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
La Muralla de China
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
De otras noches
Recordar palabras extrañas
De un viejo dicho popular
A semejanza
De otros ritos
Reconstruir tu ruido
A semejanza
De otros cantos
Imaginar estrellas
Alimentar los signos de la noche
A semejanza
De otras lunas
Iluminar tu sueño
Encarcelado detrás de ventana
A semejanza
De otros sueños
Inventar la felicidad
Que construimos
Continuamente
Mismo sin saber
Que cada una
De las murallas
Suponen la siguiente y la anterior
A semejanza de otras noches
A semejanza de otros gritos
A semejanza de otros cantos
A semejanza de otras lunas
A semejanzas de otros sueños
Reconstruir continuamente
Mismo sin saber
Que cada una de sus partes
Supone la siguiente y la anterior
The lyrics to Astor Piazzolla's song "La Muralla de China" suggest a sense of repetition and continuity in life, as well as the interconnectedness of different experiences. The song begins by mentioning strange words from an old popular saying, highlighting the familiarity of these nights compared to others. The lyrics then delve into the reconstruction of various rituals and sounds, such as the noise surrounding the bed resembling a scorpion, the imagining of stars, and the feeding of signs of the night. The following verses describe the illumination of dreams, which feel imprisoned behind a window, and the invention of happiness.
The repeated phrase "a semejanza de" (in resemblance to) throughout the song emphasizes the similarities between different experiences and the continuous rebuilding and reconstruction of these experiences. It suggests that even though each part may seem separate and disconnected, they are all connected, just like each wall of the Great Wall of China supposes the next and the previous one. The lyrics propose that we continuously rebuild our lives, often without knowing that each part is connected to the next and the previous one.
Line by Line Meaning
A semejanza
Similar to
De otras noches
Other nights
Recordar palabras extrañas
Remember strange words
De un viejo dicho popular
From an old popular saying
De otros ritos
Other rituals
Reconstruir tu ruido
Reconstruct your noise
Escorpión alrededor de la cama
Scorpion around the bed
De otros cantos
Other songs
Imaginar estrellas
Imagine stars
Alimentar los signos de la noche
Feed the signs of the night
De otras lunas
Other moons
Iluminar tu sueño
Illuminate your dream
Encarcelado detrás de ventana
Imprisoned behind a window
De otros sueños
Other dreams
Inventar la felicidad
Invent happiness
Que construimos
That we build
Continuamente
Continuously
Mismo sin saber
Without even knowing
Que cada una
That each one
De las murallas
Of the walls
Suponen la siguiente y la anterior
Assume the next one and the previous one
A semejanza de otras noches
Similar to other nights
A semejanza de otros gritos
Similar to other shouts
A semejanza de otros cantos
Similar to other songs
A semejanza de otras lunas
Similar to other moons
A semejanzas de otros sueños
Similar to other dreams
Reconstruir continuamente
Continuously reconstruct
Mismo sin saber
Even without knowing
Que cada una de sus partes
That each one of its parts
Supone la siguiente y la anterior
Assumes the next one and the previous one
Writer(s): Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla, Geraldo Carneiro
Contributed by Caroline O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Luis Ocasan
Está misma canción la pueden encontrar en versión instrumental con el nombre de "Combate en la fábrica", con el mismo Astor Piazzolla, en mi parecer, es mejor versión. Saludos.
Octavio Ramirez
Los inicios del electro tango de hoy, Piazzolla un adelantado a su tiempo, un grande
REPUBLICA DE CHICLE
TANGO ROCK ! ! ! ESTO ES ALUCINANTE