Astor Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango comp… Read Full Bio ↴Astor Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. An excellent bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with different ensembles. He is known in his native land as "El Gran Astor" ("The Great Astor").
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921 to immigrant Italian parents, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood with his family in New York City. While there, he acquired fluency in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He also started playing the bandoneon, quickly rising to the status of child prodigy. While still quite young, he met Carlos Gardel, another great figure of Argentine tango. He returned to Argentina in 1937, where strictly traditional tango still reigned, and played in night clubs with a series of groups. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein (then living in Buenos Aires) advised him to study with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Delving into scores of Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and others, he gave up tango temporarily and worked as a modernist classical composer.
At Ginastera's urging, in 1953 Piazzolla entered his "Buenos Aires" Symphony in a composition contest, and won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger. The insightful Boulanger turned his life around in a day, as Piazzolla tells beautifully in his own words:
"When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: ‘It's very well written.’ And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: “Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartók, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can't find Piazzolla in this.” And she began to investigate my private life: what I did, what I did and did not play, if I was single, married, or living with someone, she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her that I was a tango musician. Finally I said, “I play in a ‘night club.’” I didn't want to say “cabaret.” And she answered, “Night club, mais oui, but that is a cabaret, isn't it?” “Yes,” I answered, and thought, “I'll hit this woman in the head with a radio....” It wasn't easy to lie to her.
She kept asking: “You say that you are not pianist. What instrument do you play, then?” And I didn't want to tell her that I was a bandoneon player, because I thought, “Then she will throw me from the fourth floor.” Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: “You idiot, that's Piazzolla!” And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds."
Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1955, formed the Octeto Buenos Aires to play tangos, and never looked back.
Upon introducing his new approach to the tango (nuevo tango), he became a controversial figure among Argentines both musically and politically. The Argentine saying "in Argentina everything may change — except the tango" suggests some of the resistance he found in his native land. 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.
During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in France, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. 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):
In 1990 he suffered a thrombosis in Paris and he passed away two years later in Buenos Aires.
Piazzolla's nuevo tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. Piazzolla also introduced new instruments that were not used in the traditional tango, including the flute, saxophone, electric guitar, electronic instruments, and a full jazz/rock drum kit.
Piazzolla played with numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 "Octeto Buenos Aires", the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971 "Noneto", the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989 "Sextet". As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and Bandoneon player in all of them. He also recorded an album with jazz sax player Gerry Mulligan. 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", as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, like "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.
He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in Paris on 4 August 1990, which left him in a coma, and died in Buenos Aires, just under two years later on 4 July 1992, without regaining consciousness.
other albums not listed here
~ The Birth of Tango Nuevo, Vol. 1 - Sinfonia de Tango
~ Mis 30 Mejores Tangos
~ Piazzolla Interpreta A. Piazzolla (Original Album - Remastered)
~ Ensayos
~ Tiempo Nuevo
~ Se Armó
~ El Milrago - The Early Recordings, Vol. 2 (Astor Piazzolla With His First Own Orchestra, So Called 1946 Band.)
~ Tango Moderno
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921 to immigrant Italian parents, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood with his family in New York City. While there, he acquired fluency in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He also started playing the bandoneon, quickly rising to the status of child prodigy. While still quite young, he met Carlos Gardel, another great figure of Argentine tango. He returned to Argentina in 1937, where strictly traditional tango still reigned, and played in night clubs with a series of groups. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein (then living in Buenos Aires) advised him to study with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Delving into scores of Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and others, he gave up tango temporarily and worked as a modernist classical composer.
At Ginastera's urging, in 1953 Piazzolla entered his "Buenos Aires" Symphony in a composition contest, and won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger. The insightful Boulanger turned his life around in a day, as Piazzolla tells beautifully in his own words:
"When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: ‘It's very well written.’ And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: “Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartók, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can't find Piazzolla in this.” And she began to investigate my private life: what I did, what I did and did not play, if I was single, married, or living with someone, she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her that I was a tango musician. Finally I said, “I play in a ‘night club.’” I didn't want to say “cabaret.” And she answered, “Night club, mais oui, but that is a cabaret, isn't it?” “Yes,” I answered, and thought, “I'll hit this woman in the head with a radio....” It wasn't easy to lie to her.
She kept asking: “You say that you are not pianist. What instrument do you play, then?” And I didn't want to tell her that I was a bandoneon player, because I thought, “Then she will throw me from the fourth floor.” Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: “You idiot, that's Piazzolla!” And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds."
Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1955, formed the Octeto Buenos Aires to play tangos, and never looked back.
Upon introducing his new approach to the tango (nuevo tango), he became a controversial figure among Argentines both musically and politically. The Argentine saying "in Argentina everything may change — except the tango" suggests some of the resistance he found in his native land. 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.
During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in France, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. 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):
In 1990 he suffered a thrombosis in Paris and he passed away two years later in Buenos Aires.
Piazzolla's nuevo tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. Piazzolla also introduced new instruments that were not used in the traditional tango, including the flute, saxophone, electric guitar, electronic instruments, and a full jazz/rock drum kit.
