September Composer of the Month – Astor Piazzolla

 

This month, we’ll be looking at the life of Astor Piazzolla, one of history’s most renowned tango composers, bandoneon players, and arrangers. Many believe that Piazzolla revolutionized the world of tango, turning it into a brand new style, which was coined nuevo tango. His new style of tango incorporated several elements of jazz and classical music. Beyond that, he was a bandoneon virtuoso who regularly performed with several ensembles during his lifetime and wrote a number of timeless compositions. 

 

Astor Piazzolla’s Personal Life

Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1921 before his family moved to Greenwich Village in New York City in 1925. 

When he was at home, he would spend a fair amount of time listening to his father’s tango records, specifically records from Julio de Caro and Carlos Gardel. From an early age, he had exposure to jazz and classical music, including the music of Bach. After his father bought him a bandoneon that he spotted in a pawn shop in 1929, Piazzolla began a lifelong journey to master the instrument. 

By 1936, after moving and returning to live with his family in Mar del Plata, he started playing in several tango orchestras. It was around this time that he learned of Elvino Vardaro, whose sextet music had a great impression on Piazzolla. Many years later, Vardaro would become a violinist in Piazzolla’s string orchestra. 

When he was only 17, he moved to Buenos Aires and joined Anibal Troilo’s orchestra, who was a renowned bandoneonist of the time. Though his main role was playing the bandoneon in the orchestra, he also began arranging for Troilo, occasionally playing the piano for their performances. 

As Piazzolla got more and more comfortable playing with the orchestra, Troilo began to fear that Piazzolla’s advanced musical styles might undermine his orchestra. Due to rising tensions, Piazzolla eventually left Troilo’s orchestra in 1944 and began playing with Francisco Fiorentino, a tango bandoneonist and singer. He would continue playing with him until 1946, when he started his own orchestra, Orquesta Tipica. It was during this time that he composed his very first original tango, El Desbande. 

After disbanding the orchestra in 1950, he composed a series of works that would slowly help him develop a style unique to other tango composers. He entered one of these classical compositions, “Buenos Aires Symphony In Three Movements,” for a chance to win the Fabian Sevitzky Award in 1953. Though some audience members were offended by the inclusion of bandoneon in a traditional orchestral setting, he won the award and received a grant from the government of France to continue studying in Paris. 

While in Paris, he studied counterpoint and other forms of classical composition, which would later pop up in his tango works. 

After moving back to Argentina in 1955, he worked with a few orchestras. It wasn’t until 1959 that he put together arguably one of his most famous quintets, known as the First Quinteto. One of the last performances he had with this quintet was on the Arthur Murray Show in 1960. 

Throughout his life, he would continue to travel around the world, composing and performing in various countries and sharing his version of tango with the world. He eventually died in Paris on August 4, 1990, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage that left him in a coma. 

 

The Influence of Astor Piazzolla’s Music

Piazzolla was known for pioneering the genre of nuevo tango, which incorporated elements of jazz and classical music. It also made use of counterpoint and extended harmonies, which was quite unique at the time. 

When he composed Adios Nonino in 1959, he solidified his unique structural pattern that would remain in future compositions. He also pioneered a new form of a quintet, which included bandoneon, piano, violin, double bass, and electric guitar. He believed this setup was the most effective in terms of filling the sound sphere with the least amount of people. 

 

Notable Facts

• During his performances in Paris, he began playing the bandoneon standing up with the instrument on his thigh and his foot on a chair. Up until this time, people played the instrument sitting down. 
• Many believe Piazzolla was single-handedly responsible for bringing tango music out of seedy dance clubs and into prestigious concert halls all over the world.