1812  Borges and Streetcorner man

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 12:00:35 -0300
From: Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001@YAHOO.COM.AR>
Subject: Borges and Streetcorner man

Dear friends from Tango List

The argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges had an ellusive link with tango music and dance .Tango music is not a main subject throughout his works. However he do have several references to "guapos" and knifes .

Guapo could be translated roughly as chieftain ,a person that was respected at the local community due to his skill to use the knife, and also his strong character..

Borges lived his first years in Europe, and came to Argentina-Buenos Aires- at the beginning of the XX century.He had an european culture, but also an increasingly attraction for local culture at Buenos Aires and the suburbs, being their familys ancestors Borges, related to the army and fights with the first nations people that lived there .There is a Cnl Borges who died at the Battle of Junin, that is mentioned in his writings.

It is not sure wether he visited dancing places , some biographers said he have some "excursions" with friends , to the outskirt dancing places, where he could met guapos ,and maybe , watch some quarrel with knives.

He was increasingly affected by blindness, a problem that his father also had. This subject of blindness is also used by Borges in his writings , he wrote " I celebrate the supreme irony of God, that gave me the gift of books and blindness altogether" .

Also he was blind when he was appointed Director of the National Library. Imagine the irony of a blind man , walking across shelves and shelves full of books... , he said in another poem " Slowly into the shadow / the hollow twilight I explore / with the unstable cane / I , who imagine the paradise / under the species of a library"

Streetcorner man was the translation given to this shorstory "El hombre de la esquina rosada"(1933) , included into the book " A universal story of infamy" . There is a vivid description of a dancing place at the outskirts of Buenos Aires , where the local chieftain/guapo, Rosendo , keeps an eye over everybody inside the place . There is a woman also , "la Lujanera" , the best woman /dancer of the place , that is Rosendo4s lover, therefore , untouchable.

Another chieftaing arrives to the scene and asks Rosendo to fight with knives. Rosendo does not acept the challenge , and leaves the place , covered with shame due to this cowardly reaction, to disappear into oblivion . The guapo/chieftain that is now the center ot attention, takes the woman "la lujanera" former lover of Rosendo, and dances , leaving altogether afterwards the room, to go outside .

After a while this man enters again badly wounded by a knife , and dies over the floor after an agony. The police is heard coming to the scene , and the attendants throw the body of the dead man to a nearby water stream to clean the place.

There is an unexpected ending, which I leave to you my friends to read :):)

How this shortstory came to the hands of Piazzolla, and how he decided to do this masterpiece record , is out of my knowledge . In short, there could be an explanation, but I dont know it .

The fact is Piazzolla made something very special , met Borges , talked about the project , asked Borges to write the lyrics of some of the milongas, and make the music .

The milongas that Borges wrote are not the milongas danced actually at the ballrooms , but the "milongas camperas" , "milongas sureqas" , that have a different format . The music has a repeated pattern , lyrics/scripts are different in each case .

It is the kind of music that the "payadores" , bards , used to sing at the gathering places of peasants and people. Gardel and Razzano started doing this kind of music , Gardel was "el morocho" bard and Razzano " el oriental" bard , later they introduce tangos singing in duet of guitars , and later Gardel started alone when Razzano have problems with his voice. Oopps ... sorry for this detour, let s go back to Streetcorner man :

So, this project of Piazzolla "Streetcorner man " is unique in his type, cirscunstances , and also is a kind of mixture between tango music, folklore music,an argentine writer as Borges, a tango singer as Edmundo Rivero, and several musicians, friends of Piazzolla, out of them , one has to be mentioned, De Filippo, who was bandoneonist of Piazzola at their orchestra 1946-1948 ,and was convinced by Piazzolla to start studying oboe at the Colon Theatre . Piazzolla and De Filippo were close friends, so this oboe playing at StreetCorner man is part of a general atmosphere of friendship and emotion .

The recording was made at El Viejo Almacen , during a live performance, with the presence of Borges who was deeply moved after the event., Fortunately there is a film about this night , that sometimes is shown at special tango programs, or programs about Borges.

Piazzolla is always "being discovered" , it seems his music is increasingly taken into account , fortunately.

Now there is another composition he made in the 804s, Citi Tango , included into a Libertango CD . People do not know is from Piazzolla, it was included in a TV series in Buenos Aires , "Los simuladores/The fakers " , that have had a huge success of audience this year 2003.

Warm regards
Alberto Gesualdi
Buenos Aires




Usuario: yahoo; contraseqa: yahoo
Desde Buenos Aires: 4004-1010
Mas ciudades: clic aqum.