The 10 best compositions of Astor Piazzolla
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla, better known as Astor Piazzolla, was a distinguished Argentine composer and bandoneonist who lived between 1921 and 1992. He is known as the composer who renewed tango and opened the field for new Argentine music, thanks, among other things, to the way he navigated the waters of academic music and music popular.
Piazzolla introduced rhythmic, harmonic and timbral innovations into the tango genre that, at least initially, earned him the enmity of the purists. However, attentive to the new times and faithful to the principle of musical creativity, Piazzolla finally achieved the respect and admiration of Argentine society and the world.
The artist left a legacy of more than 600 composed works. This number ranges from suites to concerts for bandoneon, concertos for orchestra, tangos, solo pieces for piano and guitar, an opera-tango and 44 film soundtracks. Let us know here some of the most representative works of him.
What will come
What's to Come is a theme dating back to the 1950s. For José María Otero, historian of tango, it represented a turning point in the future of tango in Buenos Aires. Piazzolla made more than one arrangement for this song looking for a personal and solid sound.
Indeed, in What will come, Piazzolla breaks with the traditional concept of tango and delivers to his audience the explorations of a new sound, totally unique, loaded with elements foreign to the tango tradition, starting with the format musical. With this, Piazzolla introduces new timbres to tango, to which he adds the harmonic and rhythmic explorations that bring it closer to jazz.
Goodbye Nonino
It is an instrumental tango dedicated to Piazzola's father, named Vicente and nicknamed Nonino, who died in a bicycle accident while Piazzolla was on tour. It was composed in 1959. In this tango Piazzolla introduced elements of George Gershwin, one of his father's favorite musicians, as well as Brian Wilson. Later, Eladia Blázquez wrote him the lyrics that have popularized him among singers.
Maria from Buenos Aires
It is not a song, but an opera-tango, also called “operita”, structured in two parts of eight songs each. The work was released in 1968.
Maria from Buenos Aires it was the first work composed by the duo Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer. These artists began to work together around 1967, in a context where a transformation of popular music was taking place in Argentina.
Then one of the numbers Maria from Buenos Aires:
Ballad for a crazy
It is a tango with music by Astor Piazzolla and lyrics by Horacio Ferrer, and published by CBS in 1969 in a simple format. The song is a kind of praise for madness, and in it Horacio Ferrer makes the term "piantao" shine, which, in the jargon of the River Plate, means crazy or alienated. The song was popularized by the voice of Amelita Baltar.
Chiquilín de Bachín
Chiquilín de Bachín is another tango that is on the same single album as Balada para un loco, on the B side. It is a tango in waltz and, like the Ballad..., has lyrics by Horacio Ferrer and was interpreted for the first time by Amelita Baltar. It tells the story of Bachín, a young man who sold flowers near the theaters in Buenos Aires.
The four Buenos Aires seasons
Astor Piazzolla composed between 1965 and 1970 four songs dedicated to the climatic seasons of Buenos Aires: Buenos Aires summer It would be the first song, written in 1965. It was initially conceived as incidental music for a work called Golden Melenita by Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz when we have the information.
Then I would follow Buenos Aires autumn in 1969. The cycle would be completed with Buenos Aires spring and Buenos Aires winter, both composed in 1970. Over time, these songs were summarized in different discs, and they were organized in a suite that received the name of Buenos Aires stations or The four Buenos Aires seasons, alluding to The four Seasons by Vivaldi.
From this relationship, Leonid Desyatnikov, a Russian composer, made between 1996 and 1998 an arrangement in which he integrates The Buenos Aires stations to The four Seasons by Vivaldi.
Then listen Buenos Aires summer:
Libertango
Libertango It is a song that gives title to an album released in 1974. The title he receives is a clear reference to Piazzola's desire to break the mold of traditional tango and broaden creative horizons. The song set a standard in contemporary Argentine music and has been covered by many artists, both in instrumental and sung formats.
For more details on this iconic piece, see also Libertango Song by Astor Piazzolla.
Oblivion
It is an instrumental song by Astor Piazzola that rose to fame after being included in the soundtrack of the film Enrico IV (1984) by Marco Bellocchio. It was composed during Piazzolla's stay in New York, and centers around the musical image of oblivion.
