm also going to try to find some Irish cortinas for that night's playlist.
If anyone would like to contribute another Irish goodie (appetizer, dessert, main dish), let me know. We would be thrilled to have any and all of them. St. Patrick's Day food and music (See below for
information.)
Birthday of Carl Remmes
We are delighted to have Carl back so soon after a debilitating stroke. He is amazing, and we will all have to dance with him. Cris will start the dance and I will be the first to cut in. After that, we will dance as long as Carl lasts.
Thursday, March 24 No celebrations - Just great dancing and socializing
Thursday, March 31 No celebrations - Just great dancing and socializing If heaven is anything like celebrating one’s birthday at Firehouse Tango, it has a lot to recommend it. Frankly, I’d rather be at Firehouse. Thank you lovely tangueras, for a birthday memory I shall cherish. Con mucho
amore, Steve Turi
I keep saying I do not want to celebrate any more birthdays, but how many men will line up to dance with me, if not for the traditional tributes on
birthdays.....oh well, you know that is not really true because our tanqueros dance with all of the ladies... Terri Lopez I'm waiting for more suggestions for cortinas. Let me know if you have some favorite non tango music, and I will
try to play it. Your input is always welcome. My cortina library is expanding rapidly.
A cortina (curtain) is a short piece (20–60 seconds) of non-dance music that is played between tandas at a milonga (tango dance event). The cortina lets the dancers know that the tanda has ended. The partners can then without insult thank each other and return to their own tables, to find a new dance partner at the next tanda. Cortinas are used at many of the milongas in Argentina and Uruguay but are increasingly common elsewhere. - Wikipedia
Let us know if you are celebrating an occasion and would like to request special music for that night’s cortinas. We will try very hard to accommodate you. We welcome readers' contributions about Argentine Tango in general and Firehouse Tango in particular. Send your thoughts to firehousetango@gmail.com We welcome readers' contributions about Argentine Tango in general and Firehouse Tango in particular. Send your thoughts to firehousetango@gmail.com Hi everybody Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. At the end of last week's Tip, I suggested that we would spend this week talking about "double-time" movements in Tango. However, today I want to focus instead on clearing up what I think may be a misunderstanding among non-musicians about what I mean, when I refer to
quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes.
Nota bene: If you're a trained musician, this discussion will probably drive you crazy. Instead of continuing to read the rest of this Tip, you might
want to consider practicing your balance, your lead/follow, or whatever else needs your attention.
Okay, here we go. One of my students (who is a non-musician), asked me recently why the terms quarter note, half note, and whole note are used to define
the beats of music that we're attempting to identify and respond to as we listen to a piece of music. It sounded to him, he said, as if a whole note meant a whole beat -- and that therefore a half note meant half of a beat, and a quarter note meant one quarter of a beat. I told him that this was a misinterpretation of what I was talking
about, and that I would take time to clarify what these terms mean to a musician.
In music, a basic unit of time duration is called a "measure" or "bar." When we represent music in a score, we subdivide each horizontal area into measures, divided vertically by bar lines. (If you take a look at any piece of written music, you'll be able to see this immediately.)
Each measure or bar has the potential to contain what we'll call "beats" of music. This potential is defined in advance by what is referred to as a "time signature." Look to the left of a line of any musical score, and right past the swirly "clef" sign (which we won't discuss here) you'll see fractions such as 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, 6/8, and so forth. This tells you the potential of that particular piece of music as defined
by the composer or arranger. For example, the time signature 4/4 means that each measure within that piece of music has the potential to contain 4 quarter notes. If the time signature were 3/4, it would mean that each measure would have the potential to contain 3 quarter notes.
Got it? Are you still
awake? I know, I know, but let's travel a little further down this rabbit hole anyway.
I'm going to break down a single measure of 4/4 time music. Remember that the potential here is for 4 quarter notes. First, we'll count from 1 to 4:
1-- 2 -- 3 --
4.
These are the quarter notes within our musical measure. For our purposes, they represent 4 individual beats, which we can hear and respond to. Let's infer from this that each of these beats represents one quarter of the entire measure. This is what musicians mean, when they talk about quarter
notes: Each individual beat refers to one quarter of the total musical duration of the measure.
Two quarter notes equal one half note. This means that one half note takes twice as much musical duration as two
quarter notes. A half note takes up exactly half of the measure. That's essentially why we call it a half note. Right here, we'll count from 1 to 2.
1 -- 2 ...
