Important Collection of Copyist Manuscripts of Unpublished 1958 Arrangements

An important collection of previously unknown and unpublished works by the Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player who revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed 'nuevo tango', incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. These five sets of arrangements for voice and small band are in the hand of pianist and copyist Carlos Rausch, friend and frequent collaborator of the composer during his time in New York City, 1958-1960, each part signed by Rausch lower right and inscribed "Arranged by Astor Piazzolla for Yolanda Tornell," and with her ownership stamps on various pages.
Over the Rainbow by Arlen & Harburg. Arrangement by Astor Piazzolla for Yolanda Tornell. Autograph copyist manuscript in the hand of Carlos Rausch. Black ink on Passantino Number 12 Stave Medium manuscript paper, with additional markings in red ink and blue pencil. Piano score. 3pp. Lower right cover signed "Carlos Rausch."
Tenderly by Gross-Lawrence. Arranged by Astor Piazzolla for Yolanda Tornell. Autograph copyist manuscript in the hand of Carlos Rausch. Black ink on Passantino Number 12 Stave Medium manuscript paper, with additional markings in red ink and blue pencil. Parts for: Voice (3pp), Piano ("celeste") (4pp), Violin A (2pp + 3 copies in facsimile), Violin B (2pp + 3 copies in facsimile), Viola (3pp + 2 copies in facsimile), Cello (3pp), Clarinet (2pp), Flute (2pp), Oboe (2 pp), Bass (3pp), Drums (3pp). Each copy signed lower right "Carlos Rausch."
I am In Love by Cole Porter. Arranged by Astor Piazzolla for Yolande Tornell. Autograph copyist manuscript in the hand of Carlos Rausch. Black ink on Passantino Number 12 Stave Medium manuscript paper, with additional markings in red ink and blue pencil. Parts for: Voice (3pp), Piano ("celeste") (4pp), Violin A (3pp each, 3 copies including one marked in pencil "Corrected/Corregida"), Violin B ((3pp each, 3 copies), Viola (3pp, 2 copies - one notated "24 de Julio/58 - Michel Leroux), Cello (3pp), Clarinet (2pp, notated "Oscar Pagan / Ciudad Trujillo / Rep. Dominicana / Julio-58"), Flute (3pp), Oboe (3 pp), Bass (3pp, inscribed and signed "...Dominicana / Ciudad...19-8-V8), Drums (3pp). Each copy signed lower right "Carlos Rausch."
Jurame by Maria Grever. Arranged by Astor Piazzolla for Yolanda Tornell. Black ink on Passantino Number 12 Stave Medium manuscript paper, with additional markings in red ink and blue pencil. Parts for: Voice (3pp), Violin A (1p + 3 copies in facsimile), Violin B (1p + 3 copies in facsimile), Viola (1p + 2 copies in facsimile, one notated "24 de Julio/58 - Michel Leroux"), Cello (2pp), Clarinet (2pp, notated "Oscar Pagan / Ciudad Trujillo / Rep. Dominicana / Julio-58"), Flute (2pp), Oboe (2 pp), Bass (2pp, inscribed and signed "La voz Dominicana / C. Trojillo 30-8-58), Drums ("Bongo") (2pp). Each copy signed lower right "Carlos Rausch."
Non Ti Scordar di Me by DeCurtis. Arranged by Astor Piazzolla for Yolanda Tornell. Autograph copyist manuscript in the hand of Carlos Rausch. Black ink on Passantino Number 12 Stave Medium manuscript paper, with additional markings in red ink and blue pencil. Parts for: Voice (3pp), Piano ("celeste") (5pp), Violin A (2pp + 3 copies in facsimile), Violin B (2pp + 3 copies in facsimile), Viola (2pp + 2 copies in facsimile), Cello (3pp), Clarinet (2pp, notated "Oscar Pagan / Ciudad Trujillo / Rep. Dominicana / Julio-58"), Flute (2pp), Oboe (2 pp), Bass (3pp), Drums (2pp). Each copy signed lower right "Carlos Rausch."
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Dating from Piazzolla's time in New York ca. 1958, these works, previously presumed lost or uncompleted, are referenced in Marai Susanna Azzi and Simon Collier's Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla (p. 67): "Piazzolla was still casting around for solid work....An agent found him some arranging work for the singer Yolande Tornell, with a $250 advance and a fee of $2,000 for twenty arrangements. The deal fell apart; Tornell claimed to find the arrangements too complicated, though Piazzolla told Dedé that they were simple enough for [his son] Daniel to sing."
"Between [Piazzolla's] upward rise culminating with the artistic success of his Octeto Buenos Aires, and the turning point marked by “Adios Nonino”, the requiem to his father, who died in late 1959, there were two years of misty uncertainty, spent mainly in New York City, from February 1958 to June 1960....Piazzolla was struggling with the American dream. His recollections of it, bittersweet, hardly come up in the memoirs compiled by with Natalio Gorín. The portrait of Piazzolla's life in New York is somewhat blurry. Beyond the stories of those who knew or worked with him, his name hardly appears among press notices; even though these note some of his performances, he rarely gets a name check.... The great Piazzolla was, in fact, just another anonymous musician among the thousands who made a living in late-1950s New York, a golden age for studio work in the city. Argentinian Carlos Rausch was a pianist and copyist for hire in New York at the time, and he worked with Piazzolla oftentimes." (Fernando Ortiz de Urbina, "Piazzolla in New York (IV): Rausch on Piazzolla, 1958-1960" accessed on http://jazzontherecord.blogspot.com, Saturday, April 20, 2013)
We have found performance records for the singer Yolande Tornell appearing throughout the 1950s in both Florida and New York. She apparently had a short-lived radio program "En Casa de Yolande Tornell" which was a broadcast of informal performances in her living room of "numbers ranging from the classical to the popular in six languages." Some of the present manuscripts also bear notations from various other performers, as well as a few markings evidently giving specific performance locations and dates (as noted above).
Piazzolla was the greatest composer of the tango, which he transformed in the mid twentieth century, combining it with classical and jazz techniques to form the tango nuevo. The characteristic Argentinian instrumental colours, such as the use of the bandoneón, are enriched with "classical" orchestral instruments, counterpoint, chromaticism, novel instrumental forms and elements of jazz, especially jazz fugue. Piazzolla studied with Alberto Ginastera in Buenos Aires and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and collaborated with artists like the Chronos Quartet, Rostropovich and Milva. He is comparable in some respects to Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli and Jacques Loussier, but his contribution to the enrichment of the classical repertory sets him apart. (12577)

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Manuscript Music

Classical Music

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