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
Garua
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Tu ronca maldición maleva
Tu lagrima de ron me lleva
Hacia el hondo bajo fondo
Donde el barro se subleva
Ya se, no me digas tenes razón
La vida es una herida absurda
Y es todo, todo tan fugaz
Mi confesión.
Contame tu condena
Decime tu fracaso
No ves la pena que me ha herido?
Y háblame simplemente
De aquel amor ausente
Tras un retazo del olvido
Ya se que me hace daño
Yo se que te lastimo
Llorando mi sermón de vino
Pero es el viejo amor
Que tiembla, bandoneón
Y busca en el licor que aturda
La curda que al final
Termine la función
Corriendole un telón
Al corazón.
Un poco de recuerdo y sinsabor
Gotea tu rezongo lerdo
Marea tu licor y arrea
La tropilla de la zurda
Al volcar la ultima curda.
Cerrame el ventanal, que arrastra el sol
Su lento caracol de sueño
No ves que vengo de un pais
Que esta de olvido siempre gris
Tras el alcohol.
Contame tu condena
Decime tu fracaso
No ves la pena que me ha herido?
Y háblame simplemente
De aquel amor ausente
Tras un retazo del olvido
Ya se que me hace daño
Yo se que te lastimo
Llorando mi sermón de vino
Pero es el viejo amor
Que tiembla, bandoneón
Y busca en el licor que aturda
La curda que al final
Termine la función
Corriendole un telón
Al corazón.
The first verse of "La Última Curda" speaks directly to the bandoneón, a type of accordion and a key instrument in tango music. The singer addresses the bandoneón as if it were a person, lamenting its malevolent curse and the tears it brings forth. The bandoneón serves as a metaphor for the singer's own pain and the path it leads him down, into the depths of a murky underworld. The singer acknowledges that life is absurd and fleeting, and that he has turned to alcohol as a temporary escape from its wounds. This is his confession, a recognition that his pain is self-inflicted and that the only solace he can find is in drunkenness.
In the second verse, the singer calls on the bandoneón to join him in sharing their respective stories of failure and heartbreak. He pleads with the instrument to understand the pain it has caused him, lamenting the absence of a lost love and the insufficiency of memories. He recognizes that his own sobbing and drinking is hurting both himself and the bandoneón, but cannot help himself, as his old love still trembles in his heart. The final verse speaks to the inevitability of the end, the "last curda" (drunken binge) that will bring closure to their shared anguish. The singer asks the bandoneón to close the window and bring darkness, symbolizing the end of their emotional journey together.
Line by Line Meaning
Lastima bandoneón, mi corazón
The bandoneón hurts my heart
Tu ronca maldición maleva
Your harsh curse of evil
Tu lagrima de ron me lleva
Your tear of rum takes me
Hacia el hondo bajo fondo
Toward the deep underworld
Donde el barro se subleva
Where the mud rebels
Ya se, no me digas tenes razón
I know, don't tell me you're right
La vida es una herida absurda
Life is an absurd wound
Y es todo, todo tan fugaz
And everything, everything is so fleeting
Que es una curda, nada mas
That it's just a hangover, nothing more
Mi confesión.
My confession.
Contame tu condena
Tell me your sentence
Decime tu fracaso
Tell me your failure
No ves la pena que me ha herido?
Don't you see the pain that has hurt me?
Y háblame simplemente
And simply talk to me
De aquel amor ausente
Of that absent love
Tras un retazo del olvido
After a scrap of forgetfulness
Ya se que me hace daño
I know that it hurts me
Yo se que te lastimo
I know I hurt you
Llorando mi sermón de vino
Crying my wine sermon
Pero es el viejo amor
But it is the old love
Que tiembla, bandoneón
That trembles, bandoneón
Y busca en el licor que aturda
And searches in the numbing liquor
La curda que al final
The hangover that in the end
Termine la función
Ends the show
Corriendole un telón
Pulling down a curtain
Al corazón.
Over the heart.
Un poco de recuerdo y sinsabor
A bit of memory and bitterness
Gotea tu rezongo lerdo
Your slow grumbling drips
Marea tu licor y arrea
Your liquor swells and drives
La tropilla de la zurda
The left-handed herd
Al volcar la ultima curda.
When you spill the last drink.
Cerrame el ventanal, que arrastra el sol
Close the window that drags the sun
Su lento caracol de sueño
Its slow snail of sleep
No ves que vengo de un pais
Don't you see that I come from a country
Que esta de olvido siempre gris
That is always gray with forgetfulness
Tras el alcohol.
After the alcohol.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ANIBAL CARMELO TROILO, OVIDIO CATULO GONZALEZ CASTILLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@aagrayeb
Desde México, emocionado a las lágrimas por esta obra de arte. Ese par de duetos Troilo-Cadícamo y Goyeneche-Piazzola son el summum del tango.
@inkonkhazzi
siento la garua traspasar mis huesos llenos de recuerdos por mi viejo querido que no esta a mi lado, y con el que escuchábamos juntos al polaco, yo era un muchacho y ahora soy abuelo, en ese pasado no entendía a mi viejo que llegaba a llorar escuchando sus letras, y ahora en este minuto me sorprende una lagrima rodando por mi cara y mi corazón lleno de recuerdos en esta fria noche de invierno...gracias polaco...aun estoy vivo
@mariaguadalupemartorell6074
Que interpretación maestro!!! Te atraviesa el alma!!!
@gerosod52
El gran poeta E Cadicamo, esta voz del maestro del parafraseo Roberto Goyeneche y esta orquesta, para que más.
@clicksaqui6545
Alguien por favor prohiba esto. Más de alguno puede morir escuchando estos dos seres humanos que le dan otra dimensión a la existencia.
@leandrollorente5139
Los dos mas grandes ! Fuera de molde , nada se les asemeja ! GRACIAS DIOS !!!!!
@departamentourbano5233
que lujo, mamita querida!!! se te caen las lágrimas
@luisbasbus9239
que lujo me pongo de pie para aplaudir gracias polaco por tanta magia gracias piazzolla por existir
@franciscodiaz9839
Pura poesía ,y dos genios que mi Argentina hermosa a dado
@susanafernandez4866
Dos maestros!!!