Later, Horacio Ferrer would put lyrics to the song. There are also other versions of the lyrics such as that of David McNeil, a composer of New York origin who lived in France during those years.
Ave Maria
As a traveler between the worlds of tango and academic music, Piazzola also composed a Ave Maria, which not only distances himself from the traditional way of composing, but his lyrics also do not correspond to the traditional prayer. In, it is reality, the fruit of the creativity of the writer Roberto Bertozzi. The letter reads:
Hail Mary, love you
Sitiens sum, Ave!
Ave Maria, or aurea lux,
O soft viola omnium.
Bird! Ave Maria,
Bird! Ave Maria
Qua movetur vita,
Ad me.
Vitae afflatus,
Omnis anhelitus, ave!
Credo in te. Come ad me.
To you will be born, pure power,
Ima umilitate; I am confident!
Ave Maria, gentium mater
Bird! Ave Maria
Bird! Ave Maria
Qua movetur vita,
Ad me.
Vitae afflatus,
Omnis anhelitus, ave!
Credo in te. Come ad me.
Bird.
You can listen to the song at the following link:
Concerto for bandoneon and orchestra
Also called Aconcagua, this concert was originally composed for solo bandoneon, string orchestra, piano and harp. It is made up of three movements: allegro marcato, moderate Y presto. It was first recorded in 1983.
About Astor Piazzola
Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar de Plata, Argentina, in 1921. His parents were Vicente Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti. The first years of his childhood were spent in New York, a city where he would learn about jazz and baroque music.
His father gave him a used bandoneon in 1927, with which he began his music studies. He took piano lessons from 1933 with Bela Wilda, and very soon, in 1934, he would come into contact with Carlos Gardel. Gardel, who did not speak English, asked him to accompany him to do some shopping, at which time he saw grace in the boy and invited him to act in The day you Love Me like the young newspaper salesman.
Piazzolla had shown his musical gifts at Gardel's meetings and had come into contact with tango. The singer invited him to be part of his next tour, but Vicente Piazzolla found him too young for the feat and did not give him permission. However, what seemed like a bad decision turned out to be the best one for the young man, since that would be the tour in which Gardel and his entire band would lose their lives in a plane crash.
The young man continued his academic musical training and, upon returning to Argentina, he joined the night scene and participated in various orchestras, including that of the famous bandoneonist Aníbal Troilo. Piazzolla was at that time divided between classical music and popular music (tango). Meanwhile, he received classes with the teacher Alberto Ginastera.
In 1944 he took piano lessons with Raúl Spivak and in 1949 he studied orchestral conducting with Hermann Scherchen. In that year he wrote the first soundtrack for him. In 1953 he received the Fabien Sevitzky Prize for his work Buenos Aires, three symphonic movements.
On leaving for Paris, around 1954, he took classes in counterpoint and fugue with Nadia Boulanger. In one session, upon discovering that Piazzolla played tangos in Argentina, Boulanger asked him to play one for her. Hearing him, she was fascinated and made him see that he should continue with that work, not only because it was good, but because he had found a style, thanks precisely to the integration of both musical worlds.
In 1955 Piazzolla returned to Argentina where he would remain until 1958, when he travels to the United States once more to record. From there he goes on a tour. On his stop in Puerto Rico, he receives the news of the death of his father Vicente de him and composes Goodbye Nonino.
He returns to Argentina in 1960 and forms the Quinteto Nuevo Tango, with which he will refine his definitive style. Three years later, around 1963, the group became the New Octet. From 1967 he began to work with the lyricist Horacio Ferrer, which opened new doors for him in his work.
In the following years he will alternate his stay between several countries, during which time he will go through various health problems. During that time, he edits the album Libertango and he produces innumerable works of the most varied formats and styles. This will be the period in which he attends the definitive consecration of his work and in which he achieves a prolific and highly-invoiced production.
While in Paris in 1990, a fall in the bathroom caused a thrombosis. He is transferred to Buenos Aires, where he remains in a coma until his death on July 4, 1992.
