Fabrice Knecht Tango DJ
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These Tangos, Valses, and Milongas were recorded around the same time. Take a look to discover what else this orchestra—or others—may have recorded during the same week or even on the exact same day.
Dulce amargura is a Tango written by Héctor Alperi and composed by Virgilio San Clemente.
The lyrics of “Dulce amargura,” which translates to “Sweet Bitterness” in English, delve into a narrative of love, passionate experience, disillusionment, and loss. This tango tells the story of a romantic relationship marked initially by happiness and dream-like qualities, which later turns sour, leaving the narrator with deep emotional scars. These verses capture the transformation of love from enchanting to painful, emphasizing the lingering effects of heartbreak.
The poem’s title itself, “Dulce amargura,” is a stark oxymoron, symbolizing the contradictory emotions of sweet memories tainted by the bitterness of current reality. Phrases such as “Copa de dolor que yo bebía con fervor” (Cup of pain that I drank fervently) symbolize how the narrator once embraced love wholeheartedly, only to end up overwhelmed by pain. The recurrent references to nature’s elements like “un viento helado” (a cold wind) which metaphorically ‘carried away’ the beloved, adds a layer of inevitable, natural force to the separation, suggesting that the end of the love was as uncontrollable as the wind.
“Dulce amargura” was written in Argentina in the late 1930s, a time of both cultural richness and political uncertainty in the nation. The tango, a dance and music genre deeply entwined with Argentine identity, often reflected the emotional and social undercurrents of its time. This tango, from 1938, might have echoed the personal trials and the greater societal disillusionments — a world recovering from economic disparity and approaching another great war. The personal afflictions in the lyrics could mirror the collective anxiety of the era.
Héctor Alperi was a renowned lyricist in the Argentine tango scene, known for his ability to weave profound emotional narratives through his lyrics.