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
Ballada para Mi Muerte
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
Guardaré, mansamente, las cosas del vivir
Mi pequeña poesía de adioses y de balas
Mi tabaco, mi tango, mi puñado de esplín
Me pondré por los hombros, de abrigo, toda el alba
Mi penúltimo whisky quedará sin beber
Llegará, tangamente, mi muerte enamorada
Hoy que Dios me deja de soñar, a mi olvido iré por Santa Fe
Sé que en nuestra esquina vos ya estás
¡Todo de tristeza hasta los pies!
Abrázame fuerte, que por dentro oigo muertes, viejas muertes
Agrediendo lo que amé
Alma mía
Vamos yendo
Llega el día, ¡no llorés!
Moriré en Buenos Aires
Será de madrugada, que es la hora en que mueren los que saben morir
Flotará en mi silencio la mufa perfumada de aquel verso que nunca yo te pude decir
Andaré tantas cuadras y allá en la Plaza Francia
Como sobras fugadas de un cansado ballet
Repitiendo tu nombre por una calle blanca se me irán los recuerdos en puntitas de pie
Moriré en Buenos Aires, será de madrugada
Guardaré, mansamente, las cosas de vivir
Mi pequeña poesía de adioses y de balas
Mi tabaco, mi tango, mi puñado de esplín
Me pondré por los hombros, de abrigo, toda el alba
Mi penúltimo whisky quedará sin beber
Llegará, tangamente, mi muerte enamorada
Yo estaré muerto, en punto, cuando sean las seis
Cuando sean las seis
Cuando sean las seis
Cuando sean las seis
The lyrics of Astor Piazzolla's "Balada para Mi Muerte" paint a poignant picture of the singer's acceptance of their impending death in Buenos Aires. The setting of the early morning adds a somber mood to the scene, as the singer prepares for their passing by gently putting away the belongings of their life. The inclusion of elements like "Mi tabaco, mi tango, mi puñado de esplín" gives a sense of personal ritual and attachment to the things that have defined their existence.
The imagery of the impending death being "tangamente" enamorada, or lovingly coming, adds a sense of resignation and even a hint of welcome towards the end. This acceptance is further emphasized by the reference to God ceasing to dream of the singer, signaling a detachment from the divine and a journey towards oblivion. The plea for an embrace "fuerte" from a beloved figure conveys a deep emotional weight and a yearning for solace in the face of imminent departure.
The repetition of the idea of dying in Buenos Aires, coupled with the description of the specific location and actions in the Plaza Francia, creates a vivid sense of place and movement in the singer's final moments. The mention of walking many streets and the fading recollections of memories suggest a gradual slipping away of life and identity as death approaches. The comparison of memories leaving like "sobras fugadas de un cansado ballet" evokes a sense of fleeting beauty and transience in the face of mortality.
In the final repetition of the refrain, the singer reaffirms their acceptance of death in Buenos Aires, underscoring the inevitability of their passing. The references to the penultimate whiskey left untouched and the arrival of death with the striking of six o'clock add a sense of finality and closure to the narrative. The song's conclusion leaves the listener with a haunting image of the singer's peaceful surrender to death in the early hours of the Buenos Aires morning, surrounded by the remnants of their life and the bittersweet essence of their existence.
Writer(s): Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla, Horacio Ferrer
Contributed by John P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@hnirvana19832006
MAGISTRAL!, felicidades Argentina por las excelentes voces y artistas que dan al mundo. Saludos desde Mexico.
@ANTONIORamirez-tf3su
Maravillosa composición la "Balada para mi muerte" del genial Astor Poazzolla, y magnifica interpretación de Amelita Baltar. Un regalo para los sentidos y los sentimientos. Gracias a ambos.
@rosarioponce456
ANTONIO Ramirez excelente interpretacion !!!!
@aldoraulduete9503
La.letra es del querido uruguayo (rioplatense como el se identificaba ) Horacio Ferrer.
@MrDepech23
Esta canción refleja tanto , sentir , emociones , lágrimas ,gracias grande interpretación ... Ya quisiera estar en Argentina ...Lima-Perú
@rosarioponce456
Ivo Espinoza
@abelardocardona8013
Mil gracias por compartir esta sentida interpretación 👌Un saludo especial desde Colombia!
@jberhau
Y una magnífica letra escrita por el uruguayo Horacio Ferrer....
@bernardocarlosblanco8397
Que como dice en este bello tango murió en Buenos Aires, en su departamento del Hotel Palacio Alvear en el barrio de Recoleta, cerca del famoso cementerio de Recoleta, ya que hablamos de muertes.
@valentinalorcatango6246
Tremendo!!! que sublime interpretación de Amelita, junto al gran Astor.