Piazzolla played with numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 "Octeto Buenos Aires", the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971 "Noneto", the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989 "Sextet". As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and Bandoneon player in all of them. He also recorded an album with jazz sax player Gerry Mulligan. 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", as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, like "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.
He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in Paris on 4 August 1990, which left him in a coma, and died in Buenos Aires, just under two years later on 4 July 1992, without regaining consciousness.
other albums not listed here
~ The Birth of Tango Nuevo, Vol. 1 - Sinfonia de Tango
~ Mis 30 Mejores Tangos
~ Piazzolla Interpreta A. Piazzolla (Original Album - Remastered)
~ Ensayos
~ Tiempo Nuevo
~ Se Armó
~ El Milrago - The Early Recordings, Vol. 2 (Astor Piazzolla With His First Own Orchestra, So Called 1946 Band.)
~ Tango Moderno
Aria de los analistas
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
Pasen a ver, caballeros
Cosas jamás nunca vistas
Traeremos los analistas
A este circo porteñero
Pasen a ver!: malabares
De un bello remordimiento
Que hace su trágico intento
Con siete libriums impares
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Saca tus sueños al sol
Que los sueños tienen picos
Rataplín y rataplón
Pasen a ver!: que la vida
Se enredó en la pena floja
Y un Yo porque se le antoja
Traga angustias encendidas
Aquí está la voltereta
De un rencor que, en zapatillas
Saca un boom de pesadillas
Por detrás de la careta
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Saca tus sueños al sol
Que los sueños tienen filo
Rataplín y rataplón
Pasen a ver!: que asomado
Por el plano sagital
Da un doble de olvido mortal
Un gran recuerdo amaestrado
Pasen a ver!: Adelante!
Que en la pista y poco a poco
Va hilando una sombra el copo
Con culpas de antes de antes
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Saca tus sueños al sol
Que este sueño es de María
Rataplín y rataplón
Cámara uno: al recuerdo
Cámara dos: a la conciencia
Que pongan un decorado
Con trapecios de tiniebla
Que la niña hará su salto
Vestida de memoria negra
Y el Analista Primero
Le pide cuatro piruetas
Cerrá los ojos María
Que así en tus ojos cabrá
Un patio ñato y un canto
Que en ese patio se oirá
Es el llanto de tu madre
No lo siento. Dicen, de ella, que tenía en la
Cintura una gran sensiblería, como de silla
Vacía, y que fregaba estrellas sucias para
Afuera. Pero que nunca lloraba. Eso cuentan
Los que estaban de ella al tanto
Fue un Viernes, y no fue santo
Y, ya, me lo acuerdo mal
Abrí los sueños, María
Que así en tus sueños habrá
Una fragua con dos manos
Que en esa fragua hacen pan
Son las manos de tu padre
No sé. Pero de él se ha recordado que jugaba
Al pase inglés con dos cortafierros cargados
Con sangre dura, y que perdía cuantas
Veces lo quería. Eso juran los que entonces
Le ganaban con sietes y onces de risa
Fue un Miércoles de ceniza
Y ya me lo acuerdo mal
Cerra tus ojos María
Que así dos ojos verás
Un grito y un beso izquierdo
Que en este grito se va
Es ése tu primer beso
No sabría. Pero cuentan que en él cabía
Tanta tristeza como la que hubo en el Jesús
Que no tuvo para leños y se pintó una cruz
En el lomo. Y que, ese beso, otro día, se hizo
Hacer un pequeño aborto cerezo en cada
Labio. Eso callan los que saben de ese beso
Y aún lo gozan
Yo, entonces, era una rosa
Y ya me lo acuerdo mal
Abrí los sueños, María
Que así en tus sueños cabrán
Un whisky y dos golpes rubios
Que desde el fondo se oirán
Es corazón que llama
Dificilmente. Mi corazón cortado en cuatro
Está -dicen- sepeliado en las cuatro troneras
De un billar robado. El que ahora llevo
Puesto se lo compré a una encorazonadora
Que tenía corazonería de viejo en un paisaje
Terraja, y vendía corazoncitos tristeros de
Baraja francesa y de conejo, de tatuaje de
Marínero con Péreza, de rima de canción de
Cuna y de alcaucil. A mi, me puso uno que
Es de vista y no de lastima, recortado del mandil
De un bandoneonista; y con agujita de
Estaño y de hilo de humo castaño, me lo
Bordó en el vientre. Dijo que eso era lo que
Convenía para quien, como yo, soy una sombra
María, y ya por sombra
Seré sombra y seré virgen para siempre
Lo dijo mientras cosía
Y ya me lo acuerdo mal
Cubrí tu pecho, María
Con un puñado de sal
Que adentro te mira un cero
Y el cero te va a llorar
Del numeroso gris
De anteayer
Ya no me acuerdo más
Que de aquel
Misterio cruel que me gritó nacé
Y cuando entre a vivir
Se sonrió
Y al fin al verme así
Tan última y tan yo
Mordiéndose, gritó
Morí
Cosas jamás nunca vistas
Traeremos los analistas
A este circo porteñero
Pasen a ver!: malabares
De un bello remordimiento
Que hace su trágico intento
Con siete libriums impares
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Saca tus sueños al sol
Que los sueños tienen picos
Rataplín y rataplón
Pasen a ver!: que la vida
Se enredó en la pena floja
Y un Yo porque se le antoja
Traga angustias encendidas
Aquí está la voltereta
De un rencor que, en zapatillas
Saca un boom de pesadillas
Por detrás de la careta
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Saca tus sueños al sol
Que los sueños tienen filo
Rataplín y rataplón
Pasen a ver!: que asomado
Por el plano sagital
Da un doble de olvido mortal
Un gran recuerdo amaestrado
Pasen a ver!: Adelante!
