Villa-Lobos-Heitor-dissertation

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Ryan McGovern

This work was produced as the Negotiated Project in the Music Department, Leeds College of Music. of Music.

2 Ryan McGovern, BA Music year 3, Negotiated Project: Dissertation

The piano compositions of Heitor Villa‐Lobos: A search for his compositional style within the context of his piano compositions and the world in which he lived. Introduction

Every artist has been inspired by, and affected by the world around them. Most of the of the time we associate art with all that is free and spiritual, but what is often overlooked is how great a part non artistic factors play in shaping the way artists are able to express themselves. ‐

Sociological factors, changes in government, wealth and even the environment affect how artists are able to create. Artists are never dependent on any one situation to be creative but rather, through their creativity make an impression of the of the world with whatever medium they have available. Picasso may never have painted his cubist paintings had he not lived in the age of the machine. Mozart could never have written his piano sonatas had he been born before the invention of the of the piano. Hugo could surely never have conceived of his of his multi

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faceted, multi dimensional literature had he not lived in 19th century Paris. The focus of my of my ‐

dissertation will be to show that the politics and social climate of Brazil of Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th century was such that Heitor Villa Lobos was able to become the eclectic and ‐

diverse composer that he did. I then want to look at some of the aspects of his compositional style and draw some conclusions about what outside influences and social factors drove his compositions. Background

On the 13th of May of May 1888 Isabel, Imperial Princess and Regent of Brazil, of Brazil, Daughter of Emperor of Emperor Dom Pedro II, passed the Golden law abolishing slavery. In November 1889 Deodoro da Fonseca lead his troops to the Ministry of War of War and brought down the empire, the following day the royal family went into exile in Paris. This event marked the end of Brazil’s old colonialism and gave way to a new republican world of progressive thinking and industry. Heitor Villa Lobos was born in 1887. He was born at a turning point in Brazil’s History, no ‐

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longer was Brazil so divided among its racial lines, but instead, was free to discover its own, unique, racial amalgam. People were proud of their Brazilian identity and they acknowledged the large part that the Afro Brazilian played in their makeup. Brazilian people ‐

at this time were primarily made up of the Amerindians, the Portuguese and the Africans.


The piano compositions of Heitor Villa‐Lobos: A search for his compositional style within the context of his piano compositions and the world in which he lived. Introduction

Every artist has been inspired by, and affected by the world around them. Most of the of the time we associate art with all that is free and spiritual, but what is often overlooked is how great a part non artistic factors play in shaping the way artists are able to express themselves. ‐

Sociological factors, changes in government, wealth and even the environment affect how artists are able to create. Artists are never dependent on any one situation to be creative but rather, through their creativity make an impression of the of the world with whatever medium they have available. Picasso may never have painted his cubist paintings had he not lived in the age of the machine. Mozart could never have written his piano sonatas had he been born before the invention of the of the piano. Hugo could surely never have conceived of his of his multi

‐

faceted, multi dimensional literature had he not lived in 19th century Paris. The focus of my of my ‐

dissertation will be to show that the politics and social climate of Brazil of Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th century was such that Heitor Villa Lobos was able to become the eclectic and ‐

diverse composer that he did. I then want to look at some of the aspects of his compositional style and draw some conclusions about what outside influences and social factors drove his compositions. Background

On the 13th of May of May 1888 Isabel, Imperial Princess and Regent of Brazil, of Brazil, Daughter of Emperor of Emperor Dom Pedro II, passed the Golden law abolishing slavery. In November 1889 Deodoro da Fonseca lead his troops to the Ministry of War of War and brought down the empire, the following day the royal family went into exile in Paris. This event marked the end of Brazil’s old colonialism and gave way to a new republican world of progressive thinking and industry. Heitor Villa Lobos was born in 1887. He was born at a turning point in Brazil’s History, no ‐

‐

longer was Brazil so divided among its racial lines, but instead, was free to discover its own, unique, racial amalgam. People were proud of their Brazilian identity and they acknowledged the large part that the Afro Brazilian played in their makeup. Brazilian people ‐

at this time were primarily made up of the Amerindians, the Portuguese and the Africans.


These three cultures each had their own musical traditions and it would be from these different types of music of music that Villa Lobos would establish a style of music of music that was instantly ‐

Latin American, nationalistic and yet, always rooted in the traditions of the European classical musicians. It was composers such as Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt that brought the high class citizens of Brazil to the afternoon salon concerts at this period in Brazil’s history. Brazil’s own composers at this time sought to emulate these European composers, Brazilian composers such as Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836 1896) who composed operas in an idealized and ‐

Italianate way, and Francisco Manuel da Silva (1795 1865), the composer of the Brazilian ‐

national anthem. The music of the of the people, or the folk music was considered the music of the of the lower classes. The 20th century saw the emergence of composers such as Villa Lobos and ‐

performers like Augustin Barrios Mangoré, the Paraguayan guitar virtuoso who claimed to be the Paganini of the jungle and often came on stage dressed as an Indian chief. The Brazilian musical world was beginning to see some of the country’s raw traditions emerge from the woodwork, and many people did not like it. Villa Lobos’ musical training was the key to his own progressive views on composition. He ‐

was introduced to music by his father Raùl who had a keen interest in literature, geography, history and especially music. In his parents’ house, Heitor would observe the musicians who gathered to play at the informal music evenings. At the age of 12, the young Heitor was already playing the cello, guitar and clarinet and after the sudden death of his of his father, he was forced to play in the local cinemas and theatre orchestras to earn a living for his mother and sisters. He also played in the Café Assírio in the Avenida Central where people would pay one hundred reis (equivalent to a few pence) for a cup of coffee of coffee and musical entertainment. His mother, Noêmia wanted him to take a professional career in law or medicine but this was not to his liking and to escape this fate he went to live with his aunt, Fifinha, who would play Bach Preludes and Fugues for him on the piano. Villa Lobos’ fascination and love of ‐

