Friday, September 17, 2010

La Cumparsita - Tango


- Tango's Most Famous Song The cafe 'La Giralda' in Montevideo, Uruguay, occupies a special place in Tango history. It was there in the year 1917 that a young Gerardo Matos Rodriguez gave (anonymously) the music score of a tango he had written to the orchestra of Roberto Firpo to play for the first time. Gerardo was then an adolescent (17 years old) who was barely making it as a student in the faculty of Architecture in Montevideo. Was it modesty? shyness? fear of ridicule? who knows why he wanted to remain anonymous? Firpo only knew that the name of the young composer was Gerardo. It was only later that the full identity of the author was known. He was young, educated, well mannered and sensible. He was also a bit naive. He sold for 20 pesos his rights of authorship to the Breyer publishing house. After some moderate success the composition was forgotten. Seven years later, in 1924, Gerardo was living in Paris and he met Francisco Canaro who had just arrived with his orchestra. That's when he found out that La Cumparsita was a major hit. The tango lyricists Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi had added words to the tango and renamed it 'Si Supieras'--If you knew. All of Buenos Aires was hearing, dancing, and demanding to buy the score for the tango that was seemingly everywhere in shows, recordings, and broadcasts. Shortly after, La Cumparsita arrived in Paris where, in the full grip of the roaring 20's, people danced charlestons, shimmys, one-steps, bostons, and when the crowd asked for a tango, they danced La Cumparsita. From Paris La Cumparsita spread to the four corners of the world and has since and forever after become synonymous with Tango.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Alzheimer Walk 2010

 

Linda/Beth and Maicey Alzheimer Walk 2010 at the Seattle Center.
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Day at the Zoo

 

Maicey/Mom and Grammie watch the zebras and antelope.
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Seattle Zoo

 

Maicey's first trip to the zoo. September 12,2010. Maicey loved the monkeys.
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Katie and Maicey 9/12/2010

 


Giraffe painting
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Katie and Mike Paint the studio.....

 

Paintings for the new twins nursery. Luke and Arianna are the new twins of Katie's sister-in-law. Katie and Mike had a great time spending the weekend painting the giraffe and elephant for the twins.
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Maicey going to Alzheimer Walk 2010

 
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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Maicey does COSTCO

 

A fun day with Grammie/Poppa...did the Alzheimer Walk...Seattle Center...Costco and Macroni Grill. Celebrated Poppa's birthday.... FunFunFun
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