Music Library
Feature Fridays Heitor Villa-Lobos
For National Hispanic Heritage Month, Music Library Assistant Ryan Jacobs has chosen泭泭to highlight from the Naxos Music Library. This is part two of a three- part series. These individuals were chosen as some of the premier examples of composers whose work has been shaped heavily by the culture and influence of their native lands and lands where they traveled.
The second composer I wish to highlight in this series is Heitor Villa-Lobos, the foremost Brazilian composer of the 20th century. He traveled extensively throughout Brazil in the formative period of his career, and his works put Brazil on the wider cultural map of classical music. He was泭later given charge of the countrys music education after the government was overthrown. He chose to structure the resulting institutions with a particular emphasis on Brazilian folk and popular influences.
I泭want to泭first dive into his泭泭which are a series of many pieces with wildly varying ensembles from chamber to full orchestra. They represent an entanglement of Baroque techniques and Brazilian folk idioms.
From his adolescence, Villa-Lobos had been fascinated by Bach, finding in his work analogies with泭the traditional music of泭Brazil. Thus the present sequence was intended as an explicit homage to Bach, a factor most evident in the designation of almost every movement with twin titles alluding泭both泭to the actual movements of Baroque suite forms and泭also to泭specific Brazilian popular styles.
泭Bachianas brasileiras泭No. 9,泭composed in New York during 1945, is in many respects a summation of the whole series. Originally written for an unaccompanied chorus, it sounds equally convincing when played by string orchestra, and might be thought of as a musical paradigm for the synthesis that Villa-Lobos had sought in the previous eight works. Thus the Prel繳dio is taken up with a long-breathed melody, unfolding in expansive harmonies that could almost be a composite of those already heard. Only when the Fuga proceeds is the theme revealed as the泭subject of the泭latter泭movement泭which ranks among the most impressive of the composers such pieces. Although the range of contrapuntal techniques is applied, the most striking factor is the composers blurring of the distinction between what is Bachian and what is Brazilian, surely an intentional QED as the work, and the series as a whole,泭reaches its affirmative close.泭
Another example of cultural influence in the music of Villa-Lobos is in his泭ch繫ros泭series, the title of which is a reference to泭Brazilian street musicians who use a combination of泭European and泭African instrumentation. Villa-Lobos viewed the泭ch繫ros泭series as an extension of this music.
泭is widely considered泭to be泭a distilled representation of the larger series, telling the story of the untouched beauty of the Amazon and泭the arrival of泭humankind.泭The works opening imparts impressions of Brazils sonorous natural riches with indigenous melodies and birdsongs, providing an extended prelude to the choral section. The mixed chorus functions at the same level of value and distinction as that of the orchestral architecture, singing vocables meant to evoke aboriginal languages.泭(B矇hague,泭,泭pp.87-96)
The final piece from Villa-Lobos that I wish to highlight is the ballet泭Uirapuru,泭which originated as a symphonic poem, featuring birdsong as a major compositional theme. Uirapuru is a term used to describe various bird families in Brazil with particularly tuneful and泭melodious泭songs.
泭is the offspring of international modernism.泭Villa-Lobos not only displays his constant interest in the richness of texture, tonal expansion, orchestral color, fluidity of form, melodic symmetry,泭and the rereading of his compositional references (particularly Wagner, Debussy,泭and Stravinsky), but creates a specifically Brazilian sound, without directly drawing on folkloric elementsprecisely what makes him one of the supreme inventors of Brazilian culture.
In the ballet's storyline, indigenous groups find themselves drawn deep into the forest by the magic of the bird's song; there, a young woman hunts the uirapuru and sees it transform into a young male warrior. Finally,泭when he is killed by an泭indigenous intruder, he transforms once again into a bird. The story and the music create a very distant echo of Debussy's泭Pr矇lude l'apr癡s-midi d'un faune泭and Stravinsky's泭Firebird.泭Villa-Lobos,泭without the interest in real bird song that Messiaen had, transforms the theme of the uirapuru into a model of stylized symmetry, which opens up into a complex network of formal and harmonic growth. Especially after being recorded by Leopold Stokowski,泭Uirapuru泭deservedly became a calling card for the modernist Villa-Lobos.泭
In addition to the three composers highlighted in this series, there are many other hispanic and latinx composers works available to listen to via Naxos. We have prepared泭泭including some of this great music!泭This list is by no means exhaustive, as there are a myriad of high-quality recordings of incredible works of music by hispanic composers available through Naxos, and further research and listening (either independently or with the assistance of the Music Library) is highly recommended.