Arrangements

From my first tango CD purchase in 2007, I wanted to arrange tango for solo clarinet. It was mainly the articulation styles of the bandoneons that impressed me, but also the lyrical melodies in the violin and vocal lines. SO much fun, SO clarinet!

I needed two main things to actualize this idea. The first would be MUCH easier music notation software than the old dinosaurs we learned in college and that were available at that time. The second would be online access to original scores and lead sheets. And in hindsight, almost two decades of dancing and listening to this incredibly beautiful music would not hurt.

Fast forward to the availability of far better resources, I started arranging in the summer of 2023, choosing to start with the articulation of milonga. And you can guess, once I started, I did not stop. It’s now my drug of choice. Partway through the year, I added vals and tango (and some unique cortinas) to balance out an already fat folder. I’ve lost count of the number of arrangments at this point.

Most of these arrangements are structured to stand alone as clarinet solos, but I’ve also added extent piano transcriptions and chords in standard keys so that they can be just as easily used with tango bands.