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
L'amour
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
cu chant des instruments qui se brise au plafond
Suspendant ton allure harmonieuse et lente,
Et promenant l'ennui de ton regard profond ;
Quand je contemple, aux feux du gaz qui le colore,
Ton front pâle, embelli par un morbide attrait,
Où les torches du soir allument une aurore,
Je me dis : Qu'elle est belle ! et bizarrement fraîche !
Le souvenir massif, royale et lourde tour,
La couronne, et son coeur, meurtri comme une pêche,
Est mûr, comme son corps, pour le savant amour.
Es-tu le fruit d'automne aux saveurs souveraines ?
Es-tu vase funèbre attendant quelques pleurs,
Parfum qui fait rêver aux oasis lointaines,
Oreiller caressant, ou corbeille de fleurs ?
Je sais qu'il est des yeux, des plus mélancoliques
Qui ne recèlent point de secrets précieux ;
Beaux écrins sans joyaux, médaillons sans reliques,
Plus vides, plus profonds que vous-mêmes, ô Cieux !
Mais ne suffit-il pas que tu sois l'apparence,
Pour réjouir un coeur qui fuit la vérité ?
Qu'importe ta bêtise ou ton indifférence ?
Masque ou décor, salut ! J'adore ta beauté.
In these lyrics, Astor Piazzolla reflects on the complex emotions and perceptions evoked by observing a person he describes as his "dear indolent." He is captivated by the scene of her passing by, accompanied by the sound of instruments that seem to shatter against the ceiling. This imagery suggests a disruption of harmony and an interruption of the usual flow of life.
He describes her slow and graceful movements, which carry the weight of ennui reflected in her deep gaze. Piazzolla then describes her pale forehead, enhanced by the artificial light of a gas lamp. He compares it to an aurora lit up by the evening torches. Her attractive eyes are likened to those of a portrait, drawing his attention and fascination.
Piazzolla acknowledges her beauty, noting its peculiar freshness. He suggests that her memory, depicted as massive and heavy, like a royal crown, is burdened with heartache. Both her heart and her body, he implies, are ripe for experienced love.
He then contemplates her existence, pondering if she is like the autumn fruit with its exquisite taste or a mournful vessel awaiting tears. He questions whether she is a fragrance that conjures dreams of distant oases, a caressing pillow, or a basket of flowers.
Piazzolla acknowledges the presence of melancholic eyes that hold no precious secrets and compares them to empty jewelry boxes, devoid of relics. But he declares that her appearance alone is enough to bring joy to a heart that shies away from truth. Whether she possesses foolishness or indifference, she is seen as a mask or a decoration, and Piazzolla reveres her beauty.
Line by Line Meaning
Quand je te vois passer, ô ma chère indolente,
When I see you pass by, oh my dear indifferent one,
cu chant des instruments qui se brise au plafond
with the sound of instruments breaking against the ceiling
Suspendant ton allure harmonieuse et lente,
Suspending your harmonious and slow pace,
Et promenant l'ennui de ton regard profond ;
And carrying the boredom of your deep gaze;
Quand je contemple, aux feux du gaz qui le colore,
When I contemplate, in the lights of the colored gas,
Ton front pâle, embelli par un morbide attrait,
Your pale forehead, embellished by a morbid allure,
Où les torches du soir allument une aurore,
Where the evening torches ignite a dawn,
Et tes yeux attirants comme ceux d'un portrait,
And your enticing eyes like those in a portrait,
Je me dis : Qu'elle est belle ! et bizarrement fraîche !
I say to myself: How beautiful she is! and oddly fresh!
Le souvenir massif, royale et lourde tour,
The massive, royal and heavy tower of memories,
La couronne, et son coeur, meurtri comme une pêche,
The crown, and her heart, bruised like a peach,
Est mûr, comme son corps, pour le savant amour.
Is ripe, like her body, for skilled love.
Es-tu le fruit d'automne aux saveurs souveraines ?
Are you the autumn fruit with sovereign flavors?
Es-tu vase funèbre attendant quelques pleurs,
Are you a funereal vase waiting for some tears,
Parfum qui fait rêver aux oasis lointaines,
Perfume that makes one dream of distant oases,
Oreiller caressant, ou corbeille de fleurs ?
Caressing pillow, or basket of flowers?
Je sais qu'il est des yeux, des plus mélancoliques
I know that there are eyes, the most melancholic ones,
Qui ne recèlent point de secrets précieux ;
That do not contain any precious secrets;
Beaux écrins sans joyaux, médaillons sans reliques,
Beautiful caskets without jewels, lockets without relics,
Plus vides, plus profonds que vous-mêmes, ô Cieux !
Emptier, deeper than yourselves, oh Heavens!
Mais ne suffit-il pas que tu sois l'apparence,
But isn't it enough that you are the appearance,
Pour réjouir un coeur qui fuit la vérité ?
To delight a heart that flees from the truth?
Qu'importe ta bêtise ou ton indifférence ?
What does it matter your foolishness or your indifference?
Masque ou décor, salut ! J'adore ta beauté.
Mask or decoration, greetings! I adore your beauty.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Wellington Mendes
Espetacular. como sempre é Piazzolla.
Ruben Oliva
Astor logro internacionalizar el tango e innovarlo. Esto le causò el odio de los viejos tangueros. GENIAL ASTOR