Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an
Argentine tango
Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It typically has a or rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in patterns such as AB ...
composer,
bandoneon
The bandoneon (or bandonion, es, bandoneón) is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is a typical instrument in most tango ensembles. As with other members of the concertina family, the bandoneon is held bet ...
player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed ''
nuevo tango
Nuevo tango is both a form of music in which new elements are incorporated into traditional tango music, and an evolution of tango dance that began to develop in the 1980s.
Dance Origins
Prior to the 1990s, Argentine tango was taught with a didact ...
'', incorporating elements from
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.
In 1992, American music critic
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
Biography
Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of Tango music".
Biography
Childhood
Piazzolla was born in
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...
, Argentina, in 1921,
the only child of
Italian immigrant parents, Vicente "Nonino" Piazzolla and Assunta Manetti. His paternal grandfather, a sailor and fisherman named Pantaleo (later Pantaleón) Piazzolla, had immigrated to Mar del Plata from
Trani
Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani.
History
Overview
The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the fir ...
, a seaport in the southeastern Italian region of
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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, at the end of the 19th century. His mother was the daughter of two Italian immigrants from
Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one o ...
in the central region of
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
.
In 1925 Astor Piazzolla moved with his family to
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
in New York City, which in those days was a violent neighbourhood inhabited by a volatile mixture of gangsters and hard-working immigrants. His parents worked long hours and Piazzolla soon learned to take care of himself on the streets despite having a limp. At home he would listen to his father's records of the
tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
orchestras of
Carlos Gardel
Carlos Gardel (born Charles Romuald Gardès; 11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was a French-born Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, and the most prominent figure in the history of tango. He was one of the most influential inte ...
and
Julio de Caro, and was exposed to
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
, including
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
, from an early age. He began to play the
bandoneon
The bandoneon (or bandonion, es, bandoneón) is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is a typical instrument in most tango ensembles. As with other members of the concertina family, the bandoneon is held bet ...
after his father spotted one in a New York pawn shop in 1929.
After their return to New York City from a brief visit to Mar del Plata in 1930, the family moved to
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are s ...
in lower Manhattan. In 1932 Piazzolla composed his first tango, "La Catinga". The following year he took music lessons with the Hungarian classical pianist Béla Wilda, a student of
Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
who taught him to play Bach on his bandoneon. In 1934 he met Carlos Gardel, one of the most important figures in the
history of tango
Tango, a distinctive tango dance and the corresponding musical style of tango music, began in the working-class port neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay); on both sides of the Rio de la Plata.
Etymology
There are n ...
, and played a cameo role as a paper boy in his movie ''
El día que me quieras''. Gardel invited the young bandoneon player to join him on his tour.
Much to Piazzolla's dismay, his father decided that he was not old enough to go along.
The disappointment of being forbidden to join the tour proved to be fortunate, as it was on this tour in 1935 that Gardel and his entire orchestra perished in a plane crash.
In later years Piazzolla jokingly made light of this fateful event: had his father let him join the tour, Piazzolla would have played the harp instead of the bandoneon.
Early career
In 1936, he returned with his family to Mar del Plata, where he began to play in a variety of tango orchestras and around this time he discovered the music of
Elvino Vardaro
Elvino Vardaro (18 June 1905, Buenos Aires - 5 August 1971, Córdoba, Argentina) was an Argentine tango composer and violinist.
Vardaro grew up in the Abasto neighborhood of Buenos Aires and at the age of four he began studying the violin. At ...
’s sextet on the radio. Vardaro's novel interpretation of tango made a great impression on Piazzolla and years later he would become Piazzolla's violinist in his
Orquesta de Cuerdas (String Orchestra) and his
First Quintet.
Inspired by Vardaro's style of tango, and still only 17 years old, Piazzolla moved to Buenos Aires in 1938 where, the following year, he realized a dream when he joined the orchestra of the bandoneonist
Aníbal Troilo
Aníbal Carmelo Troilo (11 July 1914 – 18 May 1975), also known as Pichuco, was an Argentine tango musician.
Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, arranger, and bandleader in Argentina. His orquesta típica was among the most popular with ...
, which would become one of the greatest tango orchestras of that time. Piazzolla was employed as a temporary replacement for who was ill, but when Rodríguez returned to work Troilo decided to retain Piazzolla as a fourth bandoneonist. Apart from playing the bandoneon, Piazzolla also became Troilo's arranger and would occasionally play the piano for him. By 1941 he was earning a good wage, enough to pay for music lessons with
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas.
Biography
Ginastera was born in Buen ...
, an eminent Argentine composer of classical music. It was the pianist
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist. , then living in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, who had advised him to study with Ginastera and delving into scores of
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
,
Bartók,
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
, and others, Piazzolla rose early each morning to hear the
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...
orchestra rehearse while continuing a gruelling performing schedule in the tango clubs at night. During his five years of study with Ginastera he mastered orchestration, which he later considered to be one of his strong points. In 1943 he started piano lessons with the Argentine classical pianist Raúl Spivak, which would continue for the next five years, and wrote his first classical works ''Preludio No. 1 for Violin and Piano'' and ''Suite for Strings and Harps''. That same year he married his first wife, Dedé Wolff, an artist, with whom he had two children, Diana and Daniel.
As time went by Troilo began to fear that the advanced musical ideas of the young bandoneonist might undermine the style of his orchestra and make it less appealing to dancers of tango. Tensions mounted between the two bandoneonists until, in 1944, Piazzolla announced his intention to leave Troilo and join the orchestra of the tango singer and bandoneonist . Piazzolla would lead Fiorentino's orchestra until 1946 and make many recordings with him, including his first two instrumental tangos, ''La chiflada'' and ''Color de rosa''.
In 1946 Piazzolla formed his
Orquesta Típica
Orquesta típica, or simply a típica, is a Latin American term for a band which plays popular music. The details vary from country to country. The term tends to be used for groups of medium size (about 8 to 12 musicians) in some well-defined in ...
, which, although having a similar formation to other tango orchestras of the day, gave him his first opportunity to experiment with his own approach to the orchestration and musical content of tango. That same year he composed ''El Desbande'', which he considered to be his first formal tango, and then began to compose musical scores for films, starting with ''Con los mismos colores'' in 1949 and ''
Bólidos de acero
''Bólidos de acero'' (English language:) is a 1950 Argentina, Argentine romantic drama film musical film, musical directed and written by Carlos Torres Ríos with music by Ástor Piazzolla.
