Categories
20th Century Argentinian

SALGÁN, Horacio

Horacio Salgán performing with the Quinteto Real in 1964.

Born in Buenos Aires, June 15, 1916
Died in Buenos Aires, Aug 19, 2016

  • Salgán was a classically trained pianist, 1 organist, composer and bandleader. He directed a number of tango orchestras starting in 1944. Later in life he also performed as part of the Quinteto Real,2 and collaborated in a duo with guitarist Ubaldo de Lío.3

“I began to compose because I wanted to play tango in a pre-established way. I didn’t want to be a composer but to play tangos the way I liked. The same happened with the orchestra. As I liked to play tangos in my own style, the only possible way was having my own group. Then I put it together. There are people who enjoy being bandleaders but I was interested in my pianistic vocation. I had no intention of creating anything.”

Horacio Salgán 4

“The orchestras led by Salgán in the years 1944 to 1957 widen the traditional form of tango, deal with the rhythmical aspect in depth and add to it a Black touch, creating a new kind of tango trend deeply rooted in its tradition but receptive to Bartók, Ravel, jazz and Brazilian music.” 

Music critic for Le Monde (Paris)5

“Training in Western symphonic music opened up a whole world of harmony, orchestration and pianistic execution. But there’s also a black dimension to my music. It’s not casual, nor flagrant, but part of my origin . . . my style and my truth.”

Salgán6

Biography and more

Sources

  1. Adam Bernstein, “Horacio Salgán, Argentine tango composer and musical pathbreaker, dies at 100,” The Washington Post (August 23, 2016), accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/horacio-salgan-argentine-tango-composer-and-musical-pathbreaker-dies-at-100/2016/08/23/bc075688-688f-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html.
  2. Sonia Ursini, Horacio Salgán: la supervivencia de un artista en el tiempo (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1993), accessed January 16, 2020, http://www.todotango.com/english/artists/biography/1047/Horacio-Salgan/.
  3. Bernstein, “Horacio Salgán, Argentine tango composer and musical pathbreaker, dies at 100,” The Washington Post.
  4. Ursini, Horacio Salgán: la supervivencia de un artista en el tiempo.
  5. Excerts from Sonia Ursini, Horacio Salgán: la supervivencia de un artista en el tiempo (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1993), accessed January 16, 2020, http://www.todotango.com/english/artists/biography/1047/Horacio-Salgan/. 
  6. Quoted in Tango: The Art and History of Love by Robert Farris Thompson (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 197.

Pieces