Piazzolla - L'Histoire du Tango
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Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla
(March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentinian tango composer
and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional
tango into a new style termed, 'Nuevo Tango', characterized
by extreme chromaticism, dissonance, incorporating elements from jazz
and classical music, and expanded instrumentation. Though he was initially
condemned by the traditionalists (he first gained acceptance outside
of his native country in France and the U.S.), he is now widely considered
the most important tango composer of the latter half of the twentieth
century, and the saviour of the form, which had seen a decline in popularity
in the 50s and 60s. A formidable bandoneonist, he continuously performed
his own compositions with different ensembles. He is known in his native
land as "El Gran Ástor" ("The Great Astor").
Not scored for the standard tango band configuration, L'histoire
was instead written for flute and guitar as a series of four titled
movements chronicling, as its name suggests, the evolution of the
Argentine national dance over Piazzolla's lifetime.
L'HISTOIRE DU TANGO FOR FLUTE & GUITAR (ARR. FOR VIOLIN & GUITAR)
1. "Bordel 1900" - Like American jazz, Tango originated
in bordellos and was initially regarded as a low dance. Evolved from
an earlier popular dance called the milonga, which is itself evolved
from the Cuban rhythm known as habañera. Here, the exaggerated
dotted rhythms have a suggestively improper tone.
2. "Café 1930" – Fast forward 30 years and
tango was the favorite dance of all classes in Argentina and was
known worldwide for its audaciousness. This is the traditional tango
style he played with various tango bands in cafés in Buenos
Aires.
3. "Nightclub 1960" - Piazzolla returned to Buenos Aires
after his efforts to fuse Jazz and Tango in the U.S. This movement
is an early version what was to become Tango Nuevo, in which he was
trying to revitalize the now standardized and complacent form.
4. "Concert d'aujourd'hui" – Literally translated
as "Concert of Today", Piazzolla was asserting himself
as a new voice of classical concert music, taking the once lowly
dance form music to a high art form. |
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