The film is based on Tango (dance), tango dancing, an ...
'' in 1950, both films directed by
Carlos Torres Ríos
Carlos Torres Ríos (1898–1956) was an Argentine cinematographer, film director, screenwriter, film editor and film producer of the classic era.
Born in Buenos Aires, he worked as a cinematographer in films beginning with '' Palomas rubias'' (19 ...
.
Having disbanded his first orchestra in 1950 he almost abandoned tango altogether as he continued to study Bartok and Stravinsky and orchestra direction with
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor.
Life
Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga ...
. He spent a lot of time listening to jazz and searching for a musical style of his own beyond the realms of tango. He decided to drop the bandoneon and to dedicate himself to writing and to studying music. Between 1950 and 1954 he composed a series of works that began to develop his unique style: ''Para lucirse'', ''Tanguango'', ''Prepárense'', ''Contrabajeando'', ''Triunfal'' and ''Lo que vendrá''.
Studies in Paris
![Igor Stravinsky & Nadia Boulanger 1937](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Igor_Stravinsky_%26_Nadia_Boulanger_1937.jpg)
At Ginastera's urging, on August 16, 1953, Piazzolla entered his classical composition "Buenos Aires Symphony in Three Movements" for the Fabian Sevitzky Award. The performance took place at the law school in Buenos Aires with the symphony orchestra of Radio del Estado under the direction of Sevitzky himself. At the end of the concert, a fight broke out among members of the audience who were offended by the inclusion of two bandoneons in a traditional symphony orchestra. In spite of this Piazzolla's composition won him a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the legendary French composition teacher
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
at the
Fontainebleau conservatory.
In 1954 he and his wife left their two children (Diana aged 11 and Daniel aged 10) with Piazzolla's parents and travelled to Paris. Piazzolla was tired of tango and tried to hide his tango and bandoneon compositions from Boulanger, thinking that his destiny lay in classical music. Introducing his work, Piazzolla played her a number of his classically inspired compositions, but it was not until he played his tango ''Triunfal'' that she congratulated him and encouraged him to pursue his career in tango, recognising that this was where his talent lay. This was to prove a historic encounter and a cross-road in Piazzolla's career.
With Boulanger he studied classical composition, including
counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
, which was to play an important role in his later tango compositions. Before leaving Paris, he heard the octet of the American jazz saxophonist
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996), also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrum ...
, which was to give him the idea of forming his own octet on his return to Buenos Aires. He composed and recorded a series of tangos with the String Orchestra of the
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...
and began to play the bandoneon while standing up, putting his right foot on a chair and the bellows of the instrument across his right thigh. Until that time bandoneonists played sitting down.
In the vanguard of ''nuevo tango''
Back in Argentina, Piazzolla formed his
Orquesta de Cuerdas (String Orchestra), which performed with the singer , and his
Octeto Buenos Aires
The Octeto Buenos Aires was a legendary tango group formed in 1955 by the Argentine bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla. In 1958 the Octeto was disbanded and Piazzolla returned to New York City with his family where he struggled to make a living as a ...
in 1955. With two bandoneons (Piazzolla and
Leopoldo Federico
Leopoldo Federico (12 January 1927 – 28 December 2014) was an Argentine bandoneon player, arranger, director and composer.
Life
Born in the district of Balvanera, Once in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Federico was one of the most outstan ...
), two violins (
Enrique Mario Francini Enrique Mario Francini (14 January 1916 in San Fernando – 27 August 1978 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine tango orchestra director, composer and violinist who played in various tango ensembles including the Orquesta Francini-Pontier and Ás ...
and ), double bass (
Juan Vasallo), cello (
José Bragato
José Bragato (12 October 1915 – 18 July 2017) was an Italian-born Argentine cellist, composer, conductor, arranger and musical archivist who, in his early career, was principal cellist in the Colón Theatre orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina. ...
), piano (
Atilio Stampone), and an electric guitar (
Horacio Malvicino
Horacio Malvicino (born 20 October 1929 in Concordia, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina) is a jazz and tango electric guitarist and composer who played for many years with the tango musician Ástor Piazzolla in several of his ensembles.
Biography
T ...
), his Octeto effectively broke the mould of the traditional
orquesta típica
Orquesta típica, or simply a típica, is a Latin American term for a band which plays popular music. The details vary from country to country. The term tends to be used for groups of medium size (about 8 to 12 musicians) in some well-defined in ...
and created a new sound akin to chamber music, without a singer and with jazz-like improvisations. This was to be a turning point in his career and a watershed in the history of tango. Piazzolla's new approach to the tango, ''
nuevo tango
Nuevo tango is both a form of music in which new elements are incorporated into traditional tango music, and an evolution of tango dance that began to develop in the 1980s.
Dance Origins
Prior to the 1990s, Argentine tango was taught with a didact ...
'', made him a controversial figure in his native land both musically and politically. However, his music gained acceptance in Europe and North America, and his reworking of the tango was embraced by some liberal segments of Argentine society, who were pushing for political changes in parallel to his musical revolution.
In 1958 he disbanded both the Octeto and the String Orchestra and returned to New York City with his family where he struggled to make a living as a musician and arranger. Briefly forming his own group, the Jazz Tango Quintet with whom he made just two recordings, his attempts to blend jazz and tango were not successful. He received the news of the death of his father in October 1959 while performing with
Juan Carlos Copes
Juan Carlos Copes (31 May 1931 – 16 January 2021) was an Argentine tango dancer, choreographer, and performer. He started dancing with Maria Nieves when he was 17 and she 14, and the pair later married. Copes and Nieves played a leading role ...
and
María Nieves in
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
; on his return to New York City a few days later, he asked to be left alone in his apartment and in less than an hour wrote his famous tango ''
Adiós Nonino'', in homage to his father.
Copes and Nieves packed out
Club Flamboyan in
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...
, with "Compañia Argentina Tangolandia". Piazzolla was serving as the musical director. The tour continued in New York, Chicago and then Washington. The last show that the three of them did together was an appearance on CBS, the only colour TV channel in the US, on
the Arthur Murray Show in April 1960.
Back in Buenos Aires later that year he put together the first, and perhaps most famous, of his quintets, the
first Quinteto, initially comprising bandoneon (Piazzolla), piano (
Jaime Gosis), violin (
Simón Bajour), electric guitar (
Horacio Malvicino
Horacio Malvicino (born 20 October 1929 in Concordia, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina) is a jazz and tango electric guitarist and composer who played for many years with the tango musician Ástor Piazzolla in several of his ensembles.