Que en la pista y poco a poco
Va hilando una sombra el copo
Con culpas de antes de antes
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Saca tus sueños al sol
Que este sueño es de María
Rataplín y rataplón
Cámara uno: al recuerdo
Cámara dos: a la conciencia
Que pongan un decorado
Con trapecios de tiniebla
Que la niña hará su salto
Vestida de memoria negra
Y el Analista Primero
Le pide cuatro piruetas
Cerrá los ojos María
Que así en tus ojos cabrá
Un patio ñato y un canto
Que en ese patio se oirá
Es el llanto de tu madre
No lo siento. Dicen, de ella, que tenía en la
Cintura una gran sensiblería, como de silla
Vacía, y que fregaba estrellas sucias para
Afuera. Pero que nunca lloraba. Eso cuentan
Los que estaban de ella al tanto
Fue un Viernes, y no fue santo
Y, ya, me lo acuerdo mal
Abrí los sueños, María
Que así en tus sueños habrá
Una fragua con dos manos
Que en esa fragua hacen pan
Son las manos de tu padre
No sé. Pero de él se ha recordado que jugaba
Al pase inglés con dos cortafierros cargados
Con sangre dura, y que perdía cuantas
Veces lo quería. Eso juran los que entonces
Le ganaban con sietes y onces de risa
Fue un Miércoles de ceniza
Y ya me lo acuerdo mal
Cerra tus ojos María
Que así dos ojos verás
Un grito y un beso izquierdo
Que en este grito se va
Es ése tu primer beso
No sabría. Pero cuentan que en él cabía
Tanta tristeza como la que hubo en el Jesús
Que no tuvo para leños y se pintó una cruz
En el lomo. Y que, ese beso, otro día, se hizo
Hacer un pequeño aborto cerezo en cada
Labio. Eso callan los que saben de ese beso
Y aún lo gozan
Yo, entonces, era una rosa
Y ya me lo acuerdo mal
Abrí los sueños, María
Que así en tus sueños cabrán
Un whisky y dos golpes rubios
Que desde el fondo se oirán
Es corazón que llama
Dificilmente. Mi corazón cortado en cuatro
Está -dicen- sepeliado en las cuatro troneras
De un billar robado. El que ahora llevo
Puesto se lo compré a una encorazonadora
Que tenía corazonería de viejo en un paisaje
Terraja, y vendía corazoncitos tristeros de
Baraja francesa y de conejo, de tatuaje de
Marínero con Péreza, de rima de canción de
Cuna y de alcaucil. A mi, me puso uno que
Es de vista y no de lastima, recortado del mandil
De un bandoneonista; y con agujita de
Estaño y de hilo de humo castaño, me lo
Bordó en el vientre. Dijo que eso era lo que
Convenía para quien, como yo, soy una sombra
María, y ya por sombra
Seré sombra y seré virgen para siempre
Lo dijo mientras cosía
Y ya me lo acuerdo mal
Cubrí tu pecho, María
Con un puñado de sal
Que adentro te mira un cero
Y el cero te va a llorar
Del numeroso gris
De anteayer
Ya no me acuerdo más
Que de aquel
Misterio cruel que me gritó nacé
Y cuando entre a vivir
Se sonrió
Y al fin al verme así
Tan última y tan yo
Mordiéndose, gritó
Morí
The lyrics of Astor Piazzolla's song "Aria de los analistas" depict a surreal and introspective journey into the human psyche. The title translates to "Aria of the analysts," suggesting a deep exploration of the inner thoughts and emotions within oneself. The song invites the audience to witness something never seen before, as the analysts are brought to the "porteño circus," signifying the chaotic and complex nature of the human mind.
The lyrics draw attention to themes of regret, pain, and longing. The phrase "cosas jamás nunca vistas" (things never seen before) implies a sense of novelty and curiosity, as the analysts attempt to juggle the beautiful remorse that tragically attempts to overcome them. The imagery of Buenos Aires, the city where tango was born, emphasizes the dreamlike quality of the song, urging the city to bring forth its dreams and desires in the sun.
The lyrics continue to explore the entanglement of life in sorrow, the rebellious yearning of the self, and the swallowing of ignited anguish. The song delves into the complexities of human experience, depicting the acrobatics of resentment, the somersaults of hidden grudges, and the balancing act between forgetting and remembering.
Overall, the song provides a poetic and metaphorical glimpse into the depths of the human psyche, showcasing Piazzolla's ability to capture the complexity and emotional intensity of the human experience.
Writer(s): Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla, Horacio Ferrer
Contributed by Allison R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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