Astor Piazzolla: Milonga del Angel for violincello and double bass

About the Composition

The Angel Series or Angel Suite is a group of compositions integrated by Introducción al Ángel (Introduction to the Angel), Milonga del Ángel (Dance of the Angel), La Muerte del Ángel (Death of the Angel) and Resurrección del Ángel (Resurrection of the Angel).

Introduction and Death were used in or written for Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz’s play in 1962, “Tango del Ángel.” In the play, the music ambient the history of an angel heals the spirits of the residents of an impoverished neighborhood of Buenos Aires, in which he dies in a knife fight.

The Milonga and Resurrection were composed in 1965, part of the LP “Concierto de Tango en el Philharmonic Hall de New York.” Piazzolla and his Quintet gave a concert in the Philharmonic Hall and played all the list themes in the LP, but this is not a register of the concert. It is a late studio recording for that reason, the title of this LP is a fake.

There is also a piece composed previously, “Tango del Ángel”, that doesn´t belong to the suite and was composed in 1957 and is part of the LP –“TANGO EN HI-FI / ASTOR PIAZZOLLA, su Bandoneón y su Orquesta de Cuerdas”– recorded in 1957.

With this ensemble, he created new pieces, compositions like Three Minutes with the Reality, which is considered as a synthesis between Stravinsky, Bartok, and the style of Tango. Piazzolla include traditional tangos too. This group only recorded three singles of 78 rpm and 2 long plays in RCA studios B.A. After some study in Paris, Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1955 and founded two parallel projects, his Strings Orchestra and the Buenos Aires Octet.

He was attacked for anything he did that was not traditional, including his preference to play the bandoneon standing rather than sitting. One of the tangos he wrote during this pioneering period was Tango del Ángel. This is not part of this suite but perhaps was the reasoning piece Rodríguez Munóz asked Piazzolla to compose the pieces to his play.

Your Purchase Includes

Full score, bass, and cello parts. Solo and Orchestral (Standard) tuning.

Piazzolla, the murderer of tango

Yes, it is true, I am an enemy of tango, but of tango, as they understand it. They still trust in the Compadrito. I do not. They believe in the lantern. I don't.

If everything has changed, the music of Buenos Aires must also change.

There are many of us who want to change tango, but these gentlemen who attack me
do not understand it and will never understand it.

I'm going to keep going, in spite of them''

-Astor Piazzolla