Heitor+Villa+–Lobos


 * Heitor Villa –Lobos **


 * Bachianas Brasileiras **

Heitor Villa –Lobos’s musical education was to say the least, unconventional. He learned the Cello and basic musical theory from his Father ( Who died when his son was eleven years old )

Formal music education did not appeal to him and he soon abandoned it, becoming his own teacher , and joining one of the popular street bands ( Choroes ) in Rio de Janeiro as a Guitarist. When he was sixteen he worked a s a cellist in a theatre orchestra but two years later with his guitar on his back he began to travel in the interior of Brazil studying its folklore. Hard but compositionally productive times followed(during which he was able to conduct some of his own works) until in 1923 subsidised by friends he began a seven year sojorn in Paris; his object was he said not to study but to display his achievements which he duly did at the same time meeting great musicians of the time.

After his final return to Brazil he followed a highly successful and spectacularly varied career.

As a composer he treated stylistic and format categories as components of the musical all around him, grist to his creative mill rather than a specific areas in which to work; he was in every good sense an eccentric. No music better illustrates his extraordinary ability to marry seemingly disparate elements of style than the nine Bachianas Brasileiras, written between 1930-1945 homage to the composer ( Bach) for whom he had almost a religious respect. The works contain elements of style and forms of their eponym but the music is unmistakably that of the Brazilian Villa Lobos

Bachianas No 1 and 5 scored for an orchestra of eight cellos link the two composers by means of an instrument with which each had a close connection. The three movements of No.1 recall Bachianas forms (toccata, aria, fuge) but their language is Villa Lobos and the first two are in Brazilias genres: the embolada is a form of a folk song the moihia is a type of art song dating back to theSeventeenth century.

The Fuge Has four choroes in competition each with its own theme. A soprano voice is superimposed in No. 5, here Victoria de Los Angeles, one of the greatest singers of this century and the composers choice.

The Aria in de capo form is at once a Bachian cantilena and a typical Brazilian serenade in which words are sung only in the quicker, central section; the reprise is sung a buocca chiusa.

The second movement is a dance with persistent embolada like rhythms’ and elements based on a bird song: considerable agility is required of the singer in the rapid enunciation of successive syllables a characteristic of some Brazilian folk songs

The movement titles of No. 2 scored for full orchestra again recall Bach though the music does not as the subtitles indicate : 1 “ Song of the rogue ( charlatan ) “ 2 ” Song of our country” 3 Memory of the bushland ( Hinterland) with an imposing trombone solo; 4 the Little Train of Caipira written during a 1 hour journey on a small train in the interior of Brazil

Bachianas No. 9 is written for string orchestra and the composer said of it “ This suite is nearer to Bach and sometimes in it’s structure I tried to give the suggestion of a big organ. It contains great rhythmical and technical difficulties for the ensemble especially for the contrabasses”. There may be always a danger that a performance of music that is so bold, colourful and even extravagant may be overstated, larger than life, and gilding the composers Lily; Here however, the performances are directed by Villa Lobos himself an experienced conductor and they form an historic document such as the gramophone alone can preserve.

Do listen to this Music