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 Ultima Curda
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 sé, 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 sé que me hace daño
Yo sé que te lastimó
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
Corriéndole 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 país
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 sé que me hace daño
Yo sé que te lastimó
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
Corriéndole un telón
Al corazón
"La Última Curda" is a tango song that speaks about the emotional struggle of a person who has been hurt by love and seeks solace in alcohol. The bandoneón, which is a traditional instrument used in tango music, is personified and described as having a wicked curse and tears that lead the singer to a dark, underworld filled with rebellion and struggle. The singer acknowledges the absurdity of life and how fleeting it can be before admitting that their only confession is the pursuit of drunkenness.
The singer then pleads with the bandoneón to share its own story of pain and failure. They ask the instrument to speak of the absence of love and the memories of those forgotten. Despite the bandoneón having the power to cause them pain, the singer finds comfort in the familiarity of their old love and the intoxicating effects of alcohol. The song ends with the singer feeling a mix of sorrow and relief, as though the curtain is closing on both their drunkenness and the pain of their heart.
Line by Line Meaning
Lastima bandoneón, mi corazón
Oh, bandoneón, how you sorrow my heart
Tu ronca maldición maleva
Your hoarse, malicious curse
Tu lagrima de ron me lleva
Your tear of rum carries me
Hacia el hondo bajo fondo
Towards the deep underworld
Donde el barro se subleva
Where the mud rebels
Ya sé, 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 más
That it's just a drunken stupor
Mi confesión
My confession
Contame tu condena
Tell me your condemnation
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
Behind a scrap of forgetfulness
Ya sé que me hace daño
I know that it hurts me
Yo sé que te lastimó
I know that it hurt you
Llorando mi sermón de vino
Crying my wine sermon
Pero es el viejo amor
But it's the old love
Que tiembla, bandoneón
That trembles, bandoneón
Y busca en el licor que aturda
And seeks in the numbing liquor
La curda que al final
The drunken stupor that in the end
Termine la función
Ends the show
Corriéndole un telón
Drawing a curtain
Al corazón
On 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
The liquor swells and drives
La tropilla de la zurda
The herd of the left
Al volcar la ultima curda
When spilling the last drunken stupor
Cerrame el ventanal, que arrastra el sol
Close the window, dragging the sun
Su lento caracol de sueño
Its slow spiral of sleep
No ves que vengo de un país
Can't you see that I come from a country
Que esta de olvido siempre gris
That is always gray with forgetfulness
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: OVIDIO CATULO GONZALEZ CASTILLO, ANIBAL CARMELO TROILO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@unabombers
Lastima bandoneón, mi corazón
Tu ronca maldición maleva
Tu lagrima de ron me lleva
Hacia el hondo bajo fondo
Donde el barro se subleva
Ya sé, no me digas tenes razón
La vida es una herida absurda
Y es todo, todo tan fugaz
Que es una curda, nada más
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 sé que me hace daño
Yo sé que te lastimó
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
Corriéndole 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 país
Que esta de olvido, siempre gris, tras el alcohol.
@vicentejeereb7521
Mi abuelo falleció hace unos meses de neumonía, él hace años tenía Alzheimer y ya no nos reconocía, amante del Tango desde siempre y en el hospital cuando ya sabían que le quedaban unas horas mi tío (su hijo) le puso sus temas favoritos para que se relaje y se despida tranquilo, en pleno contexto de pandemia, al llegar esta canción falleció escuchándola en el momento, esta canción me marcó un antes y un después en mí y cada vez que la escucho revivo a mi abuelo
@irmanelida3968
El talento conMAYUSCULA!! TENGO PIEL DE GALLINA!!!
@entretangoymate9938
Fuerte historia. Abrazo.
@enriquepavez2739
Gracias por tu historia. Tu abuelo se fue de gira tras esas noches de bohemia .... un dia la zurda correra nuestro telon al corazon y ojala sea escuchando cosas hermosas
@victoriaabregu330
abrazo
@juancarlosazcarate1956
Muy buen recuerdo, gracias por
compartirlo. Fuerte abrazo.
@jorgerosas
No queda más que aplaudir el sentimiento hecho voz,desgarrada,cansada ... inmortal !desde México 🇲🇽 un abrazo al pueblo argentino 🇦🇷
@rubendariocaro8375
Abrazo grande amigo esto es arte una locura el tango amor y poesía!!!
@CristianSanchez-gy2ry
Desde Chile también un abrazo grande para las naciones unidas y hermanas. Por siempre.
@fernandoraveraaristizabal3316
Hermanos americanos, el tango es su música también, de un argentino porteño, amante de la Patria Grande.