arrabal
Spanish composer
Definition
The suburban outskirts of Buenos Aires — the working-class neighbourhoods where tango originated. The arrabal represents the social world of tango: knife fights, prostitution, immigrants, poverty, and a fierce communal dignity. Piazzolla's early tangos are rooted in this world even as his later music transcends it into concert abstraction.
Interpretive Guidance
Even Piazzolla's most polished concert pieces carry traces of the arrabal. The violence of his accents, the rawness of his counterpoint, the sudden drops into silence — these are not aesthetic decisions alone. They remember where the music came from.