Pascual Contursi (November 18, 1888 – May 28, 1932) was an Argentine poet, singer, and guitarist. He composed lyrics for 33

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 ...

compositions – many well-known.

Life and work

Pascual Contursi was born in

Chivilcoy Chivilcoy is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, the head town of the Chivilcoy Partido. It has 64,185 inhabitants according to the . Tourism February Carnivals In the month of February, a three-day carnival is held over an extended ...

, a

pampas The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazi ...

town, in 1888. His family relocated to

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 ...

, settling in the San Cristóbal section of the city. He began writing lyrics for his own guitar improvisations while still in his teens, and he moved to nearby Montevideo,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, a few years later. There, he debuted '' Mi noche triste,'' and befriended the son of the cabaret's owner, tango composer Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. Matos Rodríguez went on to write what became perhaps the best-known tango composition, '' La Cumparsita'' – though his original lyrics were replaced by Contursi's in a version known around 1924 as ''Si Supieras'' (''If You Knew''). Matos Rodríguez succeeded in popularizing ''La Cumparsita'' as the song's title, though Contursi's lyrics became the only popularly recognized version following tango standard Carlos Gardel's highly recognizable rendition. Contursi returned to Buenos Aires, where he wrote a number of unsuccessful

sainete A sainete (farce or titbit) was a popular Spanish comic opera piece, a one-act dramatic vignette, with music. It was often placed at the end of entertainments, or between other types of performance. It was vernacular in style, and used scenes of lo ...

s (stage comedies). He moved to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

in 1927, residing in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where he wrote the wistful ''Bandoneón arrabalero''. Contursi's health deteriorated in Paris, and he eventually became destitute. Returned to Buenos Aires in 1932 at the expense of a grateful Gardel (who by then had become a top

Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

box office draw), Contursi died a few days later at age 43.Todo Tango: Pascual Contursi
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References

1888 births 1932 deaths People from Buenos Aires Province Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine tango musicians Tango singers Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery 20th-century Argentine male singers {{Argentina-musician-stub