Personajes del Tango Argentino

Ovidio Cátulo González Castillo. Poet and pianist. He was born on August 6^th, 1906. He was a precocious child: at the age of ten, when his father already was a famous play writer, he published the tango “Canyengue”, which was played by Francisco Canaro´s orchestra. Some years later, when he was still a teenager, he formed a little group to play tangos and valses in family events. This group became an orchestra very soon and in 1928, traveled to Europe and performed successfully in Barcelona. In 1931, Cátulo traveled to Europe, for the second time, with Teatro Sarmiento´s theatre company, directed by Luis Bayón Herrera and Manuel Romero. At that time he already was a famous musician, known because of songs such as: “Organito de la tarde” (“Afternoon pipe organ”), “Silbando” (“Whistling”), “Viejo ciego” (“Old blind man”), “Corazón de papel” (“Paper heart”), “Aquella cantina de la ribera” (“That bar by the riverside”) and many others which gave him both fame and money. By the late 30s, he abandoned composing and devoted himself to writing tango lyrics. His inspiration seemed endless and it was not even distracted by Castillo´s active gremial participation. Perhaps his most famous song is “María”, with music by Anibal Troilo, who first played it with his orchestra in 1945, sang by Francisco Fiorentino. Cátulo Castillo gave great importance, when writing lyrics, to the rhymes, repetitions and a certain and deliberate incoherence, in which one could find some surreal traces. He wrote: “El aguacero” (“The rain storm”), “Viejo ciego” (“Old blind man”), “Acuarelita de arrabal” (“Arrabal watercolour”), “El circo se va” (“The circus is gone”), “Corazón de papel” (“Paper heart”), “La última curda” (“The last drunkenness”), “Aquella cantina de la ribera” (“That bar by the riverside”), “Caminito del taller” (“Little path to the workshop”), “Silbando” (“Whistling”), “A Homero” (“To Homero”) and “El patio de la morocha” (“Brunette backyard”). He also worked in newspapers such as “El líder”, “El Nacional” y “Ultima hora”. He died on October 19^th, 1975.