Bach lead him to arrange a Bach Fugue for piano and cello. The surviving manuscript is dated 1910. These early introductions to Bach planted a seed in his mind that would one day grow into his most fertile impression of a of a music that was at once Brazilian, vibrant and tropical whilst possessing qualities of Baroque and European music, the Bachianas Brasileiras.


Villa Lobos’ few lessons on harmony proved unsuccessful but he privately studied various ‐

treatises on composition and on the 3rd of April 1901 he entered Colégio Pedro II. The restless Heitor soon left and continued taking private lessons with Agnello França, a Brazilian teacher and composer. He also took an entrance exam for the Instituto Nacional de Mùsica. According to reports, he failed the exam despite being the extremely gifted musician that he was, and the Instituto openly opposed Villa Lobos when he applied for a ‐

government grant to travel to Paris some years later, stating that a more conservative composer would be better suited to representing their country. Much of Villa Lobos’ musical activity at this time came from his work in the cinemas and ‐

orchestras and the time he spent among the street musicians of Rio de Janeiro, also known as the Chorões. He would improvise on the guitar and composed a few pieces to perform with these street groups, pieces such as Panqueca (1900), Mazurka (1901) and Valsa Brillhante (1904) all of which are now lost. Villa Lobos’ activity as a Chorão was sporadic but ‐

he formed friendships with (now half forgotten) Brazilian greats such as Ernesto Jùlio de Nazareth, another self taught composer who improvised Polkas and Tangos on the piano for the waiting audiences at the cinemas. Villa Lobos dedicated the Chôros No. 1 for guitar to ‐

Nazareth. The style of the Chôros No. 1 is reminiscent of the popular music played by the celebrated Chorões of the day with its improvised quality and the simple rondo form. It is the only one of Villa Lobos’ choros that could easily pass for genuine popular music. His ‐

later choros are more stylistic impressions of the choro. Villa Lobos was immensely proud of ‐

the fact that the choro was a uniquely Brazilian style of music. He often stated that the choro is a “novel form of composition” (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos Collected Studies p. 19) and ‐

he would seek to make the name ‘choro’ synonymous with Brazil. The very essence of the choro lies at the heart of many of his compositions, the disregard for harmonious intervals, rhapsodically improvised quality, at times humorous and at other times deeply sentimental mood (the verb chorar in Portuguese means ‘to weep’). These qualities are all strong compositional traits of Villa Lobos. The structure of many of the more melancholy choros ‐

originates from a Portuguese song form known as modinha which is a slow minor mode ‐

composition with a sad, lamenting character. Five of Villa Lobos’ surviving choros from this ‐

period were grouped by the French publisher Max Eschig and entitled Suíte popular Brasileiro. The five pieces were written for guitar between 1908 and 1912. They were not

written as a suite by the composer but were isolated pieces only later to be grouped by his


publisher. These five pieces perfectly model the hybridisation of Brazilian and European classical music with their European titles all being appended by the word ‘Chôro’. The five pieces are;

Mazurka-Chôro, Schottisch-Chôro, Valsa-Chôro, Gavota-Chôro

and

Chôrinho,

all are still part of the modern guitarist’s concert repertoire. In 1912 Villa Lobos met the pianist Lucília Guimarães and married her the following year on ‐

the 12th of November 1913. This essentially marked a turning point in his career, he had come of age and with his gifted and supportive wife he was able to embark on his career as a composer. Also, a meeting with Arthur Napoleão, the Portuguese pianist and music publisher, gave him hope of pursuing composition seriously. With a wealth of musical ideas behind him Villa Lobos now sought to take his music to a wider audience. He began giving ‐

chamber concerts in January 1915 with his wife and various other colleagues. The concerts started out in Nova Friburgo where he presented a programme consisting mainly of his own material, then later moved on to Rio de Janeiro. Villa Lobos would promote nearly all of his ‐

latest compositions in the Salão Nobre do Jornal do Comércio and as the public became increasingly aware of his name and music, he stirred up an air of curiosity and disagreement among the concert going public. The polite world of the salon concert was beginning to be disrupted by this modernist movement and people didn’t take to it easily. As is often the case with any pioneering composer, he was occasionally met by rejection and criticism. In 1917 he premiered his violin sonata, (Desesperança) Sonata Phantastica e Capricciosa ‐

no. 1, at the Jornal do Comércio and as the ‘Despair’ in the title suggests, the piece is

wrought with violent emotions, emotions which would continually show themselves in the work of Villa Lobos throughout the entirety of his life. One critic in 1915 described the ‐