Biography
T ...
) and double bass (
Kicho Díaz
Enrique ''Kicho'' Díaz (Buenos Aires, 21 January 1918 – 5 October 1992) was an Argentine double bass tango musician who played in various ensembles including Aníbal Troilo’s orquesta típica, Astor Piazzolla’s first Quinteto and Conjunt ...
). Of the many ensembles that Piazzolla set up during his career, it was the quintet formation which best expressed his approach to tango.
![Astor Piazzolla (canal 13, 1963)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Astor_Piazzolla_%28canal_13%2C_1963%29.jpg)
In 1963 he set up his ''
Nuevo Octeto'', and the same year premiered his ''Tres Tangos Sinfónicos'', under the direction of Paul Klecky, for which he was awarded the Hirsch Prize.
In 1965 he released ''El Tango'', an album for which he collaborated with the Argentine writer
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
. The recording featured his Quinteto together with an orchestra, the singer
Edmundo Rivero
Leonel Edmundo Rivero (June 8, 1911 – January 18, 1986) was an Argentine tango singer, composer, and impresario.
Biography
Early days
Rivero was born in the southern Buenos Aires suburb of Valentín Alsina. Joining his father in some of his ...
and Luis Medina Castro reciting texts.
In 1966 he left Dedé Wolff and the following year signed a five-year contract with the poet
Horacio Ferrer
Horacio Ferrer (June 2, 1933 – December 21, 2014) was a Uruguayan-Argentine poet, broadcaster, reciter and tango lyricist. He is particularly well known for having composed the lyrics for tangos by Astor Piazzolla, such as ''Balada para un loc ...
with whom he composed the operetta ''
María de Buenos Aires
''María de Buenos Aires'' is a tango opera (''tango operita'') with music by Ástor PiazzollaSCP 2005. and libretto by Horacio Ferrer that premiered at the Sala Planeta in Buenos Aires on 8 May 1968.
The first part of the surreal plot centers o ...
'', with lyrics by Ferrer. The work was premiered in May 1968 with the singer
Amelita Baltar
Amelita Baltar (September 24, 1940) is an Argentine singer, one of the leading voices of tango, that appeared in the 60's to be considered, along with Susana Rinaldi, as a modern counterpart of older divas such as Libertad Lamarque and Tita Merel ...
in the title role and introduced a new style of tango, Tango Canción (in English: Song Tango). Soon after this he began a relationship with Amelita Baltar. The following year he wrote ''Balada para un loco'' with lyrics by Ferrer, which was premiered at the First Iberoamerican Music Festival with Amelita Baltar, and Piazzolla himself conducting the orchestra. Piazzolla was awarded second prize and the composition would prove to be his first popular success.
In 1970 Piazzolla returned to Paris where with Ferrer he wrote the oratorio ''El pueblo joven'', later premiered in Saarbrücken, Germany in 1971. On May 19, 1970, he gave a concert with his Quinteto at the Teatro Regina in Buenos Aires in which he premiered his composition ''
Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas''.
Back in Buenos Aires he founded his
Conjunto 9 (a.k.a. ''Nonet''), a chamber music formation, which was a realisation of a dream for Piazzolla and for which he composed some of his most sophisticated music. He now put aside his first Quinteto and made several recordings with his new ensemble in Italy. Within a year the Conjunto 9 had run into financial problems and was dissolved and in 1972 he participated in his first concert at the
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...
in Buenos Aires, sharing the bill with other Tango orchestras.
![Summit-Reunion Cumbre personnel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Summit-Reunion_Cumbre_personnel.jpg)
After a period of great productivity as a composer, he suffered a heart attack in 1973. That same year he moved to Italy where he began a series of recordings which would span a period of five years. The music publisher , a partner in Curci-Pagani Music, had offered Piazzolla a 15-year contract in Rome to record anything he could write. His famous album ''
Libertango
''Libertango'' is a composition by tango composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974 in Milan.
The title is a portmanteau merging " Libertad" (Spanish for "liberty") and "tango", symbolizing Piazzolla's break fr ...
'' was recorded in Milan in May 1974. Later that year he separated from Amelita Baltar and in September recorded the album ''
Summit (Reunión Cumbre)'' with the saxophonist
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996), also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrum ...
and an Italian orchestra, including jazz musicians such as bassist /arranger
Pino Presti
Giuseppe Prestipino Giarritta (born 23 August 1943), professionally known by his pseudonym Pino Presti, is an Italian bassist, Music arranger, arranger, composer, Conductor (music), conductor and record producer from Milan. He is a dan (rank), ...
and drummer
Tullio De Piscopo Tullio De Piscopo (born 24 February 1946 in Naples, Italy) is an Italian drummer, percussionist and singer- songwriter.
De Piscopo was born in Naples. His father was an orchestra percussionist. In 1969 he moved to Turin and two years later he moved ...
, in Milan. The album includes the composition ''Aire de Buenos Aires'' by Mulligan.
In 1975 he set up his ''
Electronic Octet'' an octet made up of bandoneon, electric piano and/or acoustic piano, organ, guitar, electric bass, drums, synthesizer and violin, which was later replaced by a flute or saxophone. Later that year
Aníbal Troilo
Aníbal Carmelo Troilo (11 July 1914 – 18 May 1975), also known as Pichuco, was an Argentine tango musician.
Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, arranger, and bandleader in Argentina. His orquesta típica was among the most popular with ...
died and Piazzolla composed the in his memory, a work in four parts, which he recorded with the Conjunto Electronico. At this time Piazzolla started a collaboration with the singer
José Ángel Trelles, with whom he made a number of recordings.
In December 1976 he played at a concert at the
Teatro Gran Rex
The Teatro Gran Rex is an Art Deco style theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina which opened on July 8, 1937, as the largest cinema in Argentina.
Located near the centre of the city at 857 Corrientes Avenue, it was designed by the architect Alberto ...
in Buenos Aires, where he presented his work, “500 motivaciones”, written especially for the Conjunto Electronico, and in 1977 he played another memorable concert at the
Olympia
The name Olympia may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games
* ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
in Paris, with a new formation of the Conjunto Electronico.
In 1978 he formed his second Quintet, with which he would tour the world for 11 years, and would make him world-renowned. He also returned to writing chamber music and symphonic works.
