New Tango in an Old Row

New Tango in an Old Row is an imaginary posthumous collaboration between two very different composers: Astor Piazzola (the father of the tango) and Arnold Schoenberg (the father of atonality). Specifically, it is a tango nuevo in the style of Piazzola, with melodic material derived from Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique. (The 12-tone row is, in fact, stolen hook, line, and sinker from Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra​.) In the end, it is both a rigid approach to dance music and a playful approach to serialism, the hope being that it will either appeal to, or frustrate, everybody involved.