Osvaldo Pugliese

Osvaldo Pugliese (approx. 1979)

Osvaldo Pedro Pugliese (born December 2, 1905 in Villa Crespo , Buenos Aires ; † July 25, 1995 there ) was an Argentine musician who, as a pianist, arranger, band leader and composer, shaped and developed Tango Argentino considerably in the 20th century.

Life

Pugliese's father was a shoemaker and in his spare time played in various tango quartets as a flautist and gave Osvaldo his first violin lessons. His two older brothers also played the violin. Pugliese only went to school up to fourth grade. At his request, he preferred to go to work to support the family and started an apprenticeship in a printing company. He gave the saved money to his family. After a while he was surprised to find a piano in his room: his father wanted him to learn to play the piano now, there were already too many violin players in the family. This is how young Osvaldo discovered the piano , to which he remained faithful until his death.

At first he played with two friends as a trio in various bars and began to compose , which he continued to perfect over the course of his life. In 1924 he also played with the first female bandoneonist , Fransisca "Paquita" Bernardo.

In 1926 he was a brief pianist in Roberto Firpo's orchestra , and in the same year he joined the Pedro Maffias sextet until 1929. That year, Pugliese and the violin virtuoso Elvino Vardaro founded a sextet that became famous among tango musicians for the quality of its interpretation and its avant-garde standards. After two failed attempts, Pugliese and Vardaro had to give up this experiment for financial reasons. Not a single piece was recorded.

During his apprenticeship years, Pugliese played with well-known musicians, such as Aníbal Troilo , and composed many tangos that became known far beyond Argentina, such as “Recuerdo” with a text by the poet Eduardo Moreno. He founded his own orchestra, the Orquesta Osvaldo Pugliese, and stood out for its strong emphasis on (step) rhythm. By introducing syncopation and counterpoint , he anticipated the emerging avant-garde early on . These characteristic elements were then also adopted by Horacio Salgán and Ástor Piazzolla . A good example of this is the title “La yumba” , which has no verbal meaning but is onomatopoeic .

Monument to Osvaldo Pugliese ( Villa Crespo , Buenos Aires, 2005)

From 1939 to 1968, with a few changes in the line-up, Pugliese led his famous orchestra. The first musicians were: Osvaldo Pugliese (piano and director), Julio Carrasco (1st violin), Antonio Puleio (2nd violin), Enrique Camerano (3rd violin), Enrique Alessio (1st bandoneón), Osvaldo Ruggiero (2nd violin). Bandoneón), Aniceto Rossi (1st double bass) and Augusto Ganthier (2nd double bass). The first records were recorded by Odeon in 1943 with the tangos Farol and El rodeo .

In Argentina, pieces by Pugliese are often played later in the evening, when the dancers want to dance a bit more powerful, expressionistic and sensual - in terms of dancing, however, the rhythmic peculiarities are a bit more challenging than the average music of the classical period.

Because of his communist sentiments, Puglieses pieces were not played on the radio in Argentina for years, but this did not affect their popularity. He was jailed several times over the course of his life because of his political views. During these absences his orchestra performed nonetheless and demonstratively put a red carnation on the orphaned piano - as a silent protest that was unmistakable for everyone present.

Web links

• Biography with audio samples ( English )
• Short biography with audio samples of two central works: Recuerdo and La yumba