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Piazolla is a well-known Italian name.
There are several celebrities, singers and musicians
named Piazzola or derivatives of the well-known name
from Italy. Learn how to get and collect your favorite
celebrity authographs.
Piazzolla is, not only the most renowned
tango musician in the world but also, a composer chosen
by internationally noted concert players, chamber groups,
and symphonic orchestras. Possibly, he has driven tango
beyond its bounds, so far –aesthetically speaking-
that many tango players lacked the level either to go
along with his trend or to understand it.Those who did
follow him and those who came later, were faced with
the heavy burden of solving how to stay away, even though
partially, from his influence and to find a new path
after his work. "Post-piazzollism" is up to
date a collection of attempts, some of them important
but insufficient. Lyrics
to thousands of popular tunes are available on the Internet.
Astor Piazzolla - 1921 - 1992
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born on March
11, 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, only child of
Vicente “Nonino” Piazzolla and Asunta Mainetti.
In 1925, the family relocates to New York City until
1936 with a brief return to Mar del Plata in 1930.
Click Here to Download Classical Music PDF score files
and print them out Beautiful
view with Acrobat Reader. Lots of music scores for instrumental
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study, teaching, etc.
In 1929, when Astor is 8 years old, his father gives
him his first bandoneon which he had bought at a pawn
shop for 19 dollars. Astor studies the bandoneon for
one year with Andrés DÁquila and he makes
his first record, Marionette Spagnol; a phonograph disk
(non commercial) at the Radio Recording Studio in New
York on 11/30/1931.
In 1933 he studies with the Hungarian pianist Bela
Wilda, disciple of Rachmaninov, and of whom Astor would
later say “With him I learned to love Bach”.
Shortly thereafter, he meets Carlos Gardel who becomes
a good friend of the family and with whom he takes part
in the movie “El Dia Que me Quieras”, playing
a brief part as a newspaper boy. This feature film plays
a monumental role in the history of Tango.
In 1936, he returns with the family to Mar del Plata,
Argentina for good, where Astor begins to play in some
tango orchestras. It is here that he makes his second
grand discovery (after Bach with Bela Wilda), when he
listens to Elvino Vardaro’s sextet on the radio,
Elvino would later become Astor’s violinist. That
alternative way of interpreting Tango deeply touches
him and he becomes an admirer of Elvino. Astor’s
love for Tango, and especially for that style of Tango,
touches him deeply and gives him the courage to move
to Buenos Aires in 1938. He was only 17 years old.
He plays on some second rate tango orchestras until
1939, when he realizes his dream of playing bandoneon
within one of the greatest tango orchestras of that
time; the Anibal Troilo orchestra. “Pichuco”
was one of the best bandoneon players, and Astor always
considered him one of his masters.
Astor feels the need to advance musically, and already
being the arranger of the Troilo orchestra, he begins
his musical studies with Alberto Ginastera in 1941,
and later in 1943, he studies piano with Raúl
Spivak. In 1942 he marries to Dedé Wolff and
from this marriage he has two children: Diana in 1943
and Daniel in 1944. His works are too advanced for the
time and Troilo edits them so as to not scare off dancers.
In 1943, he begins his “classical” works
with the “Suite para Cuerdas y Arpas” and
in 1944 he leaves Troilo’s orchestra to lead the
orchestra which accompanies singer Francisco Fiorentino,
he plays with Firoentino until 1946, when he forms his
first orchestra, which is later dissolved in 1949. With
this orchestra, with a similar formation to the other
orchestras of the day, he begins to develop his creative
impulses with his works and orchestrations with a big
dynamic and harmonic content. That tango, of the young
and daring director, more modern and different, begins
to incite the first controversies among traditional
tangueros.
In 1946 he composes, “El Desbande”, considered
by Piazzolla as his first formal tango, and shortly
thereafter he begins to compose musical scores for movies.
In 1949 he feels the need to disband the orchestra
and part with the bandoneon, and almost abandons tango
altogether. He searches for something else, a different
destiny. He continues to study Bartok and Stravinsky,
he studies orchestra direction with Herman Scherchen,
he listens to lots of Jazz. His search for a style becomes
obsessive, he longs for something that has nothing to
do with tango. Everything was a mess and Astor decides
to drop the bandoneon to dedicate himself to write and
pursue his musical studies. He is 28 years old.
Between 1950 and 1954 he composes a series of works,
clearly different from the conception of tango at the
time, and that further define his unique style: Para
lucirse, Tanguango, Prepárense, Contrabajeando,
Triunfal, Lo que vendrá.
In 1953 he presents the work “Buenos Aires”
(three symphonic pieces) – composed in 1951 –
for the Fabien Sevitzky competition. Piazzolla wins
the first prize and the work is performed at the Law
School in Buenos Aires by the symphonic orchestra of
“Radio del Estado” with the addition of two
bandoneons and under the direction of Sevitzky himself.
It is a full-blown scandal, at the end of the concert
there is a generalized fist-fight due to the strong
reaction of some members of the audience that consider
it an indignity to include bandoneon in the “cult”
setting of a symphonic orchestra.
One of the prizes he won at this composition contest
was a scholarship from the French government to study
in Paris (where he goes in 1954), with Nadia Boulanger,
considered the best educator in the world of music at
the time. At first, Piazzolla tries to hide his tanguero
past and his bandoneon work, thinking that his destiny
is in classical music. This situation is quickly remedied
when he opens his heart to Boulanger and he plays his
tango “Triunfal” for her. From then on he
receives a historic recommendation: “Astor, your
classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla
is here, never leave it behind”
After this episode, Piazzolla returns to tango and
to his instrument, the bandoneon. What was once a choice
between the sophisticated music or tango, now would
be sophisticated music and tango, but in the most efficient
way: to work the structure of sophisticated music with
the passion of the tango. In Paris, he composes and
records a series of tangos with a string orchestra and
he begins to play the bandoneon while standing up, he
puts one leg on a chair, a trait that would characterize
him on the music scene (Most bandoneonists play sitting
down).
When Piazzolla returns to Argentina (1955) he continues
with the strings orchestra and he also forms a group,
the Octeto Buenos Aires, which is the beginning of the
contemporary tango age. With a makeup of two bandoneons,
two violins, double bass, cello, piano, and an electric
guitar, he produces innovative works and interpretations
which break away from classic tango, he breaks away
from the original mold of an “orquesta tipica”
and creates chamber music instead, music without a singer
or any dancers. He continues his personal revolution
and continues to generate hatred among the orthodox
tangueros, becoming the target of very mean criticism.
He does not sway and keeps going on the path which he
more than ever deems his own, but the media and record
labels make it an uphill battle. In 1958 he disbands
the octet and the strings orchestra and he goes back
to New York City to work as an arranger.
Between 1958 and 1960 he works in the US, where he
experiments with Jazz-Tango with negative results and
where, because of the death of his father in October
1959, he writes while in New York his famous, “Adiós
Nonino”. Upon his return to Argentina, he creates
the first of many famous quintets, playing New Tango
(bandoneon, violin, bass, piano, and electric guitar).
The quintet was Piazzolla’s most beloved formation;
the musical synthesis that best expressed his ideas.
In 1963 he premieres under the direction of Paul Klecky:
“Tres Tangos Sinfonicos” (Hirsch Prize) and
in 1965 he makes two of his most important records:
Piazzolla at the Philarmonic Hall New York, which has
the works he played at a concert at the hall with the
quintet in May 1965; and “El Tango”, of historical
value, a product of his friendship with Jorge Luis Borges.
In 1966 he leaves Dedé Wolff. In 1968 he begins
an extensive collaboration with the poet Horacio Ferrer,
with whom he composes the “operita” Maria
de Buenos Aires; beginning a new style: the tango song.
Around that time he begins dating the singer Amelita
Baltar.
In 1969, with Horacio Ferrer, he composes “Balada
para un loco”, presented at the First Iberoamerican
Music Festival, where he receives second place. This
work turned out to be his first popular hit, premiered
by Amelita Baltar with Piazzolla himself conducting
the orchestra.
In 1970 he returns to Paris where, with Ferrer, he
composes the oratorio “El Pueblo Joven”, the
premiere of which was in Saarbuck, Germany in 1971.
That same year he forms the Conjunto 9, acting in Buenos
Aires and in Italy where they tape many shows for RAI.
This group was like a dream for Piazzolla: the picture-perfect
chamber music formation he had always wanted and for
which he composed his most elaborate music, but the
economic impossibility of keeping the group together
led to its dissolution.
In 1972 he plays at the Teatro Colón in Buenos
Aires for the first time, sharing the bill with other
Tango orchestras. In 1973, after a period of great productivity
as a composer, he suffers a heart attack which forces
him to reduce his artistic activities.
That same year (1973) he decides to move to Italy where
he begins a series of recordings which span 5 years,
the most famous being “Libertango”, a work
that is widely accepted in the European Community.
During these years he forms the “Conjunto Electronico”:
an octet made up of bandoneon, electric piano and/or
acoustic piano, organ, guitar and electric bass, drums,
synthesizer and violin, which was later substituted
for flute or saxophone. Later, in 1975 Jose A. Trelles
is incorporated as a singer with a formation that alternates
between Argentinean and European musicians. This group
had nothing to do with the previous ones, and many considered
this change as an approach to jazz-rock: but according
to Piazzolla, “That was my music, it had more to
do with tango than with rock.”
In 1974 he separates from Amelita Baltar. That same
year he records with the saxophonist Gerry Mulligan
a great record: Summit, with an Italian orchestra. The
music that Piazzolla composes for this disc is characterized
by the exquisite melody of the bandoneon and the saxophone
on top of a rhythmic base. Aníbal Troilo dies
in 1975 and Piazzolla composes the “Suite Troileana”
in his memory, a work in four parts, which he records
with the Conjunto Electronico, with A. Agri playing
violin.