![Piazzolla maradona jairo en paris](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Piazzolla_maradona_jairo_en_paris.jpg)
During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in Italy, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla (; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and dictator, Commander in Chief of the Army, member of the Military Junta, and ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981. H ...
. However, his relationship with the dictator might have been less than friendly, as recounted in ''Astor Piazzolla, A manera de memorias'' (a comprehensive collection of interviews, constituting a memoir):
:One year before the ''Los Largartos'' issue you went to Videla's house and had lunch with him. Why did you accept that invitation?
:What invitation? They sent a couple of guys in black suits and a letter with my name on it that said that Videla expected me a particular day in a particular place. I have a book around someplace, with pictures of all the guests:
Eladia Blázquez,
Daniel Tinayre
Daniel Tinayre (14 September 1910 – 24 October 1994) was a French-born Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer.
Moving to Buenos Aires at a young age, Tinayre directed some 23 films between 1934 and 1974, directing films such ...
,
Olga Ferri, the composer
Juan Carlos Tauriello, there were painters, actors
– Astor Piazzolla, ''A manera de memorias''
In 1985 he received the Platinum
Konex Award
Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities.
History and purpose
Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...
, and in 1995 his family received the Honour Konex Award as the most important deceased musician of the decade in Argentina.
Traveling the world
![Bandoneón de Astor Piazzolla](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Bandone%C3%B3n_de_Astor_Piazzolla.jpg)
In 1982 he recorded the album ''Oblivion'' with an orchestra in Italy for the film ''
Enrico IV
''Henry IV'' ( ) is an Italian play ''(Enrico IV)'' by Luigi Pirandello written in 1921 and premiered to general acclaim at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan on 24 February 1922. A study on madness with comic and tragic elements, it is about a man ...
'', directed by
Marco Bellocchio
Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Life and career
Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schooltea ...
, and in May 1982, in the middle of the
Falklands War
The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
, he played in a concert at the Teatro Regina, Buenos Aires with the second Quinteto and the singer
Roberto Goyeneche
Roberto Goyeneche (January 29, 1926 in Saavedra, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires – August 27, 1994 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine tango singer of Basque descent, who epitomized the archetype of 1950s Buenos Aires' bohemian life, and became ...
. That same year he wrote ''Le Grand Tango'' for cello and piano, dedicated to Russian cellist
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...
, which would be premiered by him in 1990 in
.
On 11 June 1983 he put on one of the best concerts of his life when he played a program of his music at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. For the occasion he regrouped the Conjunto 9 and played solo with the
Buenos Aires Philharmonic
The Buenos Aires Philharmonic ( es, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires) is an Argentinian orchestra based in Buenos Aires. Founded in 1946, it is based in the renowned Teatro Colón, and is considered one of the most prestigious orchestras in it ...
, directed by . The programme included his three-movement ''Concierto para bandoneón y orquesta'' and his 3 movement ''Concierto de Nacar''.
On 4 July 1984, Piazzolla appeared with his Quinteto at the
Montreal International Jazz Festival
The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal ( en, Montreal International Jazz Festival) is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz fest ...
, the world's largest jazz festival, and on 29 September that same year they appeared with the Italian singer
Milva
Maria Ilva Biolcati, (; 17 July 1939 – 23 April 2021), known as Milva (), was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as ''La Rossa'' (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic co ...
at the
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
The Bouffes du Nord is a theatre at 37 bis, boulevard de la Chapelle, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris located near the Gare du Nord. It has been listed since 1993 as a ''monument historique'' by the French Ministry of Culture.
History
Founde ...
, Paris. His concert on 15 October 1984 at the Teatro Nazionale in Milan was recorded and released as the album ''Suite Punta del Este''. At the end of that same year he performed in
West-Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
, and in theater
Vredenburg
Vredenburg is a town of the Cape West Coast in the Western Cape province of South Africa. "Vrede" is Afrikaans for peace. It is the transportation and commercial hub of the West Coast area and administrative centre of the Saldanha Bay Local Muni ...
in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
, in the Netherlands, where
VPRO
The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more soc ...
-TV-director
Theo Uittenbogaard
Theo Uittenbogaard (born Amstelveen, Nieuwer-Amstel, Netherlands, 1946 – 2022) was a Dutch radio & TV-producer, who worked for almost all nationwide public networks in The Netherlands since 1965. His training was on-the-job, since no school or a ...
recorded his Quinteto Tango Nuevo, playing, among other pieces, a very moving ''
Adios Nonino'', with as a backdrop – to Piazzolla's great pleasure – the extremely zoomed-in "live"' projection of his bandoneon playing.
In 1985 he was named Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires and premiered his ''Concerto for Bandoneon and Guitar'' (also known as ''Tribute to Liège''), at the Fifth International
Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
Guitar Festival on March 15, with the Liège Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida (born March 1, 1939) is a Cuban composer, conductor, and classical guitarist. He is a Member of Honour of the International Music Council.
Family
He is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona y Casado. ...
and
Cacho Tirao on guitar. Piazzolla made his London debut with his second Quinteto at the
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diver ...
in London at the end of June.
With the film score for
El exilio de Gardel he won the French critics Cesar Award in Paris for best film music in 1986.
He appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland, with vibraphonist
Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be he ...
in July 1986 and, on 6 September 1987, gave a concert in New York's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
, in the city where he spent his childhood.
In September 1987 he recorded his ''Concierto para bandoneón y orquesta'' and ''Tres tangos para bandoneón y orquesta'' with
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...
conducting the St. Luke's Orchestra, in the Richardson Auditorium at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
.
In 1988, he wrote music for the film ''
Sur'' and married the singer and television personality Laura Escalada on April 11. In May that year he recorded his album ''
La Camorra'' in New York, a suite of three pieces, the last time he would record with the second Quinteto. During a tour of Japan with Milva he played at a concert at the
Nakano Sun Plaza
, formerly Nakano Sun Plaza, is a hotel in Nakano, Tokyo. The hotel includes a concert hall, the Nakano Sunplaza Hall (formerly Nakano Sun Plaza Hall). Built in 1973, Hall in Tokyo on June 26, 1988, and that same year underwent a quadruple by-pass operation.