‘anguish, perplexity, anxiety, perturbation and torment’ that ran through a large amount of his music at that time. This tormented side to Villa Lobos seems hard to explain although it ‐

was perhaps linked to his father’s death. At the same concert he also aired a group of solo songs; these songs were settings of French texts by writers such as La Fontaine and Victor Hugo. L’oiseau blessé d’une fleche (1913) for example tells of a ‘mortally wounded bird’ another theme that was to occupy him throughout his life and he would later use the imagery of birds in relation to Amerindian mythology. It was around this time that Villa Lobos heard compositions by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. ‐

Diaghilev arrived in Brazil with his Ballet Russes in both 1913 and 1917, performing scores by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov and other Russian composers. Villa Lobos ‐

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began using French and Portuguese markings in his scores at this time and impressionistic styles began to seep into his own compositions. He also felt the need to further refine his compositional style and so he began studying Vincent D’Indy’s book on composition, Course de composition musicale.

Villa Lobos was not the first Brazilian composer to use Amerindian themes in his ‐

compositions. Antônio Carlos Gomes also used Amerindian themes in some of his operas, however these compositions were merely ‘pleasing exotica’ Composers, Villa Lobos, p. 10) ‐

(Wright, Oxford Studies of

in comparison to Villa Lobos’ Três Danças Características ‐

(Africanas e Indígenas) (1914 1916). These pieces were written using authentic material ‐

from the Caripunas Indians of the Mato Grosso region. The individual titles of the three pieces that make up the Três Danças are: ‘Farapós’, ‘Kankikis’ and ‘Kankukus’. They were all originally written for piano but later in 1916, Villa Lobos arranged them for octet and full ‐

orchestra. These three dances are supposed to represent the journey of human life from childhood through to old age; they are violent with little melodic interest. Instead the pieces are held together by the intricate cross rhythms and all build up into a mesmerising and primitive state. Villa Lobos claims; the few melodic fragments that occasionally weave in ‐

amongst the rhythmic textures are built on a mode that the Caripunas played on a special type of marimba. Villa Lobos spent a decade from 1900 exploring the far reaches of Brazil and it was ‐

probably in this time that he picked up such melodies. There is, however, a certain amount of speculation as to the authenticity of these adventures and some scholars claim that his Indian evocations were nothing more than the result of intellectual study. In the book ‘The World of Villa Lobos in Pictures and Documents’ by Lisa M. Peppercorn, the author states ‐

that he learnt about Indian music through reading history books, visiting museums, listening to recordings of native music made by others and studying Indigenous instruments. ‘It is a widely held but completely erroneous opinion that Villa Lobos – in order to give his ‐

music a Brazilian flavour – roamed through virgin forests in the Amazon region, mingled with natives, collected folk material in the interior of Brazil, and used it all in his music. He did not collect one single melody and therefore no such tunes are used in his compositions. So, what did he do to give his music a specifically Brazilian characteristic? His approach was intellectual. He went about it like any researcher in any field. He bought and read books, consulted chronicles, annals, records and documents in libraries and archives, examined

7 Ryan McGovern, BA Music year 3, Negotiated Project: Dissertation lithographs, drawings and photographs, visited museums to study indigenous instruments and listened to recordings of native tunes collected by others’ (L.M. Peppercorn, The World of Villa Lobos in Pictures and Documents, p. 96). ‐

The fact that Villa Lobos was a man who loved to amaze and entertain people probably ‐

played a big part in these adventures, undoubtedly some travelling did take place but only two of his alleged adventures have ever been proven to be strictly true. Perhaps one of his more hilarious stories is the one where he claimed to have played a gramophone recording of European music to native Indians at which they began to hit the gramophone. He then played some native Indian music and they began to shout and sing and pay religious respect to the gramophone, he finally played the European music again and the Indians destroyed the gramophone. Villa Lobos claimed to have gone through many gramophones and “also ‐

some guitars (sometimes I used a guitar)” (Villa Lobos, Collected Studies by L.M. Peppercorn, p. ‐

25)

in his experiments. Whether they were embellished or not these adventures in the

untamed regions of Brazil must have been great fuel for the youthful and fertile imagination of the young composer and they certainly left a big impression on him and affected the way he would compose music throughout the whole of his life. “…the vast loneliness and epic scale of the Brazilian scene, in all its variety, surging splendour and exquisite detail, had deeply impressed him and it was always these factors which motivated his work. It is the roaming, restless, and ever romantic, fanciful, and isolated figure of Villa Lobos that stands at the centre of all his Brazilian evocations, from that time until the ‐

end of his life, whether miniature vignettes or vast sound canvases: each work is one more fragment of the glittering mosaic that Villa Lobos conceived as representing a Brazilian ‐

totality” (Oxford Studies of Composers, Villa Lobos, Simon Wright, Oxford University Press ‐

1992).

