Astor Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango comp… Read Full Bio ↴Astor Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. An excellent bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with different ensembles. He is known in his native land as "El Gran Astor" ("The Great Astor").

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

Volver
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Yo adivino el parpadeo
De las luces que a lo lejos
Van marcando mi retorno

Son las mismas que alumbraron
Con sus palidos reflejos
Hondas horas de dolor

Y aunque no quise el regreso
Siempre se vuelve
Al primer amor

La vieja calle
Donde me cobijo
Tuya es su vida
Tuyo es su querer

Bajo el burlon
Mirar de las estrellas
Que con indiferencia
Hoy me ven volver

Volver
Con la frente marchita
Las nieves del tiempo
Platearon mi sien

Sentir
Que es un soplo la vida
Que veinte anos no es nada
Que febril la mirada
Errante en las sombras
Te busca y te nombra

Vivir
Con el alma aferrada
A un dulce recuerdo
Que lloro otra vez

Tengo miedo del encuentro
Con el pasado que vuelve
A enfrentarse con mi vida

Tengo miedo de las noches
Que pobladas de recuerdos
Encadenen mi sonar

Pero el viajero que huye
Tarde o temprano
Detiene su andar

Y aunque el olvido
Que todo destruye
Haya matado mi vieja ilusion

Guardo escondida
Una esperanza humilde
Que es toda la fortuna
De mi corazon

Volver
Con la frente marchita
Las nieves del tiempo
Platearon mi sien

Sentir
Que es un soplo la vida
Que veinte anos no es nada
Que febril la mirada
Errante en las sombras
Te busca y te nombra

Vivir
Con el alma aferrada

A un dulce recuerdo
Que lloro otra vez

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Volver" by Astor Piazzolla tell the story of a person who is returning to their hometown after a long absence. The singer reflects on their old memories, which are being triggered by the lights in the distance that mark the way back home. The lights bring back painful memories that the singer experienced in the past, but despite not wanting to return, they are drawn back to their first love. The singer feels the weight of time on their forehead as they become acutely aware of how fleeting life can be. They also express fear about encountering their past but realize that they cannot run from their past forever. The song ends on a hopeful note, as the singer clings to the sweet memories they cherish in their heart.

The song's lyrics are written by Alfredo Le Pera and sung by Carlos Gardel. The song has been covered by many artists such as Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel, and Andrea Bocelli. The song is considered one of the most famous tango songs of all time and has been dubbed as the ‘anthem of tango.' "Volver" has also been used in several films, including the Pedro Almodovar film, "Volver."

Line by Line Meaning

Yo adivino el parpadeo
I can anticipate the flicker

De las luces que a lo lejos
Of the distant lights

Van marcando mi retorno
Are marking my return

Son las mismas que alumbraron
They are the same ones that lit up

Con sus pálidos reflejos
With their pale reflections

Hondas horas de dolor
Deep hours of pain

Y aunque no quise el regreso
And even though I didn't want to come back

Siempre se vuelve
One always returns

Al primer amor
To the first love

La vieja calle
The old street

Donde me cobijo
Where I sheltered

Tuya es su vida
Its life is yours

Tuyo es su querer
Its desire is yours

Bajo el burlón
Under the mocking

Mirar de las estrellas
Gaze of the stars

Que con indiferencia
Which with indifference

Hoy me ven volver
Today see me back

Sentir
Feeling

Con la frente marchita
With a wrinkled forehead

Las nieves del tiempo
The snows of time

Platearon mi sien
Silvered my temples

Que es un soplo la vida
That life is just a breath

Que veinte años no es nada
That twenty years is nothing

Que febril la mirada
That the gaze is feverish

Errante en las sombras
Wandering in the shadows

Te busca y te nombra
It seeks you and names you

Vivir
To live

Con el alma aferrada
With the soul clinging

A un dulce recuerdo
To a sweet memory

Que lloro otra vez
That I cry once again

Tengo miedo del encuentro
I am afraid of the encounter

Con el pasado que vuelve
With the past that returns

A enfrentarse con mi vida
To confront my life

Tengo miedo de las noches
I am afraid of the nights

Que pobladas de recuerdos
That are crowded with memories

Encadenen mi sonar
That they chain down my dreaming

Pero el viajero que huye
But the traveler who runs away

Tarde o temprano
Sooner or later

Detiene su andar
Stops in their tracks

Y aunque el olvido
And although forgetting

Que todo destruye
That destroys everything

Haya matado mi vieja ilusión
Has killed my old illusion

Guardo escondida
I keep hidden

Una esperanza humilde
A humble hope

Que es toda la fortuna
That is all of the fortune

De mi corazón
Of my heart

Lyrics © DistroKid, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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