Early in 1989 he formed his ''Sexteto Nuevo Tango'', his last ensemble, with two bandoneons, piano, electric guitar, bass and cello. Together they gave a concert at the Club Italiano in Buenos Aires in April, a recording of which was issued under the title of ''Tres minutos con la realidad''. Later he appeared with them at the Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires in the presence of the newly elected Argentine President
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
on Friday, June 9. This would be Piazzolla's last concert in Argentina.
There followed a concert at the Royal Carre Theatre in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
with his Sexteto and
Osvaldo Pugliese
Osvaldo Pedro Pugliese (Buenos Aires, December 2, 1905 – July 25, 1995, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine tango musician. He developed dramatic arrangements that retained strong elements of the walking beat of salon tango but also heralded the de ...
’s Orquesta on June 26, 1989, a live recording at the BBC Bristol Studios in June 1989, between concerts in Berlin and Rome, and a concert at the
Wembley Conference Centre
Wembley Conference Centre was a conference centre in Wembley Park, London, England, that existed from 1977 to 2006, located next to Wembley Arena.
History
In the later 1970s, modern multi-purpose halls began opening in British towns and cities. ...
on June 30, 1989. On November 4, 1989, he gave a concert in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
, Switzerland, at the Moulin à Danses and later that month he recorded his composition ''Five Tango Sensations'', with the
Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...
in the US on an album of the same name. This would be his last studio recording and was his second composition for the Kronos Quartet. His first ''Four, For Tango'' had been included in their 1988 album ''Winter Was Hard''. Towards the end of the year he dissolved his sexteto and continued playing solo with classical string quartets and symphonic orchestras. He joined Anahi Carfi's Mantova String Quartet and toured Italy and Finland with them.
His 1982 composition ''Le grand tango'', for cello and piano, was premiered in
by the Russian cellist
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...
and the pianist Igor Uriash in 1990 and on July 3 he gave his last concert in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, with the Athens Orchestra of Colours, conducted by
Manos Hatzidakis
Manos Hatzidakis (also spelled Hadjidakis; el, Μάνος Χατζιδάκις; 23 October 1925 – 15 June 1994) was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music, widely considered to be one of the greatest Greek composers and one of the most ...
.
He suffered a
cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
in Paris on August 4, 1990, which left him in a coma, and died in Buenos Aires, just under two years later on July 4, 1992, without regaining consciousness.
Among his followers, the composer and pianist
Fernando Otero
Fernando Otero (born 1 May 1972) is a Grammy-award-winning Argentine pianist, vocalist, and composer.
His first contact with music was receiving vocal lessons from his mother Elsa Marval, an internationally acclaimed singer and actress. He start ...
and Piazzolla's protégé, bandoneonist
Marcelo Nisinman, are the best known innovators of the tango music of the new millennium, while
Pablo Ziegler
Pablo Ziegler (born September 2, 1944) is an Argentine composer, pianist, arranger based in New York City.Oteri, Frank J"Pablo Ziegler: Making the Music Dance" NewMusicBox, July 1, 2014; accessed July 9, 2014. He is currently the leading exponent ...
, pianist with Piazzolla's second quintet, has assumed the role of principal custodian of ''nuevo tango'', extending the jazz influence in the style. The Brazilian guitarist
Sergio Assad
Sergio may refer to:
* Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio
* Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found
* ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass
* ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film
* ''Se ...
has also experimented with folk-derived, complex virtuoso compositions that show Piazzolla's structural influence while steering clear of tango sounds; and
Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov (; born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work.
Biography
Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family ...
has acknowledged Piazzolla as perhaps the greatest influence on his globally oriented, eclectic compositions for classical and klezmer performers.
Musical style
![PiazzollaFerrer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/PiazzollaFerrer.jpg)
Piazzolla's ''nuevo tango'' was distinct from the traditional
tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
in its incorporation of elements of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of
counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. As Argentine psychoanalyst
Carlos Kuri has pointed out, Piazzolla's fusion of tango with this wide range of other recognizable Western musical elements was so successful that it produced a new individual style transcending these influences. It is precisely this success, and individuality, that makes it hard to pin down where particular influences reside in his compositions, but some aspects are clear. The use of the
passacaglia
The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre.
Origin
The ter ...
technique of a circulating bass line and harmonic sequence, invented and much used in 17th- and 18th-century
baroque music
Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...
but also central to the idea of jazz changes, predominates in most of Piazzolla's mature compositions. Another clear reference to the baroque is the often complex and virtuosic
counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
that sometimes follows strict
fugal
In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...
behavior but more often simply allows each performer in the group to assert his voice. A further technique that emphasises this sense of democracy and freedom among the musicians is
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
, that is borrowed from jazz in concept, but in practice involves a different vocabulary of scales and rhythms that stay within the parameters of the established tango sound-world.
Pablo Ziegler
Pablo Ziegler (born September 2, 1944) is an Argentine composer, pianist, arranger based in New York City.Oteri, Frank J"Pablo Ziegler: Making the Music Dance" NewMusicBox, July 1, 2014; accessed July 9, 2014. He is currently the leading exponent ...
has been particularly responsible for developing this aspect of the style both within Piazzolla's groups and since the composer's death.
With the composition of ''
Adiós Nonino'' in 1959, Piazzolla established a standard structural pattern for his compositions, involving a formal pattern of fast-slow-fast-slow-
coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
, with the fast sections emphasizing gritty tango rhythms and harsh, angular melodic figures and the slower sections usually making use of the string instrument in the group and/or Piazzolla's own
bandoneon
The bandoneon (or bandonion, es, bandoneón) is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is a typical instrument in most tango ensembles. As with other members of the concertina family, the bandoneon is held bet ...
as lyrical soloists. The piano tends to be used throughout as a percussive rhythmic backbone, while the electric guitar either joins in this role or spins filigree improvisations; the double bass parts are usually of little interest, but provide an indispensable rugged thickness to the sound of the ensemble. The
quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...
of bandoneon, violin, piano, electric guitar and double bass was Piazzolla's preferred setup on two extended occasions during his career, and most critics consider it to be the most successful instrumentation for his works. This is due partly to its great efficiency in terms of sound – it covers or imitates most sections of a symphony orchestra, including the percussion, which is improvised by all players on the bodies of their instruments – and the strong expressive identity it permits each individual musician. With a style that is both rugged and intricate, such a setup augments the compositions' inherent characteristics.