Le Sauvage Bresilien

On the 30th of June 1923 Villa Lobos made his first trip to Paris. He did not go there to learn ‐

nor did he go there to take in the cultural atmosphere of Paris, he went there, in his own self asserted way to “…show them what I have done”. Despite this he was only able to ‐

perform a small number of his own compositions as the government grant which allowed him to travel there specified that his main objective should be to promote Brazilian music in general. He did however manage to secure a publishing deal with the French music publisher, Éditions Max Eschig. It was also around this time, ironically, that he began to use


less French influences in his work. Perhaps being so far from home gave him nostalgia for his home country and after he returned to Brazil he began to mark his work with a more Brazilian character. One of his most significant works from this period is his Nonneto for ten players and chorus. The Nonneto pushes the boundaries of chamber music to its absolute limit: flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, celesta, harp, piano, a percussion section of 18 instruments requiring two players at minimum and a mixed chorus divided into 12 parts at the most. The subtitle of the work gives us some insight into the variety of influences that had led Villa Lobos to this stage in his compositional output: Impressão ‐

rápida do todo o Brasil (A quick impression of the whole of Brazil). In this work all of Villa

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Lobos’ wonderings throughout Brazil are brought to life in vivid and impressionistic terms and the Brazilian writer, Vasco Mariz comments that the work “…is indeed a synthesis of Brazil in miniature”. The Nonneto is based on material from some of his earlier works: Sexteto místico and Quarteto simbólico. The whole piece is a musical map of Brazil, and the

different instrumental and compositional effects that Villa Lobos uses throughout the piece ‐

suggest the different musical traditions from the various regions and cultures of Brazil. The Chorões are portrayed with the opening saxophone solo that is surrounded by improvisation on the oboe, piccolo and clarinet and later the chorus creates the impression of children’s songs, macumba rites and Amerindian chants using nonsense syllables that imitate the sound of Indian chant. The clarinet player has to use a special mute at one point in the music that imitates the sound of a particular type of Amerindian trumpet and a large percussion section, containing standard and Brazilian percussion instruments (puíta, reco

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recos, xuchalhos and cocos) weaves an intricate web of polyrhythms. Villa Lobos’ use of ‐

these Brazilian percussion instruments often makes it difficult for regular performance of his works in non Brazilian orchestras. The Nonneto concludes with closely packed chordal ‐

clusters on the piano and celesta then dissolves into a whirlwind of glissandi that makes it difficult to determine the tonal centre. It was at Villa Lobos’ first Parisian concert dedicated entirely to his own compositions on ‐

the 30th of May 1924, that the Nonneto was first performed. The performance took place at the Salle des Agriculteurs and also included a performance of the Quarteto simbólico and A Prole do Bebê no. 1 performed by Artur Rubenstein. The performance was met by a noisy

audience who were keen to criticise this Brazilian newcomer, but the result was his first


important European press notice. Boris de Schlœza wrote a long review in the recently established Revue musicale. De Schlœza appreciated the primitivism in Villa Lobos’ work but ‐

criticised his use of native Indian themes saying that he ran the risk of disintegrating into ‘academicism’. Villa Lobos hardly ran the risk of becoming an academic and his untamed ‐

and wild temperament led the French to dub him: ‘le Sauvage Bresilien’ (the savage Brazilian). However it was clear that Villa Lobos was having something of a musical identity ‐

crisis at this time, whether to be Brazilian or European. Whilst he was beginning to find an audience in the forward thinking Parisians he was still seen as a man wasting his talents in his own country and it would take the respect of the wider world and the efforts of performers like Rubenstein to convince his fellow Brazilians that he was in fact a composer of great genius. In 1924 Villa Lobos returned to Rio de Janeiro from Paris due to a drastic cut in the grant ‐

he received from the Brazilian government. On his return he was hailed by the poet Manuel Bandeira: "Villa Lobos has just returned from Paris. You expect whoever has just returned from Paris to ‐

be full of Paris. However, Villa Lobos has come back full of Villa Lobos. Nevertheless, one thing ‐

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seriously shook him: Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring". It was, he confessed to me, the greatest musical emotion of his life..." (www.museuvilla lobos.org). ‐

In December 1926 he returned, once again, to Paris for a three and a half year stay, this time accompanied by his wife, Lucília. He met with internationally renowned artists such as Stokowsky, Albert Wolff, Edgard Varèse and Florent Schmitt. Paris would remain a base for him throughout his life and he had many friends and admirers there. The piano works

Perhaps some of Villa Lobos’ most profound compositions were those for solo piano. Of the ‐

26 works he wrote for piano, most of them suites, containing as many as 16 individual pieces, the works discussed in this dissertation are some of his most prominent and influential. From His first piano composition in 1912, Brinquedo de Roda to his last work, Hommage à Chopin one can see progression. Yet, in typical Villa Lobos style he seems to ‐

also make some backwards movements and occasionally harks back to an earlier style or more simplistic way of composing. This can be seen when comparing the sophisticated


writing of Prole do Bebê no. 1 (1918) with the neo classical simplicity of Hist órias da ‐

Carochina (1919).

Villa Lobos was not a virtuoso pianist; however he did have quite some skill at the ‐

instrument and even made some recordings of his piano compositions. His piano music has the impression of being partly written at the piano and partly written using compositional ideas and devices away from the instrument. In all of Villa Lobos’ compositions, his natural ‐

musicality shines through and one cannot deny the greatness of his musical ideas upon hearing them. His impressionistic piano works often have a rough and improvised quality with sharp contrasts between aggressive chords and moments of intense sentimentality. Sometimes he will lead the music to a new section that will only last for a short time before returning to the main theme of the composition, often at an unexpected moment, as in Vals da Dor (Waltz of Sorrow) the brilliantly romantic and sentimental piano work.

