ed. by Enric Madriguera

  • guitar
  • 3 min 10 s

Programme Note

Composer note:

Tango Hambre means both “Hungry Tango” and “I am hungry” (tengo hambre). Marked Allegro goloso (happily greedy), the music is a brilliant toccata with an eight-note “gobbling” motif surrounded by slurping slides up and down the strings and violent rasgueado strumming to imitate a growling stomach.

The tango is a genre I particularly enjoy. My comic opera Tango (1986) recreates the tango craze of 1913, when Pope Pius X declared the tango a sin and the state legislature of Massachusetts declared the dance a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment. I have also included tangos in my operas Suor Isabella (1982) and Frida (1991), as well as in the instrumental Semi-Suite (1981).

— Robert Xavier Rodríguez