Astor Piazzolla Sheet Music

A Background Story about the Most Famous Argentinian Composer Astor Piazzolla

Astor Piazzolla was an Argentinian composer who became famous for the "Libertango." He wasn't born in Argentina, though. Piazzolla grew up in Brooklyn. And he was already writing this new kind of music, mixing jazz and tango, while he was still in New York.

He was born in 1921, and he studied with some of the most famous musicians in Argentina. He married in his early 30s, and had a son. In 1957, Piazzolla gave up traditional tango music for one that was influenced by classical music, jazz, and other international styles.

His early music was based on the tango, which is a style of dance and music. After he moved to Paris in 1953, he had an opportunity to hear works by his predecessors, including Mozart, Bach, and Stravinsky.

After being inspired by the works of these composers, he began to create his own music, which was influenced by tango and other styles. He created "Libertango" in 1956, which was his first composition that was based on jazz rather than tango.

It was influenced by Django Reinhardt and used elements of 12-tone serialism. It is also considered to be Astor Piazzolla's most famous composition. After composing this piece, Astor began to experiment with many different styles of music.

He created "Goyescas" in 1957, which was influenced by the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. The plot is based on scenes of bullfighting. The ballet was performed by the Paris Opera Ballet at the Palais Garnier in 1961.

His music was used by choreographer Frederick Ashton for his 1965 ballet "Monotones II". The song "Canción de mi Padre" was composed by Astor Piazzolla for the soundtrack of the film "Tango Argentino".

In the early 1960s, Astor Piazzolla began to create a concert orchestra with an enormous number of percussion instruments. A percussion section of thirty musicians is now common in jazz big bands, some swing bands use a small drum kit or other simple percussion instruments for their percussive elements. His music was featured in the movie "El Topo" and in the soundtrack of "The Godfather".

It was also used in the film "The Tin Drum", as well as in the James Bond film "From Russia with Love". His piece for solo guitar, "Concierto de Aranjuez", is considered by many to be the most famous composition for classical guitar ever written.

A percussion section of thirty musicians is now common in jazz big bands, some swing bands use a small drum kit or other simple percussion instruments for their percussive elements. Two of the most common drum kits used by jazz bands are the kit that was developed by Buddy Rich in the 1950s and 1960s, and today's standard kit, which consists of a snare drum, two toms, a bass drum, two cymbals, and a hi-hat.

"Piazzolla turned his back on the romantic tango and explored forms that were new to the dance — waltzes, marches, fugues, ballades and mazurkas," states a notice in Latin Beat magazine. " A strong sense of the tragic came with him.

He was a great admirer of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and especially of the composer, Duke Ellington." And what a lot of people don't know is that Piazzolla's music was used in the 1986 World Cup and can be heard in the movie "Hoosiers" with Gene Hackman. Piazzolla's music has been used in the following movies: “The Social Network” (2010), “Hoosiers” (1986), “In the Line of Fire” (1993) and more.

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