PASCUAL CONTURSI Poet, lyricist, playwright and singer He was the creator of the lyric for tango, and with it he turned tango into the sentimental song of Bs. As. He introduced human topics of universal value into it - sadness, melancholy, love disappointments, ambition, decadence and injustice - even though his specific universe was that of whorehouses, life with pimps and harlots In those first decades of the 20th century, the migratory flood had brought hundreds of thousands of lonesome men who nourished a huge sex market. Contursi, then settled in Montevideo. the capital of Uruguay. He went beyond the shallow and jolly lyrics used in the early tango, set between 1914 and 1915. His new poetic parameters for the genre included the narration of a complete plot displayed in a few verses. Such is the case of "De Vuelta al Bulin", which he wrote in 1914 over the musical notes composed by the pianist Jose Martinez. "Mi Noche Triste," It is a general opinion that this is the first tango canción (tango-song) although in fact it was not. However, because of its deep subject, its daring metaphors, and the perfect match between lyrics and music it had the virtue of heralding anew era for tango, It was also meaningful that Gardel recorded it in 1917 and that one year later it turned into the main attraction in a play. In general, his relation with Gardel was essential to Contursí, so he found the ideal interpreter of his compositions. He was born in Chivilcoy, a country town in the fertile Argentina plains, 170 km west of Buenos Aires, but his family moved to the Capital a few years later, settling in the old humble San Cristobal neighborhood. In his youth he was interested in artistic life. He wrote poems and sang his own tunes while strumming his guitar. Precisely so, he made 'Mi Noche Triste" to be known, singing it for the first time at the cabaret Moulin Rouge in Montevideo. This place was run by Emilio Matos, the father of Gerardo H. Matos Rodriguez who had composed "La Cumparsita" This piece, with an addition made by the pianist Roberto Flrpo, would turn into the most famous of all tangos.
The following years he wrote another lyric naming it its original title, which no one else would alter again. In any case, the Contursi-Moroni's lyric was the most sung, making the one written by Matos, be almost forgotten, although it had to be said that in those soothing verses there is little Contursi. Going back in time, the lyricist handed Carlos Gardel and Jose Razzano the tango "Mi Noche Triste" when they were playing in Montevideo. Gardel sang it at the Urquiza Theatre in the Uruguayan capital, then premiered it in Buenos Aires in the Esmeralda Theatre. But the success was not immediate, as it usually happens with revolutionary works. The true success came when in 1918 it was included in "Los Dientes del Perro." a light play by Jose Gonzalez Castillo and Alberto Weisbach, sung by Manolita Poli, a 19 year-old actress whose parents were zarzuela players. The success of Contursi's tango made him go back to Buenos Aires where he devoted his full attention to playwriting in collaboration with other successful writers of that time. So he gave birth to a series of sainetes and attractive pieces for the public, but they would not last. Within the plots of the plays he included tangos of his own writing. In Paris he had written in 1928 with music by Juan Bautista Deambroggio "Bachicha", one of his most moving tangos - "Bandoneón Arrabalero", which shows, maybe as no one else before, the deep emotional relationship between two forsaken entities, a man and a bandoneon. It is also exceptional "Pobre Paica" which in 1914 he conceived for the music of "El Motivo" by the pianist Juan Carlos Cobian. In it Contursi is moved by the drama of a prostitute abated by age and illness. A philosopher, critic and sarcastic teller in "Champagne Tango" (music by Manuel Arozlegui), "Ivette" (Julio Roca) and "Flor de Fango' (Auguste Gentile) all from 1924, Contursi would not always keep that level. It is maybe worth mentioning, among the rest of his production, the ludicrous "La Mina del Ford," from 1924 (with Fidel del Negro and Antonio Scatasso), but above all "Ventanita de Arrabal" (with Scatasso), which he wrote in 1927 for his sainete "Caferata" (a slang term for a pimp). Contursi traveled to Eumpe in 1927 to settle in Spain, and later France. He would return to Buenos Aires in 1932, a few days before dying in a pathetic comeback with his mental health altered. Gardel was one of those in Paris who assumed the responsibility of bringing him home. © Copyright ReporTango, The New York Tango Magazine Links:
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Also Pascual Contursi together with Enrique Pedro Maroni added a lyric to it, so the tango "Si Supieras" was born in 1924. This angered Matos Rodriguez.
