Book. ISBN: 1-881913-38-4

Published. This document represents research and analysis of tangos for solo piano composed by six American art music composers. The selected tangos are from 1920 to 1990. They are representative of diverse musical styles, including tonal and non-tonal musical languages, and both structural and improvisational writing.

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The College Music Society is pleased to present the first volume of the Cultural Expressions in Music monograph series. Publications in this series provide for the college music profession and music community at large perspective on and insight into the breath of cultural inclusion in a wide variety of musical works. In this inaugural volume, Dr. Oscar Macchioni elucidates with native fluency and expert pianistic insight the influence of Argentine Tango in the piano works of six American composers: Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, David Jaggard, Chester Biscardi, and William Bolcom. The Tango in America Piano Music is at once vivid and erudite, and makes an important contribution to the literature for scholars and performers.

Dr. Sang-Hie Lee, Editor

University of South Florida

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Macchioni elegantly addresses the tangled web of use and misuse of the term “tango” by examining it historically. He also addresses frequent cultural misconceptions associated with the genre, such as the mistaken use of regional Spanish (European) costumes in tango sheet music covers and Hollywood films depicting this dance.

The panoramic influence of the Argentine tango on American concert music becomes clear in this book. When an idiom becomes present in our consciousness that it can be as quoted, used, and transformed as the tango has been, that idiom deserves our attention. This book admirably fills that need and expands our understanding of the rich influence that the tango continues to have in American music.

Dr. Nohema Fernández, Dean Emeritus

University of California, Irvine