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
Sur
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pompeya y, más alla, la inundación,
tu melena de novia en el recuerdo,
y tu nombre flotando en el adios...
La esquina del herrero barro y pampa,
tu casa, tu vereda y el zanjon
y un perfume de yuyos y de alfalfa
que me llena de nuevo el corazón.
Sur... paredón y después...
Sur... una luz de almacen...
Ya nunca me veras como me vieras,
recostado en la vidriera
y esperandote,
ya nunca alumbrare con las estrellas
nuestra marcha sin querellas
por las noches de Pompeya.
Las calles y las lunas suburbanas
y mi amor en tu ventana
todo ha muerto, ya lo se.
San Juan y Boedo antiguo, cielo perdido,
Pompeya y, al llegar al terraplen,
tus veinte años temblando de cariño
bajo el beso que entonces te robe.
Nostalgia de las cosas que han pasado,
arena que la vida se llevo,
pesadumbre del barrio que ha cambiado
y amargura del sueño que murio.
Sur... paredón y después...
Sur... una luz de almacen...
The lyrics to Astor Piazzolla's "Sur" describe the feeling of nostalgia and loss for a past love and a changing neighborhood. The song begins by describing the specific locations that remind the singer of his former love: San Juan y Boedo antiguo, Pompeya, and the flood beyond. He remembers her bride-esque hair and her name lingering in the goodbye. The house, sidewalk, and ditch where they used to spend time are still there, along with the scent of herbs and alfalfa that fills his heart. However, things have changed and he mourns the loss of his former love and the familiar neighborhood.
The chorus of the song, "Sur... paredón y después... Sur... una luz de almacen..." refers to the singer's acceptance of the reality of their situation. The word "sur" translates to "south" and is used metaphorically to represent the downward spiral of their relationship. The first line of the chorus, "paredón y después," means "wall and then" and could represent the moment when their love ended. The second line, "una luz de almacen," means "a light from a store" and may be a reference to the artificial, unfulfilling aspects of their relationship. The singer knows that things have changed irreversibly and that he and his love will never be the same; they will not have the same carefree nights in Pompeya or moonlit conversations.
Overall, "Sur" is a melancholic reflection on the fleeting nature of love and its attachments to a specific place and time in one's life.
Line by Line Meaning
San Juan y Boedo antiguo y todo el cielo,
San Juan and old Boedo and the whole sky,
Pompeya y, más alla, la inundación,
Pompeii and beyond, the flood,
tu melena de novia en el recuerdo,
your bride's hair in memory,
y tu nombre flotando en el adios...
and your name floating in goodbye...
La esquina del herrero barro y pampa,
The corner of the blacksmith mud and pampas,
tu casa, tu vereda y el zanjon
your house, your sidewalk, and the ditch
y un perfume de yuyos y de alfalfa
and a perfume of weeds and alfalfa
que me llena de nuevo el corazón.
that fills my heart again.
Sur... paredón y después...
South... wall and afterwards...
Sur... una luz de almacen...
South... a store light...
Ya nunca me veras como me vieras,
You'll never see me as you saw me,
recostado en la vidriera
leans on the window
y esperandote,
and waiting for you,
ya nunca alumbrare con las estrellas
I will never shine with the stars
nuestra marcha sin querellas
our march without quarrels
por las noches de Pompeya.
through the nights of Pompeii.
Las calles y las lunas suburbanas
The streets and suburban moons
y mi amor en tu ventana
and my love in your window
todo ha muerto, ya lo se.
everything has died, I know it.
San Juan y Boedo antiguo, cielo perdido,
San Juan and old Boedo, lost sky,
Pompeya y, al llegar al terraplen,
Pompeii and, upon reaching the embankment,
tus veinte años temblando de cariño
your twenty years trembling with affection
bajo el beso que entonces te robe.
under the kiss that I stole from you then.
Nostalgia de las cosas que han pasado,
Nostalgia for the things that have passed,
arena que la vida se llevo,
sand that life took away,
pesadumbre del barrio que ha cambiado
heaviness of the changed neighborhood
y amargura del sueño que murio.
and bitterness of the dream that died.
Sur... paredón y después...
South... wall and afterwards...
Sur... una luz de almacen...
South... a store light...
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MANZIONE HOMERO NICOLAS, ANIBAL CARMELO TROILO, HOMERO NICOLAS MANZIONE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Paulo Junger
Inesquecível! Piazzolla vive!
Dilson Filho
Maravilhoso
Luis Gonzalez
excelente Piazzolla, increíble, insuperable
Myriam Aguirre
Grande maestro !
Pablo Ghiorzo
Allá, a la distancia, lloraba, por no estar a tu lado, el tiempo, me ha dado la alegría de poder volver a estar grande y linda Argentina, donde de muy niño llegue, y donde espero, terminar mis días...
saul guarrido linares
sé muy bien que hay que respetar los gustos de las personas, en especial los gustos asqueroso de la actualidad, pero... hay que ser una mugre para darle un dislike a semejante obra de arte llena de amor
teorema45
Cuánta belleza, cuánta armonía, cuánto sentimiento ! Gracias Señor por habernos dado semejante músico..!! GRACIAS !!
David Colorado
Sublime!
jajraats
💖