Horacio Ferrer

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Horacio Ferrer (right) with Astor Piazzolla (around 1970)

Horacio Ferrer (born June 2, 1933 in Montevideo , Uruguay , † December 21, 2014 in Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was a Uruguayan poet, lyricist, reciter, librettist , journalist, writer and tango historian. A long collaboration with “Tango King” Astor Piazzolla and an extensive work made him one of the most important figures in tango in the second half of the twentieth century.

Life

Horacio Ferrer at an event

Horacio Ferrer came from an artistically interested, middle-class family from Montevideo. As a child he wrote poems, puppet pieces and milongas , which he often performed and sang himself. Visits to an uncle living in Buenos Aires sparked his interest in tango. The first texts for tango were written at the beginning of the 1950s, but this did not make him known. While studying architecture, he began radio broadcasts that performed tangos, which also contained his lyrics, with the title “Seleccion de Tangos” . In 1955 he met Astor Piazzolla, the greatest tango composer of the twentieth century, with whom he had a long-term collaboration and a deep friendship. The collaboration between the two lasted until 1973.

For seven years he worked as editor-in-chief, at times director and even illustrator for the tango magazine "Tanqueando" . He added a second degree between 1956 and 1959 to his now extensive work and his standard studies; He officially studied bandoneon at the conservatory , but later dropped out of architecture. In 1960 he also published his first book of his own. Since 1967 he and his tangos have been a frequent guest on radio and television, especially in Uruguay and Argentina . He also worked briefly as a regular journalist for the morning newspaper "El Dia" . Often he recites his own poems with or without music at events.

The real, final breakthrough came in 1967 with the setting of a number of his poems under the title "Romancero Canuyengue" in Argentina, which made him known throughout the country, mainly because the well-known guitarist Agustín Carlevaro played the guitar.

In the mid-1980s, he had also acquired Argentine citizenship. Buenos Aires remained his adopted home until his death. Until his death he was President of the National Tango Academy in Buenos Aires (Academica Nacional del Tango), which he founded in 1990.

On December 21, 2014, Horacio Ferrer died of a heart condition in a hospital in Buenos Aires at the age of 81.

Maria de Buenos Aires

Probably the most famous work - also worldwide - in which Ferrer was involved, was the only opera that Piazzolla had written and which was performed in 1968: María de Buenos Aires , a work that was performed 100 times in Argentina, and which enjoyed great success was recorded on sound carriers. Ferrer himself played the role of "El Duende" in the play . The opera comprises 16 pictures. Ferrer wrote the entire libretto .

Since that success, Ferrer has been a well known and famous artist in Uruguay and Argentina and some parts of Latin America.

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Books (selection)

  • El tango. Su historia y evolucion , 1960 (Tango. Its history and development)
  • El libro del tango. Arte Popular de Buenos Aires , 1976 (The Book of Tango. The Folk Art of Buenos Aires)
  • with Oscar del Priore: Inventario del tango. 1849-1998 , Buenos Aires 1999

Albums (selection)

  • Astor Piazzolla / Horacio Ferrer: María de Buenos Aires, 1968.
  • Horacio Salgany / Horacio Ferrer: Oratorio Carlos Gardel para Orquestra Sinfonia, coro mixto, solistas y recistas, 1992.

Well-known tangos that contain texts by Ferrer (selection)

  • Canción de las venusinas
  • La bicicleta blanca
  • Fábula para Gardel
  • El gordo sad
  • Chiquilín de Bachín

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Web links

Commons : Horacio Ferrer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Murió Horacio Ferrer a los 81 años
  2. Tango poet Horacio Ferrer died in Buenos Aires ( Memento from December 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )