Duruflé meets the Bandoneón: the Project

The project Duruflé meets the Bandoneón proposes an innovative exploration of the music of the great French composer Maurice Duruflé through the bandoneón, an instrument usually associated with tango.

Project Creator

My name is Omar Caccia. I was born in Italy in 1984. After studying Physics and graduating in 2008 from the University of Milan – Bicocca, I approached the bandoneón and in 2017 I decided to move to Buenos Aires to study this instrument in depth with a regular course of study at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory.

After discovering the music of Maurice Duruflé, I decided to undertake specific studies to learn about and disseminate his artistic work. Since 2023 I have been a member of the Association Maurice et Marie-Maddalene Duruflé.

Currently, my musical research focuses on the transcription and arrangement of organ, symphonic and opera music for solo bandoneón. In parallel, I dedicate myself to the spread of the bandoneón, both through public performances and through the creation of cultural and didactic content that I share through the video blog and on my YouTube channel.

The Project Duruflé Meets the Bandoneón

The project Duruflé meets the Bandoneón aims to explore the music of Maurice Duruflé through an unprecedented interpretation, using the bandoneón, an instrument of German origin known above all for its primary role in Argentine tango.

The combination of Duruflé’s music and the bandoneón aims to achieve four main objectives:

• offer the possibility of performing Duruflé’s work in contexts outside the traditional ones, even in places without the instruments and infrastructures usually required (for example, the organ);
• enrich the repertoire and expressive language of the bandoneón;
• extend the audience of interest in the bandoneón to potential new listeners, composers and musicians interested in the bandoneón but not necessarily in tango.
• contribute to the musical spread of Duruflé’s work by providing a video-recorded transcription as an example for other possible adaptations, even for other instruments.

Why Duruflé and the Bandoneón

When I accidentally discovered Duruflé’s music, I was literally thunderstruck. In Duruflé’s music I found the perfect synthesis and continuity between tradition and modernity.

Originally created to play German folk music, the bandoneón is an instrument of extraordinary versatility, capable of going beyond the context of tango in which it is nowadays almost exclusively used. Its acoustic and technical characteristics make it particularly interesting for adapting organ and polyphonic pieces. I invite you to read the following text for a technical dissertation on the bandoneón from an acoustic point of view.

The bandoneón is experiencing a second youth and is gaining year after year an ever-wider audience in the most disparate musical contexts: jazz, popular music, contemporary classical music.

The music of Maurice Duruflé is progressively expanding its consensus and recognition among an ever-larger audience. His compositions, rich in emotional depth and harmonic refinement, were for a long time known to limited contexts, but today, thanks to a renewed interest, they are finally receiving ever greater attention.

At a time when the public is increasingly hungry for artistic experiences that can nourish the soul, the combination of the bandoneón and Duruflé’s music appeared to me as a natural and inevitable choice. The bandoneón, with its ability to evoke a wide range of emotions and atmospheres, offers a new way of interpreting Duruflé’s works, making them accessible to anyone who wishes to immerse themselves in this timeless beauty.

Concrete Plan – 2024/2025

The project, in its initial form, dates back about two years. It involves the video recording and dissemination of a piece by Duruflé that I’ve transcribed and adapted for the bandoneón.

The chosen piece for the video recording is “Chant Donné – Hommage a Jean Gallon.” It’s a short harmonization exercise on a given chant that Duruflé composed to honor his harmony teacher, Jean Gallon. Among Duruflé’s works, it’s considered the one that best condenses and synthesizes his style.

In my transcription, I’ve maintained the original structure of the work, especially the polyphonic texture, as much as possible. The bandoneón proved to be perfect for this, keeping the general harmonic feeling of the piece while adding its own unique personality. You can download the transcription here.

A demo of the bandoneón version, which I performed publicly on November 21, 2024, during the celebrations of the Centro Cultural Rojas of Buenos Aires, can be watched at this link.

In April 2025 a video was filmed at Bien Bohemio Bar, Buenos Aires. The idea was to choose a representative location in Buenos Aires, but which at the same time is not a location typically used to perform and record a piece by Duruflé and which does not give rise to an excessively forced juxtaposition.

The result is the video below.

What’s next now?

Having recently completed the transcription and performance of Chant Donné, my focus has now shifted to finding the next captivating piece to adapt for the bandoneón. I’m excited to say I already have several promising candidates!

This kind of musical exploration demands significant time and energy, not only for the meticulous transcription and initial study but, most importantly, for the deep immersion of playing the piece repeatedly to discover its most effective interpretations.

Your encouragement and engagement are vital to this process. If you enjoy following my musical research on this website and my YouTube channel, please consider offering a small gesture of support – a like, share, or comment goes a long way and truly helps sustain my work.