Another composition by Carlos Gardel, with lyrics by Alfredo LePera. This is an important element in the film by the same name that was produced in New York, in 1934, at the Astoria-Paramount studios. In this movie, Gardel took the leading male role, and the leading female was Mona Maris, a well known actress with some experience in Hollywood.

When I learnt to play this particular Tango, I realized for the first time that there was a certain common structure to many tangos, and it has been the model for all my comment on the use of short scales, chromatics, arpeggios, intervals, repeating notes and such. This particular composition uses all of these abundantly, with the sole exception of large intervals. The notes do not take flying leaps, they remain bunched closely together and go up and down both white and black notes with an insistent pulsing. All the rest of the structures are there. It really is an incredible creation, as at a first glance at the score it looks very monotonous, but strangely, it is not.

Experts who write about music, and who know a lot more than I do, state that many forms of popular songs, including the Neapolitan canzonetta and the Tango-canción, have been influenced by the baroque aria da capo in two parts. The association of the Neapolitan music with the Tango is not surprising, as so many of the immigrants who contributed to shaping the Tango, came from Naples. It is also interesting to remark that by the time Gardel composed Cuesta Abajo, he had already had a lot of contacts with European Opera, in fact he received recommendations about his voice from several famous singers, including Tito Schipa and Enrico Caruso.

This information is very pertinent in the case of Cuesta Abajo: there are two very clear cut parts to this composition: the first is in a very “recitative” style, and the second part is very melodious and “cantabile”.

This then, is a Tango classic. It is also one of the last compositions produced by the Gardel-LePera partnership, before their tragic death. The movie by the same name is one of the best Spanish speaking movies of that period, and the recordings show that Gardel’s voice had reached maturity both of sound and of breathing technique.

My very free translation of the lyrics.

Verse. (Recitative).

-If through this world I have trailed the shame of having been and the pain of being no longer,

-Hidden by the brim of my hat, I have not been able to contain a secret tear.

-If I roamed along roads like an outcast that destiny seemed compelled to destroy;

-If I was lazy, if I was blind, still I beg compassion for the cost of the bravery of loving.

Chorus. (Cantabile).

-She was all my life to me, like a sun in spring, my hope and my passion,

-I knew that the entire world could not contain all the humble joy of my needy heart..

-Now, in my downhill trend, I can no longer erase my past illusions.

-I dream with the former times I yearn for, the old times I weep for, and which will never return….

Verse. (Recitative).

-As I followed her traces, I drank continuously from my cup of pain;

but nobody understood that as I gave my all, in each twist and turn I left fragments of my heart…

-Now, sorrowful in my descent, solitary and defeated, I wish to confess;

-If her mouth told lies about the love she offered me, for those bewitching eyes I would have always given more….