In 1976 he meets who would be his last wife, Laura
Escalada. In December of the same year he plays an extraordinary
concert at the Gran Rex theater in Buenos Aires, where
he presents his work, “500 motivaciones”,
written especially for the Conjunto Electronico. In
1977, he plays another memorable concert at the Olympia
in Paris, with a similar formation as before, but with
musicians with roots closer to rock. This is the last
time he has an “electric” group. Piazzolla
regrettably stops making reference to Chick Corea’s
international sound and even though the Conjunto Electronico
makes good music, he doesn’t consider it the real
Piazzolla. In 1978, the second incarnation of the quintet
is born, the one that would make Piazzolla world renowned.
He also restarts his dedication to chamber music and
symphonic works.
The next ten years are the best for Piazzolla as far
as his popularity is concerned. He intensifies his concerts
all over the world: Europe, South America, Japan, and
the United States. During a period which lasts until
1990 he does a series of concerts mostly with the quintet,
and also as a symphonic solo performer and as a chamber
musician; and in his final years with his final group,
the sextet, and with string quartets. There are many
live recordings of the numerous concerts, many of them
on CD. This in some way proves what is frequently said:
Piazzolla’s music does not exist unless he plays
it; him playing the music is a testament to the style,
which we could define as the aesthetics of a musical
state of mind.
In 1982 he writes “Le Grand Tango” for cello
and piano, dedicated to Russian cellist, Mtislav Rostropovitch
and premiered by him in 1990 in New Orleans. In June
of 1983 he puts on one of the best shows of his life:
he plays a program dedicated to his music at the Teatro
Colón in Buenos Aires, the big scenario of classical
music in Argentina. For the occasion he regroups the
Conjunto 9 and he plays solo with the symphonic orchestra
directed by Pedro I. Calderón, playing the beautiful
“Concert for bandoneon and orchestra.”
In 1984 he plays with the singer Milva at the Bouffes
du Nord and in Vienna with the quintet where he records
a live album “Live in Wien.” In 1985 he is
named an exceptional citizen of Buenos Aires and he
premieres the concert for bandoneon and guitar : Homenaje
a Lieja, under the direction of Leo Brouwer at the Fifth
International Belgian Guitar Festival.
In 1986 he receives the Cesar prize in Paris for the
score of the film “El exilio de Gardel” and
with Gary Burton he records “Suite for Vibraphone
and New Tango Quintet”, live at the Jazz Festival
in Montreux, Switzerland. In 1987 he records with the
St. Luke’s orchestra directed by Lalo Schifrin,
the “Concert for bandoneon” and “Three
Tangos” for bandoneon and orchestra.
The concert which takes place in 1987 in New York’s
Central Park in front of a massive audience, is a rejuvenating
experience for Piazzolla. The city where he spent his
childhood, where he became mesmerized by the music of
Bach and Jazz, and where he failed in 1958, finally
pays attention to his music. The records released in
the US in the late 80s document his life: Tango Zero
Hour, Tango Apasionado, La Camorra, Five tango Sensations
(with the Kronos quartet), Piazzolla with Gary Burton,
etc.
In 1988, a few months after recording what would be
his final record with the quintet (La Camorra), he undergoes
a quadruple bypass. Shortly thereafter, early in 1989,
he froms what would be his last group: the New Tango
Sextet of unusual characteristics: two bandoneons, piano,
electric guitar, bass and cello. With this group, in
June of 1989 he plays at the Teatro Opera in Buenos
Aires in what would be his last concert in Argentina
and he begins an extensive tour throughout the US, Germany,
England, and Holland.
Towards the end of 1989 he dissolves his group and
continues playing solo with string quartets and symphonic
orchestras. Until August 4, 1990, in Paris, when he
suffers a stroke. After almost 2 years of suffering
the consequences of this incident, he dies in Buenos
Aires on July 4, 1992.
His opus, comprising more than 1000 works, a characteristic
career and an undoubtedly Argentinian flavor, continues
to influence the best musicians in the world of all
generations. For example, the violinist Gidon Kremer,
the cellist Yo-Yo-Ma, the Kronos Quartet, the pianists
Emanuel Ax and Arthur Moreira Lima, the guitarist Al
Di Meola, the Assad brothers, and numerous chamber music
and symphonic orchestras. A career characterized by
his aesthetic power and his unique style, almost in
a league of its own. His music is unmatched; when we
listen to it we are obligated to question the roots
and say, “This is Piazzolla”. It is all about
the “language” he created, which is unique
and can be identified as his and only his. With heterogenous
and rebellious elements (Jazz, classical music, experiments
in sound) he produced a unique music under the drastic
pulse of his Tango. |
