Constructing the authentic : approaching the '6 Tango-Etudes pour Flute Seule' by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) for interpretation and performance

Since Astor Piazzolla’s death in 1992, his 6 Tango-Etudes pour flûte seule (1987) have quickly entered the flute oeuvre to become standard Western ‘classical’ concert repertoire, despite their association with tango as the core of their musical style. Though Piazzolla’s music has much musical appeal abroad, performative differences exist between ‘foreign’ and Argentinean musical interpretations of the tango – and by extension to the performance of this score – due to various misappropriations of both the notation and the cultural background, which have often been used to suggest an ‘authentic’ reading. As a way to bridge the gap between the two styles, the current tango performance literature largely focuses on didactic, imitative approaches to the genre, with only limited discussion of how various essential cultural references might pragmatically influence an interpretation of Piazzolla’s published repertoire.

This thesis addresses ways in which the ‘authentic’ has been constructed in the tango genre in a variety of contexts both in Argentina and abroad, and how this understanding can suggest a new reading of the score of Piazzolla’s 6 Etudes. Current discussions from the field of (ethno)musicology as well as other disciplines within the social sciences are incorporated. The quantitative approaches used draw upon a wide range of performance analyses for understanding Piazzolla’s own performances, and those from tango and western players. The author’s field work in Buenos Aires and experience as a conservatoire-trained flautist is combined with various qualitative discourse analyses. Initial concepts of what constitutes a pure cultural setting of Piazzolla’s scores are challenged, and then expanded from current viewpoints to include various vital cultural practices inseparable from the notation. New approaches to the interpretational processes that are currently found to exist among western flautists when performing this work are pragmatically demonstrated so as to encourage fresh renditions of not only the 6 Etudes, but also Piazzolla’s other compositions from the same period.