Villa Lobos’ piano compositions have undergone various changes in style throughout the ‐

course of his life which makes it hard to pin down exactly what his style of writing is. From Neo classicism to Impressionism, from children’s songs to virtuosic works, Villa Lobos has ‐

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written them all. Despite this, the true nature of Villa Lobos is hard to find in some of his ‐

Neo classical works and it seems that he is simply writing these pieces to show his skill for ‐

composition or to improve his compositional technique. Villa Lobos’ nature seems to be ‐

most present when he is writing folk influenced pieces. Or perhaps diversity is the very nature of Villa Lobos, not to have one particular, predictable style. Maybe none of his ‐

individual works sum up his character but rather it is the vast diversity of them that best reflect the character of Villa Lobos. ‐

‘Glancing at the comprehensive range of Villa Lobos’ works, works which include every type of ‐

music, one cannot fail to notice certain compositions speak a personal language while others, though interesting as a reflection of his individuality, do not reveal the same strength and intensity’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos collected studies p. 14). ‐

In 1918 Villa Lobos composed the suite Prole do Bebê no. 1 for solo piano. The suite was ‐

perhaps inspired by Debussy’s Children’s Corner as each of the pieces within the suite was dedicated to children in his family. Villa Lobos never had children of his own so this adds a ‐

touching sentimentality to the works. The first piece Branquinha is dedicated to Lucília Villa

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Lobos. It opens with a simple figuration in the left hand which is quickly followed in bar 3 by a bright and fantastical flourish in the right hand. The first eight bars are held down with a D


tonality by the fifths in the left hand while the flourishes in triplets and semi quavers give a ‐

mystical and child like wonder despite being refined music (Ex. 1). ‐

Ex.1 Branquinha p.1 bars 1 6 ‐

The opening eight bars are all in the D myxolidian mode. The use of modes, of course, was popular among the impressionists at this time and the influence of Debussy seems a likely source for Villa Lobos’ own modal compositions. ‐

Despite the relative simplicity of the piano writing the effect in performance is seems intricate and avant garde. This ability to create complex music out of a simple idea shows ‐

Villa Lobos’ had an innate understanding of music. In bar 9 the harmony is pentatonic and is ‐

far removed from, yet innately linked to the use of harmony in classical music. In bar 11 the music changes to the time signature of 5/4 for one bar then descends again with a bar of glissandi in bar 13. This is typical of impressionist music and the trend around the early 20th century of freer musical forms which are in contrast to the more symmetrical forms of his predecessors like Beethoven, Mozart and Bach. In bar 14 the same figuration as in bar 1 is continued but this time in a different tonality and in bar 16 the child like melody is ‐

introduced with the expression marking of Cantando com muita infantilidade (sing/play like a small child). This very simple melody is written using only the basic rhythms of crotchets and minims with deliberate accents and staccato markings above each note which suggests the cumbersome sound of a young child learning the piano. However this is not simple


music and the speed at which it is played makes it seem like quavers rather than crotchets. The harmony at this point seems to be centred on B but this melodic section ends with a tied G and D in the bass leaving the key ambiguous. Key however is not fixed in this piece and the modulations again suggest impressionism using neither perfect cadences nor traditional modulations. Villa Lobos breaks up the fluidity of the piece with clashing chords ‐

played staccato and a section that is almost entirely made up of block chords with sonorous clusters and clashing notes being its strength. In bar 42 the music moves into triplets and continues with this rhythm almost exclusively until bar 53 where a variation of the original theme is introduced this time using another mode over the notes E and B. This section is short lived and quickly modulates back to the child like melody section but this time the ‐

melody is played in leaping octaves and the music is written out on four staves to accommodate the various voices within the piece. The child like theme is much more eerie ‐

and distant this time and the expression marking is Crystallino. He then writes what seems to be improvised material leading to the final section which juxtaposes triplets against duplets. In the final five bars, an ascending quintuplet is left ringing over the notes of D, F, A and C suggesting the original D myxolidian mode. Branquinha is a very original work by Villa Lobos and although it has elements of ‐

impressionism it is a style all of its own possessing what may be described as cubist qualities with its geometric chord shapes, bright colours and slightly brash treatment of material. It could be described as Brazilian impressionism or Villa Lobos’ impression of impressionism, it ‐

is, on reflection, nothing like the music of Debussy. The second piece in this suite, Moreninha has a similar approach to compositional style, opening once again with two bars of chordal accompaniment before introducing a melody over the top. This style of piano writing has a song like quality and is perhaps the result of ‐

Villa Lobos’ own experimentation at the piano. Although Villa Lobos marks no key signature ‐

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the piece opens with the notes D#, F#, C# and E# which suggests the key of F# major. These notes are played out in semi quavers with the marking sempre legato and the melody is sung out on top. This semi quaver motif continues almost entirely throughout the piece. As ‐

with many of Villa Lobos’ compositions, there are plenty of triplets against duplets, uneven ‐

groupings and he seems to have a flair for writing aesthetically pleasing scores, the score itself is a work of art. The child like melody could easily be mistaken for a Christmas carol if ‐

it wasn’t for the sophisticated treatment of material. Here, Villa Lobos gives us an insight ‐


into two sides of his character, the child like innocence hidden behind the complex almost ‐

feline nature. The 3rd piece in the suite, Caboclinha (little native child) bears similarities to his other native inspired work A Lenda do Caboclo in some of the harmonic and melodic phrases he uses. The piece opens, as with all the others so far, with two bars of accompaniment before bringing in a new voice, this time in the bass. The actual song begins in bar 7; the melody in bar 9 is almost an exact replica of a melodic phrase in A Lenda do Caboclo (Ex. 1.2).

