Aníbal Troilo

Aníbal Carmelo Troilo (1914–1975) ranks among the central figures of Argentine tango, a bandoneonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader whose ensemble helped define the music of Buenos Aires during its most celebrated decades.^[1] Catalogued in reference works simply as an Argentine tango musician of the early twentieth century, he came to embody the orquesta típica tradition at the moment it reached its widest popular audience.^[2] Where a rival such as Juan d'Arienzo pressed an insistent dance pulse, Troilo balanced danceable momentum against lyrical phrasing, an approach that earned him posthumous description as the "Supreme Bandoneón of Buenos Aires".^[3]

Born on 11 July 1914 in the Abasto district of Buenos Aires, Troilo acquired the nickname Pichuco from his father, who adapted it from the Neapolitan "picciuso", meaning roughly "crybaby".^[4] Drawn to the bandoneon he heard in neighbourhood bars, he talked his mother into buying his first instrument at the age of ten, performed publicly in a bar in 1925, and had assembled his own quintet by fourteen.^[5] His apprenticeship matured quickly: by December 1930 he had joined the sextet led by violinist Elvino Vardaro and pianist Osvaldo Pugliese, before passing through the orchestras of Julio de Caro, Juan d'Arienzo, and others.^[6]

With his own orquesta típica, formed at the close of the 1930s, Troilo became one of the orchestras most favoured by dancers during tango's golden age, conventionally dated from 1935 to 1955.^[7] The rhythmic sides he cut with the singer Francisco Fiorentino between 1941 and 1943 circulated as particular favourites in the salons.^[8] The young Astor Piazzolla, later tango's foremost modernist, performed in and wrote arrangements for the band between 1939 and 1944, a formative association for both musicians.^[9]

As a composer Troilo contributed works that entered the standard repertoire, among them the 1945 tango 'María', set to lyrics by Cátulo Castillo and introduced by the vocalist Alberto Marino; its stature was such that Plácido Domingo later recorded it for a 1981 tango album.^[10] Scholars have examined the orchestra's commissioning practices through the milonga-candombe 'Azabache', described as Piazzolla's earliest arrangement for Troilo: sung by Fiorentino, it reportedly won a radio orchestra contest, yet Troilo never released it commercially, and researchers place the episode around 1942 without fixing an exact date.^[11] His orchestra reached the public on labels such as Music Hall, founded in 1950, and on TK, which issued its reading of Gerardo Matos Rodríguez's 'La Cumparsita'.^[12][13]

Troilo's career also intersected with Argentina's emerging media, for he appeared among the tango musicians featured in 'Los tres berretines' (1933), one of the country's earliest sound films.^[14] The death in 1951 of his close friend, the lyricist Homero Manzi, sent him into a prolonged depression, from which emerged the tango 'Responso'.^[15] His idiom shifted over the following decades: by the late 1950s he had turned toward a concert manner, having performed from 1953 into the mid-1960s in a duo with guitarist Roberto Grela, and in 1968 he established the Aníbal Troilo Quartet.^[16]

Troilo's death on 18 May 1975, after a stroke and cardiac arrest, registered as a national loss, and within weeks the Buenos Aires press recorded that singers such as Edmundo Rivero and Roberto Goyeneche openly mourned him.^[17][18] His commemoration continued long afterward: in 2005 the Argentine Congress designated his birthday, 11 July, as National Bandoneón Day, and a statue in Buenos Aires preserves his public memory.^[19][20]