Despite the prevalence of the quintet formation and the ABABC compositional structure, Piazzolla consistently experimented with other musical forms and instrumental combinations. In 1965 an album was released containing collaborations between Piazzolla and
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
where Borges's poetry was narrated over very avant-garde music by Piazzolla including the use of dodecaphonic (
twelve-tone
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...
) rows, free non-melodic improvisation on all instruments, and
modal harmonies and scales. In 1968 Piazzolla wrote and produced an "
operita", ''
María de Buenos Aires
''María de Buenos Aires'' is a tango opera (''tango operita'') with music by Ástor PiazzollaSCP 2005. and libretto by Horacio Ferrer that premiered at the Sala Planeta in Buenos Aires on 8 May 1968.
The first part of the surreal plot centers o ...
'', that employed a larger ensemble including flute, percussion, multiple strings and three vocalists, and juxtaposed movements in Piazzolla's own style with several pastiche numbers ranging from waltz and hurdy-gurdy to a piano/narrator bar-room ''scena'' straight out of ''
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
''.
By the 1970s Piazzolla was living in Rome, managed by the Italian agent , and exploring a leaner, more fluid musical style drawing on more jazz influence, and with simpler, more continuous forms. Pieces that exemplify this new direction include ''
Libertango
''Libertango'' is a composition by tango composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974 in Milan.
The title is a portmanteau merging " Libertad" (Spanish for "liberty") and "tango", symbolizing Piazzolla's break fr ...
'' and most of the , written in memory of Aníbal Troilo. In the 1980s Piazzolla was wealthy enough, for the first time, to become relatively autonomous artistically, and wrote some of his most ambitious multi-movement works. These included ''
Tango Suite'' for the virtuoso guitar duo
Sergio and
Odair Assad
Odair Albornoz Rivas, known as Odair (born 15 October 1973) is a former Brazilian football player.
He played 7 seasons and 174 games (scoring 18 goals) in the Primeira Liga for Braga, Penafiel and Belenenses.
Club career
He made his Primeira L ...
; ''
Histoire du Tango'', where a flutist and guitarist tell the history of tango in four chunks of music styled at thirty-year intervals; and ''
La Camorra'', a suite in three ten-minute movements, inspired by the Neapolitan crime family and exploring symphonic concepts of large-scale form, thematic development, contrasts of texture and massive accumulations of ensemble sound. After making three albums in New York with the second quintet and producer
Kip Hanrahan
Kip Hanrahan (born December 9, 1954) is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist.
Personal life
Hanrahan was born in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Bronx to an Irish-Jewish family. His father left when he was 6 m ...
, two of which he described on separate occasions as "the greatest thing I've done", he disbanded the quintet, formed a sextet with an extra bandoneon, cello, bass, electric guitar, and piano, and wrote music for this ensemble that was even more adventurous harmonically and structurally than any of his previous works (''Preludio y Fuga; Sex-tet''). Had he not suffered an incapacitating stroke on the way to Notre Dame mass in 1990, it is likely that he would have continued to use his popularity as a performer of his own works to experiment in relative safety with even more audacious musical techniques, while possibly responding to the surging popularity of non-Western musics by finding ways to incorporate new styles into his own. In his musical professionalism and open-minded attitude to existing styles he held the mindset of an 18th-century composing performer such as Handel or Mozart, who were anxious to assimilate all national "flavors" of their day into their own compositions, and who always wrote with both first-hand performing experience and a sense of direct social relationship with their audiences. This may have resulted in a backlash amongst conservative tango aficionados in Argentina, but in the rest of the West it was the key to his extremely sympathetic reception among classical and jazz musicians, both seeing some of the best aspects of their musical practices reflected in his work.
Musical career
After leaving Troilo's orchestra in the 1940s, Piazzolla led numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 Octeto Buenos Aires, the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971
Conjunto 9 ("Noneto"), the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989
New Tango Sextet. As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and bandoneon player in all of them. He also recorded the album ''
Summit (Reunión Cumbre)'' with jazz
baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996), also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrum ...
. His numerous compositions include orchestral work such as the ''Concierto para bandoneón, orquesta, cuerdas y percusión'', ''Doble concierto para bandoneón y guitarra'', ''Tres tangos sinfónicos'' and ''Concierto de Nácar para 9 tanguistas y orquesta'', pieces for the solo classical guitar – the ''Cinco Piezas'' (1980), as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, including "Balada para un loco" (Ballad for a madman) and ''
Adiós Nonino'' (dedicated to his father), which he recorded many times with different musicians and ensembles. Biographers estimate that Piazzolla wrote around 3,000 pieces and recorded around 500.
In 1984, he appeared with his Quinteto Tango Nuevo in West-Berlin, Germany and for television in Utrecht, Netherlands. In the summer of 1985 he performed at the
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diver ...
in London for a week-long engagement. On September 6, 1987, his quintet gave a concert in New York's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
, which was recorded and, in 1994, released in compact disc format as ''The Central Park Concert.''
Legacy
*
Astor Piazzolla International Airport
Ástor Piazzolla International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional de Mar del Plata "Ástor Piazzolla", ), also known as Mar del Plata Airport, is an airport serving Mar del Plata, an Atlantic coastal city in the Buenos Aires Province ...
in Mar del Plata is named after him.
* Buenos Aires music conservatory "Conservatorio Superior de Música de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires" carries his name
*
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
celebrated his 100th birthday on 11 March 2021 with a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
.
Work
Ensembles
* ''
Orquesta Típica
Orquesta típica, or simply a típica, is a Latin American term for a band which plays popular music. The details vary from country to country. The term tends to be used for groups of medium size (about 8 to 12 musicians) in some well-defined in ...
'' (in English: Piazzolla's Traditional Orchestra), a.k.a. the 1946 Orchestra, 1946–50.
* ''Orquesta de Cuerdas'' (in English: String Orchestra), 1955–58.
* ''
Octeto Buenos Aires
The Octeto Buenos Aires was a legendary tango group formed in 1955 by the Argentine bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla. In 1958 the Octeto was disbanded and Piazzolla returned to New York City with his family where he struggled to make a living as a ...
'' (in English: Buenos Aires Octet) 1955–58.
* ''Jazz Tango Quintet'', 1959.
* ''Quinteto'' (in English: Quintet), a.k.a. the first Quintet, 1960–70.
* ''Nuevo Octeto'' (in English: New Octet), 1963.
* ''
Conjunto 9'' (in English: Ensemble 9), a.k.a. Noneto, 1971–72 & 1983.