Ex 1.2 Caboclinha bars 7 10 ‐

By the time we get to the 4th piece in the suite, Mulatinha, Villa Lobos has changed his ‐

approach to compositional style. This time the key signature is in compound time but in typical Villa Lobos style he juxtaposes compound and duple meter making the music seem ‐

more like a mixture of 3/4 and 2/4 and most of the rhythms commonly associated with 6/8 time are scarcely seen (Ex. 1.3).

Ex. 1.3 Mulatinha bars 1 4 ‐

14 Ryan McGovern, BA Music year 3, Negotiated Project: Dissertation th

Negrinha, the 5 piece in the suite, is based almost entirely on strong, punchy rhythm and

the small amount of melody that does exist within the piece is extremely simple, to the point of being crude. However Villa Lobos once again manages to disguise this simple ‐

melody behind a wave of impressionistic techniques which make the piece seem exciting and fast moving. His use of piano technique in this piece is very rhythmical and the chords constantly alternate between the left and right hand which makes the piano seem more like a drum than a melodic instrument. The 6th work in the suite is a touching little melody entitled A Pobresinha (the little poor child) and seems to encapsulate all the sufferings and strivings a poor child in Brazil may have to face. The piece opens with the expression marking Lentamente e melancolico and Villa Lobos sets up an interesting mood by giving two bars of triplets answered by two bars ‐

of duple meter (Ex. 1.4). This gives the music a dragging and melancholy feel, as though struggling to get started, perhaps echoing the emotions of a poor child with little motivation.

Ex. 1.4 A Pobresinha, bars 1 4 ‐

The 7th piece, O Polichinello, is by far the fastest and most exciting piece in this suite and once again makes use of Villa lobos’ drum like playing with the left and right hand ‐

constantly alternating over clashing harmonies. This is great music for children, who seem to enjoy making music without too much intellectual input. This piece gives students of the piano an opportunity to make some noise, a bit like children painting their first picture and making a terrible mess. This is similar to the piano music of Bela Bartok who often wrote studies with uneven time signatures to encourage learners to break out of the 4/4 and 3/4 mould. Villa lobos uses the same rhythm throughout the entirety of the piece occasionally ‐


adding some quintuplets and the minims at the end seem to be the only way to stop this fast moving train, apparently it does not have brakes! The final piece in the suite Bruxa is one of the finer works from Prole do Bebê no. 1 and nicely rounds up the suite, somehow echoing Branquinha yet different altogether. The piece is also relentlessly fast moving similar to O Polichinello but with a different approach to melody. The piece ends rather curtly with a low C# pounded out at ff thus ending this suite. ,

Villa Lobos’ approach to composition in this suite was very much avant garde and his use ‐

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of harmony doesn’t adhere to many traditional rules of modulation. Still, he manages to incorporate traditional type melodies into the music without being tied to traditional harmonisation. This shows Villa Lobos was able to conceive music in non traditional ways, ‐

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pushing his abilities to new levels rather than staying within his comfort zone. This ability to experiment mixed with his tropical and fecund nature is what lies at the heart of many of his compositions. Upon hearing his music one can sense the zeal and ferocity with which he composed. One imagines pencils scrawling, manuscripts flying, and many cigars being smoked as he worked long into the night, possessed by an uncontrollable urge to create music. What is noticeable about Villa Lobos’ music at this time, when compared to his later piano ‐

compositions, is the lack of Brazilian thematic material. The suite Prole do Bebê no. 1 is made up all most entirely of impressionistic rhythms but underneath the façade is the ever present improvised nature of Brazilian music that marks the whole of Villa Lobos’ output. ‐

Though impressionistic, it is a Brazilian impressionism full of bright and striking colours. Villa Lobos also wrote a follow up, Prole do Bebê no. 2 in 1921 this time taking his ‐

inspiration from children’s toys and animals. In contrast to the suite Prole do Bebê no. 1, whilst in Paris in 1927 Villa Lobos composed ‐

the Saudades das sélvas brasileiras (longing for the Brazilian rainforest). This two movement piece encapsulates the raucous sound of the Chorões and the lamenting sound of the Serestras. The piece is a clear turn towards using more overtly Brazilian themes and ideas and it was whilst in Paris that Villa lobos realised that to be original and make his mark on ‐

the world of music he would have to utilise the music of his homeland. ‘In fact it was Paris which made him realise . . . he, too, had to show the world something that was not only outstanding but totally different from European music’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa

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Lobos Collected Studies p. 53).


