Arranging Piazzolla for Guitar
What the work taught me about harmony, rhythm, and why most renditions miss the point
For some time now I have been arranging Piazzolla for solo guitar, working on versions for both my classical and my electric instruments.
Alongside the writing, I have had the chance to attend a few ensemble performances of his music.
What struck me, both in those performances and in the renditions you find online and in many published arrangements, is that they do not sound very much like Piazzolla.
They have their Piazzolla moments, but for the most part they do little more than replicate the ‘thumping’ that has become associated with this music.
It was the act of arranging that made the reason clear.
The embellishments you typically see do little more than cover up shortcomings in the harmonic interpretation of the pieces.
A composition either works or it does not.
A well composed and arranged piece does not need these embellishments, which, lacking harmonic interest, become gimmicky — like the noises made by slapping the piano or bandoneon, or by a violinist scraping the strings on the far side of the bridge.
The same problem shows up on the guitar.
An arrangement that follows the melody but fails to understand the harmony — the type of chord that gives the music its Piazzolla-esque feel — forces the player into virtuosic speeds and thumping of various sorts to mask the lack of harmonic interest.
There is nothing wrong with changes in dynamics — varying the speed, loudness, and rhythm to sustain interest.
But the harmony needs to be there to provide the meat for the garnishes.
Otherwise it is all fluff and vaporware: the instruments huff and puff, but there is no bang for buck.
This failure to understand harmony as the bedrock that holds everything together, underneath the melodic movement and the embellishments, is what drives the idea that it is rhythm that defines this or that music.
It convinces people that if there is banging and scraping of some sort, then this must be great music.
Rhythm, or time, defines the organisation of the notes in a bar and provides a certain pulse.
But all that means is that there is a logical requirement for the music to be organised in one way or another — two, three, or four beats to a bar.
Beyond that, the music invites an interpretation that is more or less rhythmic, and that emphasises some beats over others.
Other than the logical requirement that notes are organised in temporal space for there to be a melody at all, rhythm is largely an interpretive choice.
What has happened instead is that the extreme harmonic simplification of modern music — the near-total reliance on major, minor, and diminished triads — is an impoverishment that then has to be pumped up with a backbeat, volume, and mastering gimmickry.
Tango is essentially an exploration of a space of harmonic and melodic ideas that overlaps with other jazz-based genres.
There is good evidence that during tango’s development in the early 1900s, composers like Juan Carlos Cobián were influenced by classical music and jazz, and this is clearest in the tango romanza compositions of Cobián, Delfino, de Caro, Troilo, and others.
Piazzolla can be heard as continuing this dialogue with jazz and classical music, composing longer pieces that employ harmonic and melodic ideas traceable all the way back to romantic composers like Frederick Chopin.
Jobim is another example: for all the association of bossa nova with a rhythm, his compositions are really defined by a concept of harmonic and melodic movement that also traces back to Chopin.
For the informed listener and musician, getting real musical satisfaction — real bang for buck — means hearing beyond the gimmicks and the garnishes to the meat, or the lack of it, of what makes the music work.
And that, in turn, requires harmonic understanding among players, arrangers, and listeners alike.
I publish solo guitar arrangements and studies with full harmonic analysis — standard notation, TAB, chord symbols, and Roman numeral analysis. Browse the product catalogue on my online shop. If you’ve found this useful, you can also buy me a coffee or become a paid subscriber. You can also follow me on Facebook.