Their self-made instruments, including the saw, the hookah, the tubophone, the gom horn da testa, a helmet-mounted trumpet, and the pipe, aimed from the start to captivate an audience with a sense of playful mischief. The humor often touched on the gravity of high culture and the Argentine character, turning critique into performance. Carlos Núñez Cortés, a longtime member who remained with the group after leaving the stage in 2017, recalled the group with warmth and candor and later published Memoirs of a Luthier in Europe through Kultrum Books.
A deeply researched work based on a tour of 50 recordings reveals surprising and entertaining insights into this ensemble. In 1964, spurred by its first guiding spirit, Gerardo Masana, a man whose Catalan roots shaped his creative impulse, a small ensemble began under the name I Musicisti. They reimagined Bach to mock sacred seriousness by changing texts. Núñez Cortés remains a dedicated fan and ambassador of the group’s playful audacity.
don’t mock the pompous
The creation of Cantata laxatón marked a bold turning point. This irreverent piece is still performed in unconventional ways. The performers, lacking a traditional organ or orchestra, built their instruments from everyday items such as hoses, balloons, and reeds, tuning them to achieve the intended musical effect. The pianist notes that the performance radiates a gentle lament about culture’s vanity and elitism, while maintaining a lively sense of mischief.
The ensemble comprised musicians with strong academic training and fluency in both classical repertoires and folk catalogues. Their repertoire alternates between operatic quotations and tango, chacarera, or bossa nova, a blend showcased in double bills at venues like Mar del Plata and Punta del Este after attentive listening to performances by renowned Latin American artists. They did not shy away from avant-garde influences, as seen in Atlantic 3.1416, a piece described as a sequence of startling noises culminating in a dramatic finale that parodied modernist music as well as the works of Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.
parodic warmth
Núñez Cortés keeps fondly recalling many skits and moments that had political undercurrents. A notable work titled The Value of Unity explored the fragmentation of leftist parties through a playful linguistic twist that culminated in four groups forming a larger idea. The joke rests in the six-letter word Unity whose letters shrink the names of factions while the joke remains surprisingly sharp. Another piece, the Tango-shaped creation, alludes to a familiar Oedipal theme within tangueros and their relationships with their mothers. Like the other works, it credits a collective alter ego named Johann Sebastian Mastropiero for the artistry and humor.
Núñez Cortés also remembers the group’s difficult beginnings. The first performance at the Poliorama theater in Barcelona in 1974 drew a sparse audience, with as few as ten to twenty people per show. The early reception did not deter the group, and a later explosion of cassette circulation helped finance tours and fill larger venues such as Tivoli and Palau d’Esports from the 1980s onward.
adieu
Núñez Cortés departed the group around its 50th anniversary in 2017 due to fatigue and back issues as he reached eighty years of age. He contemplated a grand farewell concert at the Buenos Aires Obelisk, a moment that illustrated the emotional toll of long-time collaboration. The departure of Daniel Rabinovich in 2015 and later Marcos Mundstock’s passing added to the sense that a new era had begun. Mundstock, a key figure in crafting the scripts and public persona, was often described as the man of the script and the red carpet.
Les Luthiers have endured beyond those losses. Two enduring members, Jorge Maronna and Carlos López Puccio, continue to reflect on their shared history. While some members may drift into different projects, the ensemble remains active. A forthcoming farewell tour promises fresh performances and a celebration of decades of humor, music, and creativity, with the promise of publishing new material. The group maintains a public identity as a working luthier of sound and theater, inviting audiences to revisit the joyful craft that has defined them for generations.