In this piece Villa Lobos uses a much more melodic approach to piano writing. The first ‐

movement opens with a punchy ‘train like’ rhythm with staccato markings and the melody ‐

is then introduced over the top of the left hand accompaniment. The left hand ostinato is continued throughout the entirety of the piece with the occasional break in movement, change in meter and figuration. The melodic material on top of this seems almost improvised and uses sequential movement in chromatic notes. The second movement is much more expressive with the melody in the bass being in triplets against the accompanying chords which maintain a duple meter. Villa Lobos also uses an interesting ‐

device of setting what seems to be the main beat of a particular phrase on the last beat of the previous bar giving the music a free feel. This is first noticeable in bar 17 where he puts a low bass note at the end of the 2/2 bar just before the time signature transposes to 3/2 (Ex. 1.5).

Ex. 1.5 Saudades das sélvas brasileiras, un poco animado bars 16 19 ‐

In bar 39 he introduces a melody in thirds which sounds reminiscent of music from the classical period. A contrapuntal bass line echoes the melody in the right hand, sounding reminiscent of Mozart or Bach. A sudden flourish of notes ends this classical section, a moment of irrational and intense passion leads to a variation of this theme sounding like a sudden storm spattering rain on the leaves of the Brazilian rainforest or the frustrated desire to have that which one longs for but cannot have at that time. The same classical melody is played a 3rd lower but without the contrapuntal bass line underneath, this time he only adds the ostinato chord figuration from the opening of the piece. The rest of the piece


is expressive and folk like, constantly changing meter using triplets, quintuplets and ‐

septuplets which give the piece a relaxed and melancholy feel. This second movement has a touch of the melancholy mood of another of Villa Lobos’ ‐

piano works A Lenda do Caboclo and also of the music of Erik Satie with his use of interesting melody against relatively simple left hand chords. However Villa Lobos’ ‐

compositions have more Brazilian swing than Satie in the way he sets duple meter against triple meter. Saudades das sélvas brasileiras is a sign of Villa Lobos beginning to utilise in a ‐

much more overt way the music of his home country Brazil, whilst still being connected to and tied to European musical styles. Many critics of Villa Lobos’ work have stated that his composition Rudepoêma (1921 1926) ‐

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is the pinnacle of his piano compositional style and that in no other work is the anguish of Villa Lobos so overtly expressed. Written for his friend Artur Rubenstein, the piece ‐

according to Villa Lobos is a musical portrait of the great virtuoso. When Villa Lobos ‐

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presented the work to Rubenstein, the pianist asked Villa Lobos if he thought he was a ‐

savage pianist (Rudepoêma means savage poem), Villa Lobos replied; ‐

‘We are both savage! We don’t care much for pedantic detail. I compose and you play, off the heart, making the music live, and this is what I hope I expressed in this work’ (Oxford Studies of Composers, Villa Lobos, Simon Wright, p. 49). ‐

The dedication on the title page of the score reads: ‘My sincere friend, I do not know if I have been able to put all of your spirit into the Rudepoêma, but I am honestly able to say that, as far as I can tell, I have caught your true

temperament on paper as I might have done with an intimate snapshot. Hence, if I have succeeded, it will be you in fact who will have been the real composer of this work.’ (James Melo, Villa Lobos Piano Music, Vol. 6, album sleeve notes). ‐

Rubenstein flattered though he was, denied the claim to being co author of the work and ‐

stated that: ‘…my own talent as an interpreter is mainly based on my need for understanding the structure of a musical work’ (Oxford Studies of Composers, Villa Lobos, Simon Wright, p. 49). ‐

Rudepoêma demands insanely virtuosic technique. There seems to be a distinct lack of

recordings of the work which may be a result of Villa Lobos not quite being within the ‐

popular classical music canon. However the pianist Sonia Rubinsky has made a recording of the work on the Naxos label as she has done with almost all of Villa Lobos’ piano works. The ‐


piece opens with the rhythm that seems to be a musical signature of Villa lobos’ and is the ‐

rhythm commonly found in the music of the Chorões. The first sixteen bars seem almost to dance (Ex. 1.6). This is one of the few moments in the piece that the music seems melodic and it quickly descends into the savage mood that marks the rest of the work. In bar 17 the mood of the music drastically changes and the expression marking Très sauvage gives us some idea of the mood Villa Lobos wants to express at this point. The left hand plays out ‐

the same bass line as in the opening of the piece but this time leaps from rumbling bass notes while the right hand plays groupings of quintuplets, sextuplets and septuplets, all at ff and rff . This section is only eight bars long before moving into yet another section marked Animé. The music is written out on three staves here and the time signature changes to 5/8,

and then 6/8.

Ex. 1.6 Rudepoêma p.1 Bars 1 4: Showing the rhythm that is synonymous with the music of Brazil and of Villa Lobos. ‐

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Compare with example 1.7 Chôros No. 1.

