José Bragato (12 October 1915 – 18 July 2017) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

-born

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

cellist, composer, conductor, arranger and musical archivist who, in his early career, was principal cellist in the

Colón Theatre Colón, the primary Spanish translation of Christopher Columbus, may refer to: Places ;Argentina * Colón, Entre Ríos * Colón Department, Córdoba * Colón Department, Entre Ríos * Colón, Buenos Aires ;Colombia * Colón, Nariño * Coló ...

orchestra in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

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. Apart from his involvement in classical music he also performed for many years in a number of

Ástor 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 fr ...

's ''

Nuevo tango Nuevo tango (''New 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 wa ...

'' (New tango) ensembles where his cello solos, which had never before featured in

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 from a combination of Arge ...

, put him in the vanguard of ''Nuevo tango'' from its birth in the 1950s. Since then he has done numerous and varied arrangements of Piazzolla's compositions.

Life and work

Early life

José Bragato was born in

Udine Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...

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, in 1915 into a family of musicians, the fourth child of Enrico Bragato and Erminia Castronin. His father and his father's elder brother, Giuseppe, were both flautists. He had an elder brother, Bruno, a younger brother, Enrique, and two older sisters, Vera and Dina. In 1925 José joined the Jacopo Tomadini Conservatory in Udine, where he sang in the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

and later studied piano; his brother, Bruno, studied flute.

The young immigrant

Times were hard in Italy after the First World War and in 1927 his father, Enrico, and older brother, Bruno, left for Argentina where they settled initially in Saavedra, a neighbourhood in northern

. José, together with his mother and the other children joined them the following year. José continued to study piano whilst in 1930 Bruno joined the orchestra of the

as a flautist and his father was playing flute in various city orchestras. That same year the city of Buenos Aires suffered severe flooding as the River Plate overflowed its banks and the Bragato family lost everything, including José's piano. In 1930 a colleague of Bruno in the Colón Theatre orchestra, the German cellist and teacher Ernst Peltz, began to give José free lessons on a cello which he provided for him and it was with this instrument that he entered the

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20t ...

National Conservatory of Music. Around this time his younger brother Enrique started to learn the violin but soon abandoned it in favour of the bassoon. In 1936 the family moved to

Córdoba Avenue Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

in the centre of Buenos Aires.

Early career

José's first public performances were around 1935, playing Argentine and

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

an folk music whilst playing classical music with his brothers and father, Enrico. In 1937 he played in several orchestras of tango and jazz and one of his first jobs as a cellist was in the tango orchestra of Mario Maurano, and later in the orchestra of

Juan de Dios Filiberto Juan de Dios Filiberto (8 March 1885 11 November 1964) was an Argentine violinist, conductor, poet and composer who became prominent in the Argentine tango genre. Life and work He was born Óscar Juan de Dios Filiberti in 1885 to Josefa Roballo, ...

, where he played with his father Enrico (who was also playing in the

Avenida Theatre The Avenida Theatre (''Teatro Avenida'') is a theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Overview The Avenida Theatre was inaugurated on Buenos Aires' central Avenida de Mayo in 1908 with a production of Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega's ''Justice Wit ...

at that time). With his professional career underway, José was also playing with Paraguayan orchestras such as that of

José Asunción Flores José Asunción Flores (27 August 1904 – 16 May 1972) was a Paraguayan composer and creator of the Guarania music genre. Early life Flores was born in the poor neighborhood of La Chacarita, in Asunción. As a kid, he had to work as a pape ...

, and the Francisco Alvarenga ensemble. In 1946, he joined the orchestra of the Colón Theatre as a cellist and in the same year he became principal cellist in the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra and one of its founder members, leaving the orchestra two years later to become principal cellist in the Colón Theatre orchestra. At the same time, José was playing cello in several chamber music string quartets, including the Buenos Aires Quartet and the Carlos Pessina Quartet. Alongside this he was also playing in tango orchestras, including the Orquesta Francini-Pontier formed by the violinist

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 Á ...

and the bandoneonist Armando Pontier, and was beginning to compose. In 1950, he also began conducting orchestras and arranging pieces for various radio stations including the National Radio Orchestra and Radio Begrano. He was a co-founder of the Channel 13 orchestra, together with the Italian musician Lucio Milena, and joined Leo Lipesker and the Primer Cuarteto de Cámara del Tango. During this period he joined the tango orchestra of

Atilio Stampone Atilio Stampone (1 July 1926 – 2 November 2022) was an Argentine pianist, composer, and arranger prominent in the Tango genre. Life and work He was born to Romana Zangone, from Calabria, and Antonio Stampone, a pasta maker from Napoli, in the ...

and was invited to play in recording sessions with the tango orchestras of

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 wit ...

and

Osvaldo Fresedo Osvaldo Fresedo (May 5, 1897 - November 18, 1984), nicknamed ''El pibe de La Paternal'' ("the kid from La Paternal") was an Argentine songwriter and director of a tango orchestra. He had one of the longest recording careers in tango history, from ...

