Without the shadow of a doubt, Astor Piazzolla is the single most important figure in the history of the tango! Piazzolla incorporated elements from jazz and classical music into the traditional tango, and introduced new forms of harmonic and melodic structure into the tango ensemble. And that included the integration of novel instruments, such as the saxophone and electric guitar. This ingenious fusion of the tango with a wide range of recognizable Western musical elements—including counterpoint and passacaglia techniques—not only produced a new and unique musical style that transcended all earlier expressions, it also significantly contributed to the continued evolution of this art form.
For his 9th birthday, his father gave him a bandoneon and Astor started to take lessons. Eventually he studied with Hungarian pianist Bela Wilda, a student of Rachmaninoff, who taught him to play Bach on his bandoneon. Piazzolla composed his first tango and he met Carlos Gardel, who invited him on his tour to South America.
His father decided that he was not yet old enough to go along, and forbid him to join the tour. The initial disappointment proved fortunate, as Gardel and his entire orchestra perished in a plane crash in Tensions mounted between Piazzolla and Troilo, who feared that the advanced musical ideas of the young bandoneonist might undermine the style of his orchestra and make it less appealing to dancers of tango. He furthered his musical studies with the conductor Hermann Scherchen, and in entered his composition Buenos Aires into the Fabien Sevitzky competition.
The work elicited strong reactions as it featured the inclusion of two bandoneons into the symphonic orchestra. However, it also won him a scholarship from the French government to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Boulanger strongly encouraged Piazzolla not to ignore tango, but to infuse the traditional form with his jazz and classical training. Tango purists were not amused, and eventually forced him into exile in New York City where Piazzolla further experimented with a fusion of jazz and tango.
Once he returned to Buenos Aires in , Piazzolla refined and experiment heavily with all aspects of tango. A series of recordings that would span a period of five years included the famous Libertango , and in the album Oblivion.
Extensively traveling the world, and at the height of his international fame, Piazzolla underwent quadruple bypass surgery in He sufficiently recovered to go on tour in , but a severe stroke left him in a coma and he died two years later on 4 July Close Menu Home.
Library catalog. Guitar scores and methods. Selected Classical Sheet Music. So he decided to be active within the domain of classical music and left tango. Astor Piazzolla has left an extraordinary treasure of music : instrumental tangos, tango songs, film music, pieces for guitar or flute, chamber and orchestral music.
Historia del Tango Vol. Recorded and released in by Polydor-Argentina. Even though Piazzolla was working with the quintet by then, these recordings feature Piazzolla with a string orchestra recreating many of the traditional tangos he played 20 years earlier now with a better sound quality. The musicians credits are from the original LPs thanks Mitsumasa. Sus declaraciones sonaban a reto. Y finalmente Piazzolla se fue volcando por el tango.
Nutrido de un potencial que ya se plasma en los tangos, Astor forma el Octeto Buenos Aires. See the Plaque Installation, Piazzolla's Childhood home and first-time world meeting of Piazzolla fans. Astor Piazzolla An Argentine who spent most of his early years in New York before returning to Buenos Aires, Astor Piazzolla is recognized the world over as the modern Maestro of the tango, a position which did not come without its share of controversy in his native country.
As his pieces grew increasingly more complex, he turned to classical music, and in , he was granted a scholarship to study music in Paris under the legendary Nadia Boulanger. There, he realized that his destiny was not to abandon tango, but to infuse it with classical and jazz influences. During the latter half of his career he virtually resurrected and reinvigorated the tango, creating a series of emotionally complex works, experimental tango operas, and song cycles that looked back to the mythic Buenos Aires of his literary favorite, Jorge Luis Borges.
Although much of his work was at first quite controversial in Argentina, today the music of Piazzolla has a world-wide following, and has attracted the attention and support of such artists as Gidon Kremer, the Kronos Quartet, and Yo-Yo Ma. The telephone rings non-stop in his house in Midden-Beemster, Holland. Congratulations and faxes are pouring in and thousands of Dutch people has already tried to find full details of his group Sexteto Canyengue on his web site following his performance in the New Church.
His house is packed with flowers and until deep into the night he and his wife Thirza, who is also his manager, sat behind their computer chatting with the tens, no hundreds, of fans that Carel Kraayenhof has gained with this single performance. And that makes Carel and his wife Thirza intensely happy these days, because the tango and the bandoneon are their life. The talk about it with passion. Two driven, passionate people who are obsessed with this music, who sometimes had to make huge offers for it.
But now there is this triumph, following which the tango is suddenly conquering the Netherlands. They remain calm under the new situation - especially because they have been through so much on their way to this top. At least they try to, since a somewhat emotional Carel told me yesterday that the night after the performance he received an email from no other than the legendary Argentinean guitarist Oscar Lopez Ruiz, who for many years worked with Carel's idol the late Astor Piazzolla.
There a few Argentinean bandoneon players who can play this music like you did. What is the secret of the tango for you? I ask him. Carel says without hesitation: "The tango is the soul of an entire people. In the tango beats the heart of a country. The tango links everyone, from high to low, with each other.
The tangos' lyrics are very philosophical and it is remarkable that intelligence and folk music are combined in such a special way, which is rare. The music in universal. Carel says: "I found it very special that during busy schedule of her introduction tour through Holland she took the time and effort to visit me and my wife at home to discuss the music I would be playing at her wedding.
It is music that surrounds you from cradle to grave in Argentina and includes Maxima. They were spontaneous, it touched her soul. The Sunday Times praised Kraayenhof's performance and other called it a highlight of the service.
Kraayenhof was impressed by Maxima's personality as she spoke long and passionately with him and his wife about the tango, her fatherland and her feelings about Holland.
Since he played in New Church almost everyone in Holland knows Carel Kraayenhof's name and certainly so if you say he was the man on the bandoneon. He has worked hard for today's success, as illustrated by the fact that some seventeen years ago he played on the streets to pay for his philosophy studies.
A study, however, he abandoned shortly after. He was a poor but already music obsessed student. You can make wonderful music on it! He loved those melancholy sounds that touch you to the core. However, an Argentinean friend I had met in Amsterdam offered to bring back a bandoneon from Buenos Aires.
They are not on sale here. I really taught myself to play the year old instrument he brought me. That was hard but always great fun. At one time when I played outside the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam I was sent away by the police because I made too much noise. I have never understood that," he says with a smile. In tango he could combine his love for philosophy and music in a very special way. That was in Shortly afterwards the most important man in tango was to enter Carel's life: the late Astor Piazzolla.
She phoned me one day and said: could you please come to Piazzolla's hotel? The bandoneon he is supposed to play this evening is faulty. Luis thought he might be able to save that evening's concert by Piazzolla by lending him his instrument. Carel says: "In his hotel room I was introduced to Piazzolla. He looked at my instrument and asked me in a very friendly way to play something on it.
No, I wasn't really nervous at that time. I never have that with Argentineans, who always put me at ease.
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