* ''Conjunto Electronico'' (in English: Electronic Ensemble), a.k.a. Electronic Octet, 1975.
* ''Quinteto Tango Nuevo'' (in English: New Tango Quintet), a.k.a. the second Quintet, 1979–91.
* ''Sexteto Nuevo Tango'' (in English: New Tango Sextet), 1989–91.
Film music
* , 1949.
* ''
Bólidos de acero
''Bólidos de acero'' (English language:) is a 1950 Argentina, Argentine romantic drama film musical film, musical directed and written by Carlos Torres Ríos with music by Ástor Piazzolla.
The film is based on Tango (dance), tango dancing, an ...
'', 1950.
* ''
El Cielo en las manos
''El Cielo en las manos'' is a 1950 Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, leg ...
'', 1950.
* , 1953.
* , 1954.
* ''
Los tallos amargos
''The Bitter Stems'' (Spanish language: Los Tallos Amargos) is a 1956 Argentine film noir directed by Fernando Ayala. The screenplay, written by Sergio Leonardo, was based on a novel by journalist Adolfo Jasca.
The film stars Carlos Cores as a ...
'', 1955.
* ''
Marta Ferrari
''Marta Ferrari'' is a 1956 Argentine film directed by Julio Saraceni.
The film is about a successful actress who tells a journalist the story of her love for a musician.
Cast
* Fanny Navarro
* Duilio Marzio
* Ricardo Castro Ríos
* Santiag ...
'', 1956.
* , 1957. (aka ''Le Conquérant solitaire'' and ''Operación Antártida'')
* ''Historia de una carta'', 1957.
* ''
Una viuda difícil'', 1957.
* , 1957.
* ''Operación Antartida'', 1958.
* ''
Dos basuras'', 1958.
* , 1960.
* ''
Las furias
''Las furias'' (Spanish for "the furies") is a 1960 Argentine drama film directed by Vlasta Lah, based on the 1950 play of the same name by Enrique Suárez de Deza. The first Argentine sound film directed by a woman, it was the directorial debu ...
'', 1960.
* ''Quinto año nacional'', 1961.
* ''Detrás de la mentira'', 1962.
* ''Los que verán a Dios'', 1963.
* , 1963.
* ''
Paula Cautiva'', 1963.
* ''
Extraña ternura'', 1964.
* , 1965.
* ''
Las locas del conventillo'', 1966.
* ''Los pirañas'', 1967.
* ''Crimen sin olvido'', 1968.
* ''La fiaca'', 1969.
* ''
Breve cielo'', 1969.
* ''Pulsación'', 1969.
* ''
Con alma y vida
''Con alma y vida'' (With Life and Soul) is a 1970 Argentine film noir directed and written by David José Kohon and Norberto Aroldi and with music by Ástor Piazzolla.
The film received a positive review in ''La Gaceta'' and was awarded the 19 ...
'', 1970.
* ''La ñata contra el vidrio'', 1972.
* ''Todo nudez será castigada'', 1973.
* ''Viaje de bodas'', 1975.
* ''
Lumière'', 1976.
* ''
Cadaveri eccelenti'', 1976.
* ''
Il pleut sur Santiago
It's Raining on Santiago (french: Il pleut sur Santiago) is a 1975 French-Bulgarian drama film directed by Helvio Soto, detailing the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat. The title is a code word the Chilean military had broadcast to signal the start of the c ...
'', 1976.
* ''
¿Qué es el otoño?'', 1977.
* ''Quand la ville s’éveille'', 1977.
* ''
Armaguedón'', 1977.
* ''
A Intrusa
''A Intrusa'' is a 1979 Brazilian drama film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen, based on the short story "La intrusa" by Jorge Luis Borges. The film is about the parallel lives of two gaucho brothers with Danish ancestry. It was shot in Uruguai ...
, 1979.
* ''
El infierno tan temido'', 1980.
* , 1982.
* ''Somos?'', 1982.
* ', 1982.
* ''
Bella Donna'', 1983.
* ''
Cuarteles de invierno'', 1984.
* ''
Enrico IV
''Henry IV'' ( ) is an Italian play ''(Enrico IV)'' by Luigi Pirandello written in 1921 and premiered to general acclaim at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan on 24 February 1922. A study on madness with comic and tragic elements, it is about a man ...
'', 1984.
* ''
El exilio de Gardel: Tangos'', 1985.
* ''
Sur'', 1988.
* ''
12 Monkeys
''12 Monkeys'' is a 1995 American science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film ''La Jetée'', starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt, with Christopher Plummer and David Morse in sup ...
'', 1995 .
* ''
Happy Together'', 1997 .
Discography
* ''Two Argentinians in Paris'' (with
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...
, 1955)
* ''Sinfonía de Tango'' (Orquesta de Cuerdas, 1955)
* ''Tango progresivo'' (Buenos Aires Octeto, 1957)
* ''Octeto Buenos Aires'' (Octeto Buenos Aires, 1957)
* ''Astor Piazzolla'' (Orquesta de Cuerdas, 1957)
* ''Tango in Hi-Fi'' (Orquesta de Cuerdas, 1957)
* ''
Adiós Nonino'' (1960)
* ''Piazzolla Interpreta A Piazzolla'' (Quinteto, 1961)
* ''Piazzolla ... O No?'' (Vocals by , Quinteto, 1961)
* ''Nuestro Tiempo'' (Vocals by Hector de Rosas, Quinteto, 1962)
* ''Tango Contemporáneo'' (Nuevo Octeto, 1963)
* ''Tango Para Una Ciudad'' (Vocal by Héctor De Rosas, Quinteto, 1963)
* ''Concierto en el Philharmonic Hall de New York'' (Quinteto, 1965)
* (
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
– Astor Piazzolla;
Edmundo Rivero
Leonel Edmundo Rivero (June 8, 1911 – January 18, 1986) was an Argentine tango singer, composer, and impresario.
Biography
Early days
Rivero was born in the southern Buenos Aires suburb of Valentín Alsina. Joining his father in some of his ...
, Orquesta and Quinteto, 1965)
* ''La Guardia Vieja'' (1966)
* ''La Historia del Tango. La Guardia Vieja'' (Orquesta, 1967)
* ''La Historia del Tango''. Época Romántica (Orquesta, 1967)
* ''ION Studios'' (1968)
* ''
María de Buenos Aires
''María de Buenos Aires'' is a tango opera (''tango operita'') with music by Ástor PiazzollaSCP 2005. and libretto by Horacio Ferrer that premiered at the Sala Planeta in Buenos Aires on 8 May 1968.
