A Short Video for you! Astor Piazzola, Tango and Milonga!
We all love tango! We love Astor Piazzola's Tango Nuevo as much!
Who was Astor Piazzola?
Astor Piazzola (1921-1992) broadened tango horizons by creating in the mid fifties "tango nuevo". It is tango that keeps the substance and beauty of the traditional tango that is enriched by the elements of jazz and classical music, rich harmonies and counterpoint. He was both, loved and hated for it! He was the most ardent ambassador for an instrument called BANDONEON, a small version of accordion, that came to Argentina with immigrants from Germany, and became "Argentian" as Argentina passionately fell in love with it.
Learn Astor Piazzola's life story and history of tango in this short dynamic informative video!
Enjoy Astor Piazzola's 'tango nuevo" written in 1972 and called Libertango. Tine Helseth, extraordinary trumpetist from Finland, will present first Libertango.
Arrangement for piano (4 hands) and improvization on Libertango is performed by Khatia and Gwantsa Buniatoshvili. I hope you will enjoy!
Where tango comes from, what is tango about? Tango and milonga, that preceded tango, fascinate me as they reflect the beauty of multicultural colorit of Argentina. Tango and milonga originated on the banks of a river La Plata that creates a natural border between Uruguay and Argentina. Right there young locals and immigrants would meet to dance from late 1700's. As Argentina has been a destination for immigrants (Argentina has more immigrants per capita than America), dances from all around the world would be danced at the La Plata banks. From waltzes, polkas, mazurkas to African candombe to Spanish habanera.. All of these dances gave birth to MILONGA (1870's), the precursor of tango that formed about i1880's. First tango dancing halls were built in Montevideo and Buenos Aires in 1902, tango came to Europe and New York City at the beginning of 1900's. And the rest is history, we LOVE tango! Enjoy the videos below featuring tango and milonga. Both dances are similar, only milonga is intended to be humorous, more relaxed and may be twice as fast as tango. ENJOY!
Tango!
TERMS AND NAMES mentioned in the video:
Astor Piazzola 1921-1992, Argentinian composer of classical music and close to one thousand pieces of tango; traditional as well as "tango nuevo" that he introduced in 1950's.
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983), the most important Argentinian composer of XX. century. His music has many Argentinian elements, I enjoy his Danzas Argentinas for piano. Astor Piazzola studies with him from 1941.
Arthur Rubinstein (1887 -1982.) Polish born notable extraordinary piano virtuoso who recommended to Astor Pizzola to study with Alberto Ginastera.
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), French, one of the best known classical music teacher. Trained at Paris Conservatoire, she was a teacher, of high demand, taught Aaron Copland, Phillip Glass, Sir Gardiner, Milhaus, Virgil Thomas, and many others. She was also the first woman to conduct e.g. New York Philharmonics and Boston Symphony, while she lived in USA during WWII.
Bandoneon: a small version of accordion, invented in 1850's by Heinrich Band, Germany, and brought to Argentina in 1870's. Thousands of bandoneons were shipped to Argentina and bandoneon became Argentinian "national" instruments, even though it was never produced there!
Candombe is an African dance that came to Argentina with slaves. Slaves were shipped to Argentina from the second half of 16. century to its abolishment in mid 1800's. Most slaves came to Argentina from Angola, Mozambique and Congo. Slaves brought with them beautiful culture, dance candombe is one example. It is a dynamic, fascinating dance that is accompanied by distiguished dynamic drumming.