If we want to acknowledge that our quarter notes are there, too -- even though if we're counting the half notes, the quarter notes are only implied -- we might represent our half note count as:
1 . 2 . ...
In this case, we're emphasizing the half notes, but we're using the dots between our half notes in order to imply the potential existence of quarter notes.
Finally, one whole note equals 4 quarter notes (or 2 half notes) within our measure. The whole note takes up the whole measure in musical duration. It takes up the same space/time as 4
quarter notes, or 2 half notes. To represent the whole note within one measure, we would simply count it as:
1 ...
If we decide to acknowledge
the half notes as well, our count would be:
1 . ...
In this case the extra dot after the number imply the existence of the other half note within the measure.
Finally, if we want to state the whole note, and at the same time imply the existence of all four quarter notes within the measure, our count would look like this:
1 . . . ...
In this case the three dots after the number represent the implied quarter notes.
Here is a graphic representation of one measure of music, with quarter
notes, half notes, and whole notes precisely laid out one underneath the other:
Quarter notes: 1 2 3 4 ... Half notes: 1 . 2 . ... Whole notes: 1 . . . ...
As above, the dots represent implied quarter notes.
Just to restate what I now hope is the obvious, a measure is a representation of musical duration. In 4/4 time, a quarter note represents one quarter of the total time duration of the measure. A
half note represents one half of the total time duration. And a whole note represents the whole duration of the measure. That's what the words quarter, half, and whole mean.
Are we ready to move on?
Hello?
For those of you who are still conscious, I'll see you next week.
Saturdays with Fran and Pat at Dardo Galletto Studios
Please join us for our Saturday Practica at Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), 11th floor; 2-4pm, $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Pat and I will both be on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. Plus you get a new “must-have” tango move each week! If
you’d like a private lesson, you can visit our website at www.franchesleigh.com, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/franchesleighllc
View Monica Paz' terrific tango Facebook posts - my pick from
this week is below - Link to New Interview for February, 2016 |
Every day, our dear friend and teacher in Buenos Aires posts a historical tango fact of
the day. These interesting and informative tidbits always include English, Spanish and Italian information and a relevant recording. You can see all of them and listen to the recording by simply joining Monica Paz PractiMilonguero Facebook page. Below is a link to the Facebook page, where you can hear the music:
Calendario Milonguero February 22nd, 1918
Calendario Milonguero
Birth of EMILIO BALCARCE (Emilio Juan Felice) a great tango musician. He arranged and orchestrated music for distinguished directors. He also was the violinist of Edgardo Donato. He conducted the orchestra of Alberto Marino and Alberto Castillo as well, when they were soloists. His most famous work: 20 years in the line of Osvaldo Pugliese’s violin
players. He composed very little but how good it was! We listen!
♫ BIEN COMPADRE. Osvaldo Pugliese (1949). ⊙ CD Nº16 Colección Natucci (40 CDs) +info
Below is a link to Monica's interview with Juan Carlos Pontorielo from February 8, 2011. He passed away recently. How wonderful to have this video history and othes like it that Monica has preserved! Un bello recuerdo Juan Carlos Pontorielo Q.E. P.D. https://youtu.be/CiEib0rZ92Q
Simply Social Dancing - February |
Our cancelation policy - We STILL rarely cancel
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Even though we had to cancel once last year, we still rarely cancel!
We want to remind everyone that if the weather
looks really bad, we will leave messages on our web site www.firehousetango.com and on my cell phone 201-826-6602. Feel free to leave a message if I don't answer.
We cancel only when absolutely necessary (only about eight or nine times in all these years - including, unfortunately, the first scheduled milonga of March, 2015), but please check whenever you're not sure. If there isn't any message, we're
on.
During Hurricane Sandy, when we had only cell phone service, I was able to leave a message on my cell, so I guess that the best number to call is 201-826-6602.
The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.
- Tsypoyra Sartan
- Mike Porro
- Jesse Barton
- Steve Turi
And of course, without Terri Lopez and Steve Turi we would have to close up shop. A reminder that Firehouse Tango does not supply wine - Your fellow tangueros bring it. Therefore, if you drink it, please make sure to bring a
bottle every so often.The folks below brought food and wine this week -
And these people brought wine - Barbara
- Bill Auer
- George Ngo
- Eduard Simpson
- Bill Krukovsky
- Bob Brillo
- Camille
- John Barous
- Victor Arencibia
Tango in New Jersey and New York |
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