Creating and re-creating tangos : artistic processes and innovations in music by Pugliese, Salgán, Piazzolla and Beytelmann

Varassi Pega, B. (2014)

Doctoral Thesis

In my dissertation I dig into the constituent elements of River Plate tango in order to decode how specific musical materials were organized and combined by four outstanding musicians: Osvaldo Pugliese, Horacio Salgán, Astor Piazzolla and Gustavo Beytelmann. For this purpose, I have analysed a select number of representative pieces through a study of their scores and recordings. This led to the definition of certain artistic processes and innovations within the genre, theoretical foundations for such processes, and, in all, a deeper understanding of the art of creating tango music, in addition to an overall, chronological view of its development and techniques. The articulation of this (partly) embodied knowledge has resulted in an original contribution to the field, providing new insights with which both I and the greater artistic community can enrich our skills in arranging, composing and performing tango music. The formulation of hypothesis and conclusions, and the translation of the findings into my own production through empiric methods and experimentation were executed alongside the analytical part of the work. The continuous exchange between the practical and theoretical aspects of this research project was fundamental, always strengthening and feeding back each other.

• Tango music
• Pugliese
• Salgán
• Piazzolla
• Beytelmann
• Creation
• Artistic processes
• Innovations

• All authors: Varassi Pega, B.
• Supervisor: Bor, J.; Ruiter, F. de; Rodriguez, E.
• Co-supervisor: Beytelmann, G.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2014-12-11