The first part of the surreal plot centers o ...
'' (Orquesta, 1968)
* ''Piazzolla En El Regina'' (Quinteto, 1970)
* ''Original Tangos from Argentina Vol. 1 & 2'' (solo bandeneon, 1970)
* ''Pulsación'' (Orquesta, 1970)
* ''Piazzolla-Troilo'' (Dúo de Bandoneónes, 1970)
* ''Concerto Para Quinteto'' (Quinteto, 1971)
* ''La Bicicleta Blanca'' (
Amelita Baltar
Amelita Baltar (September 24, 1940) is an Argentine singer, one of the leading voices of tango, that appeared in the 60's to be considered, along with Susana Rinaldi, as a modern counterpart of older divas such as Libertad Lamarque and Tita Merel ...
y Orquesta, 1971)
* ''En Persona'' (recitations by
Horacio Ferrer
Horacio Ferrer (June 2, 1933 – December 21, 2014) was a Uruguayan-Argentine poet, broadcaster, reciter and tango lyricist. He is particularly well known for having composed the lyrics for tangos by Astor Piazzolla, such as ''Balada para un loc ...
, Astor Piazzolla, 1971)
* ''Música Popular Contemporánea de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Vol.1 & 2'' (Conjunto 9, 1972)
* ''Roma'' (Conjunto 9, 1972)
* ''
Libertango
''Libertango'' is a composition by tango composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974 in Milan.
The title is a portmanteau merging " Libertad" (Spanish for "liberty") and "tango", symbolizing Piazzolla's break fr ...
'' (Orquesta, 1974)
* ''Piazzolla and
Amelita Baltar
Amelita Baltar (September 24, 1940) is an Argentine singer, one of the leading voices of tango, that appeared in the 60's to be considered, along with Susana Rinaldi, as a modern counterpart of older divas such as Libertad Lamarque and Tita Merel ...
'' (1974)
* ''
Summit (Reunión Cumbre)'' (with
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996), also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrum ...
, Orquesta, 1974)
* ''Suite Troileana-Lumiere'' (Orquesta, 1975)
* ''Buenos Aires'' (1976)
* ''Il Pleut Sur Santiago'' (Orquesta, 1976)
* ''Piazzolla & El Conjunto Electrónico'' (Conjunto Electrónico, 1976)
* ''Piazzolla en el Olimpia de Paris'' (Conjunto Electrónico, 1977)
* ''Chador'' (1978)
* ''Lo Que Vendrá'' (Orquesta de Cuerdas and Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1979)
* ''Piazzolla-Goyeneche En Vivo, Teatro Regina'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1982)
* ''Oblivion'' (Orquesta, 1982)
* ''
Suite Punta Del Este
''Suite Punta del Este'' is a tango nuevo work for orchestral strings and a bandoneón written by the Argentine composer Ástor Piazzolla in 1982. Punta del Este is an Uruguayan resort where the artist spent many summers and particularly enjoyed s ...
'' (Quinteto, 1982)
* ''Live in Lugano'' (Quinteto, 1983)
* ''SWF Rundfunkorchester'' (1983)
* ''Concierto de Nácar – Piazzolla en el Teatro Colón'' (Conjunto 9 y Orquesta Filarmónica del Teatro Colón, 1983)
* ''Live in Colonia'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1984)
* ''Montreal Jazz Festival'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1984)
* ''The Vienna Concert'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1984), CD: 1991.
* ''Enrico IV'' (soundtrack to the
film of the same name, 1984)
* ''Green Studio'' (1984)
* ''Teatro Nazionale di Milano'' (1984)
* ''El Exilio de Gardel'' (soundtrack to the
film of the same name, Quinteto, 1986)
* ''
Tango: Zero Hour'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1986)
* ''Tristezas de un Doble A'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1986), Vienna, Konzerthaus, CD: 1991.
* ''Central Park Concert'' (Quinteto, 1987)
* ''Concierto para Bandoneón – Tres Tangos'' with the Orchestra of St. Luke's,
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...
(conductor), Princeton University (1987)
* ''El Nuevo Tango. Piazzolla y
Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be he ...
'' (Atlantic, 1987)
* ''Sur'' (soundtrack of film ''
Sur'', Quinteto, 1988)
* ''Live in Tokyo 1988'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1988)
* ''Luna. Live in Amsterdam'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1989)
* ''Lausanne Concert'' (Sexteto Nuevo Tango, 1989)
* ''Live at the BBC'' (Sexteto Nuevo Tango, 1989)
* ''La Camorra'' (Quinteto Tango Nuevo, 1989)
* ''Famille d'Artistes'' (1989)
* ''Hommage a Liege: Concierto para bandoneón y guitarra/Historia del Tango'' (1988) with
Liège Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida (born March 1, 1939) is a Cuban composer, conductor, and classical guitarist. He is a Member of Honour of the International Music Council.
Family
He is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona y Casado. ...
. The concerto was performed by Piazzolla with
Cacho Tirao, the ''Historia'' by Guy Lukowski and Marc Grawels.
* ''Bandoneón Sinfónico'' (1990)
* ''
The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado)'' (1988)
* ''
Five Tango Sensations'' (Astor Piazzolla and the
Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...
, 1991)
* ''Original Tangos from Argentina'' (1992)
* ''Lausanne Concert'' (Sexteto Nuevo Tango, 1993)
* ''Central Park Concert 1987'' (Quinteto, 1994)
* ''El Nuevo Tango de Buenos Aires'' (Quinteto, 1995)
* ''57 Minutos con la Realidad'' (Sexteto Nuevo Tango, 1996)
* ''Tres Minutos con la Realidad'' (Sexteto Nuevo Tango, 1997)
References
External links
*
Astor Piazzolla
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed ''nuevo tango'', incorporating elements from ...
in
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Piazzolla discography*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piazzolla, Astor
1921 births
1992 deaths
Argentine classical bandoneonists
20th-century classical composers
Argentine tango musicians
Argentine people of Italian descent
Argentine songwriters
Male songwriters
Argentine classical composers
Argentine film score composers
Chesky Records artists
Chrysalis Records artists
Composers for the classical guitar
People from Mar del Plata
People of Apulian descent
People of Tuscan descent
Georges Delerue Award winners
20th-century male musicians