EPISODE · May 14, 2026 · 2 MIN
The teacher of Piazzolla
from Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea
Na Sung-in The author is a music critic and director of the classical music brand Poongwoldang. In 1954, Astor Piazzolla met Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Known as the "musician's musician," she offered crucial advice to the Argentine musician, who had yet to find his own path. "Do not turn to classical music. Instead, express your individuality through tango. That is the real Piazzolla." She was telling him to make use of his gift — his ability to move between composition and performance, between tango and classical music. Without that advice, the world of Piazzolla as we remember it might never have existed. In his youth, Piazzolla was in fact ashamed of tango, which was treated as cheap tavern music. Of course, that did not mean tango lacked virtue or charm. Tango was a dance created in Argentina's ports by people living far from home, longing for human warmth. It was a dance that transformed the courage and sorrow of pioneers into a moment of passion. But compared with Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he had encountered as a child? Compared with Frédéric Chopin, as performed by pianist Arthur Rubinstein at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires? Could tango really be called art? His teacher, Boulanger, was firm. She recognized that what mattered more than tradition or hierarchy was the musical experience accumulated within Piazzolla himself. In an interview with Bruno Monsaingeon, she once said, "At every moment of our lives, we are the offspring of ourselves. We cannot return to the past, but we can build the future by relying on it." In Piazzolla's past, Bach and tango existed together. The role of the teacher was to rescue her student from the prejudice that separates the lofty from the lowly, and in doing so, to reconcile the Bach and the tango that lived together within him. This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
What this episode covers
Na Sung-in The author is a music critic and director of the classical music brand Poongwoldang. In 1954, Astor Piazzolla met Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Known as the "musician's musician," she offered crucial advice to the Argentine musician, who had yet to find his own path. "Do not turn to classical music. Instead, express your individuality through tango. That is the real Piazzolla." She was telling him to make use of his gift — his ability to move between composition and performance, between tango and classical music. Without that advice, the world of Piazzolla as we remember it might never have existed. In his youth, Piazzolla was in fact ashamed of tango, which was treated as cheap tavern music. Of course, that did not mean tango lacked virtue or charm. Tango was a dance created in Argentina's ports by people living far from home, longing for human warmth. It was a dance that transformed the courage and sorrow of pioneers into a moment of passion. But compared with Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he had encountered as a child? Compared with Frédéric Chopin, as performed by pianist Arthur Rubinstein at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires? Could tango really be called art? His teacher, Boulanger, was firm. She recognized that what mattered more than tradition or hierarchy was the musical experience accumulated within Piazzolla himself. In an interview with Bruno Monsaingeon, she once said, "At every moment of our lives, we are the offspring of ourselves. We cannot return to the past, but we can build the future by relying on it." In Piazzolla's past, Bach and tango existed together. The role of the teacher was to rescue her student from the prejudice that separates the lofty from the lowly, and in doing so, to reconcile the Bach and the tango that lived together within him. This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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The teacher of Piazzolla
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