Nuevo Tango

In 1955 Ástor Piazzolla formed his Octeto Buenos Aires and Orquesta de Cuerdas (String Orchestra) and invited José to play the cello as a solo instrument in these ''

'' ensembles. Previously the violin had been the only stringed instrument featured as a solo instrument in tango. ''Nuevo tango'', which included novel harmonic and melodic structures, was to change the sound of tango forever. From that moment on José became a fervent admirer and close friend of Piazzolla who would later dedicate one of his tango compositions, ''Bragatissimo'', to him as a tribute to their close association over many years. During the period 1956-57 José made several recordings with the Octeto and the Orquesta and would later join Piazzolla's Nuevo Octeto, Conjunto 9, and later his New Tango Sextet, the last of his many ensembles. Apart from his numerous performances with Piazzolla, José spent much of his time making arrangements of Piazzolla's music for duos, trios, string quartets and full orchestras which have helped to bring tango to a wide international audience.

Years in exile

During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1982, he left Argentina and became principal cellist in the Orquestra Sinfonica de Porto Alegre (OSPA) in Brazil. Three years after leaving Argentina he joined the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal, Brazil, where he was a member of the Quartetto UFRN along with Korean violinist Won Mo Kin, Brazilian violinist Reinaldo Couto and American violist Mark Cedel. During his time in Brazil, he founded several classical music archives and was the conductor for several chamber music ensembles. At the same time he was becoming recognized as an arranger of Paraguayan folk music, including guaranias and

polkas Polka is a dance style and musical genre, genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech and Central Europe, Central E ...

Later years

In 1982 José returned to Argentina and was appointed assessor of music for the Argentine popular music archives of SADAIC (Argentine Society of Music Authors and Composers). SADAIC helps to promote the music of Argentine composers throughout the world by providing free sheet music to non-profit making musical and educational establishments. His last solo performance, when he was 80 years old, was with the Atilio Stampone ensemble in

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

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, accompanying the Argentine ballet dancer

Julio Bocca Julio Adrián Lojo Bocca (born March 6, 1967) is an Argentine ballet dancer. Bocca spent twenty years as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. From 2010 to 2018, he served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, adminis ...

and his company. His composition ''Graciela y Buenos Aires'', a tango for cello and string orchestra, has become the mainstay of the symphonic tango repertoire in Europe where his works are widely performed. He died on 18 July 2017 at the age of 101.Falleció José Bragato a los 101 años.

Prizes and awards

*Honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal Brasil *Francisco Canaro Award for his career awarded by SADAIC in 1999. *Prize "Merito a la Trayectoria" by the City of Buenos Aires, 1999. *

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards (stylized as Latin GRAMMYs) are awards presented by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from any ...

in 2002 as composer and arranger of Piazzolla's music for string quartets. *"Due Mondi" of Friuli, Italy.

Compositions

*A Mauricio (Guarania y Galopa Paraguaya) *A un Amigo *Amo Ka Aru lado *Ave Maria Andina *Campanas de la Encarnacion *Chacarera *Cuatro Fragmentos Liricos *Cuatro Bocetos Sobre Ritmos *Dos Canciones Argentinas *Dos Canciones sobre Ritmos Paraguayos *El Instante Anhelado *El Vals de Laura Andrea *Elsita *Fantasía Folklórica *Farra Jhape Sapucai *Flauta Retozona *Graciela y Buenos Aires *Impressionista *In Memoriam *Leitmotiv *Lis Ciancons Che Ciantave Me Mari *Luz Del Corazón *Malambo *Marcha Funebre Para Mis Padres *Melodía Para Mis Padres *Mi Paraguay *Milontan *Minibi Retia E *Nieblas *Noposepe *Para Adriana *Para Candy *Para Gina *Paraguay - Yasî Retá *Saudade *Sé Que Te Perdí *Solo Una Vez *Suite For Strings *Techagaú *Tres Canciones Paraguayas *Tres Movimientos Porteños *Triste y Zamba *Tu Silencio *Vanguardista *Villancico

References

*Elsa Bragato, ''La Vanguardia de Entrecasa'', Buenos Aires, 2007. *Elsa Bragato, ''Los Bragato en la Musica'', Camara del Libro, Buenos Aires, 2008.

External links

Todo Tango: Bragato

José Bragato y familia (blog)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bragato, Jose 1915 births 2017 deaths People from Udine Italian emigrants to Argentina Argentine composers Argentine conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Argentine cellists Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine tango musicians Argentine men centenarians