Ex. 1.7 Chôros No. 1 bars 42 45 ‐

The Animé section is another short lived piece of thematic material and only lasts for 6 bars ‐

before moving into another development. The composition seems to be structured in this way, short sections based on different thematic material. Villa Lobos’ great genius is shown ‐

here in his ability to weave these different sections together so that all seem connected. The


piece, when listened to with a critical ear and score in hand, begins to reveal some of its secrets and one begins to see the true complexity and genius of this work. The harmonic layers are as multi faceted and richly ornate as the feathers on some bird of paradise in the ‐

Brazilian rainforest, leaving us with a tantalising glimpse into the colourful imagination of a Latin American composer. Though the work was dedicated to Rubenstein and is claimed to be a musical portrait of him, it is clear after listening closely that the music has a very Brazilian character. It is also fair to say that a large part of Villa Lobos’ character is expressed ‐

in this work. Rudepoêma then, is in fact a simultaneous musical portrait of Rubenstein, Villa

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Lobos and Brazil. Villa Lobos’ use of the piano in this piece shows his ability to write in a way that is ‐

idiomatic of the instrument and also of his ability to conceive music in a multi layered way. ‐

A good example of this is on page 23 of the score, the expression marking is Moins, mais très rythmé and the time signature is 6/4. He introduces a melody that essentially is just a

simple song like melody, not unlike the kind of melody you would find in folk music. What ‐

distinguishes it from folk music and gives it the unique mood that is so integral to the Rudepoêma is the material that Villa Lobos weaves around it. The music is also written out ‐

on three staves here to accommodate these different voices. The overall effect comes out as something like a slightly jilted waltz (Ex. 1.8 and 1.9). Looking at these two examples one can clearly see the complex musical structures Villa

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Lobos has been able to compose out of a simple melodic fragment. The melody alone has similarities to the Modinha form commonly found in Portuguese music and once again shows Villa Lobos’ strong affinity with folk music. The piece has other moments like this, ‐

where Villa Lobos weaves quite simple melodies into complex, rich harmonic and rhythmic ‐

structures. Another such moment is at the end of the piece where he builds the music to a savage climax in a cloud of harmonic texture. The clear placing of melody notes within this texture demands great control from the pianist despite the fact that the music seems to have lost all sense of control at this point. The final chord is an overt expression of the savagery suggested by the title. The markings of assez rude and à coups de poing leave the pianist quite literally hitting the piano and the effect is so intense that it almost sounds extra musical. The reverberations of the piano at this point are not far removed from the sound of some alien space ship in an American sci fi movie. ‐


Ex. 1.8 Rudepoêma p. 23

Ex. 1.9 Rudepoêma p. 23, melodic fragment

Whatever Villa Lobos wished to achieve in writing Rudepoêma, whether it was to capture ‐

the character of Rubenstein, to express his own or to capture the essence of Brazil, he certainly wrote one of the greatest and most demanding piano pieces of the 20th century. Despite this, it still remains quite an unknown work for many pianists. These compositons, Prole do Bebê no. 1, Saudades das sélvas brasileiras and Rudepoêma all show elements of Villa Lobos’ modernistic and impressionistic style. If you were to hear ‐

the suite entitled Hist órias da Carochina by Villa Lobos, after listening to these ‐

impressionistic works you would hardly recognise the composer. They are far removed from these impressionistic and freely formed, organic works and instead Villa Lobos gives us ‐

something that would not be out of place in the oeuvre of Beethoven or Mozart. The pieces are simple and short in length using traditional cadences and modulations.


Use of Piano in the Bachianas Brasileiras

It was during the reign of Getulio Vargas that Villa Lobos wrote, or rather compiled, the ‐

Bachianas Brasileiras. The idea that he could fuse the spirit of Brazil with that of Bach was

not something he dreamed up over night but was instead something that grew throughout his life slowly taking shape in all the disparate strands of his musical amalgam. The very title gives the works impetus and is instantly striking and mystifying to musicians and music lovers alike, leaving us with the question ‘what does it mean?’ hitherto there is no translation. Villa Lobos always had an affinity with Bach’s music and he had the self ‐

assertion to state on one occasion, that there were only two great composers of music, namely “Bach and I” (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos Collected Studies p. 14). ‐

There is much to be said about the Bachianas Brasileiras but we will only concern ourselves here with the use of piano in these works. He first uses the piano in the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 2, that undeniably rural and most Brazilian of the Brasileiras. His use of piano

is rather sparse in the first movement and in typically eccentric style he only introduces the piano at two points, bars 1 4 and at section 8 in the score, where the music is marked ‐

Andantino mosso. However sparse the piano writing is, it plays an integral part in setting up the rhythm in this section by the use of a simple anacrusis figure. The use of the piano seems almost like timpani writing in this movement and is mostly just adding to the rhythmical elements of the music. The second movement starts with an equally sparse texture with a large held chord on the first beat of the first bar being the only thing we hear from the piano until bar 23. In bar 26 the piano begins a rhythmical figure that continues unchanged (except for subtle displacement of the rhythms within the bar) until section 10 where a recapitulation of the opening theme is introduced (Ex. 2.0). After this, the piano remains as sparse as before only to be re introduced in the final three bars. ‐

Ex. 2.0 Bachianas Brasileiras no. 2, Aria bar 26


In the third movement, sparseness is once again the theme for the pianist with a single E note on the first beat of the first bar being the only sound we hear from the piano until bar 34 where he introduces a simple marching figuration all in the bass clef. In bar 41 a figuration in sextuplets just adds colour to the orchestra rather than having any melodic or leading purpose. The piano emerges just four times in the midst of this third movement. However the piano gets the final word and finishes the piece on a loud aggressive bass note leaving the sound ringing in your ears. In the fourth movement, O Trenzinho do Caipira (the little train of the Brazilian country man), he uses the piano to create a vividly train like rhythm which encapsulates all of the ‐

rickety sounds of the early steam trains. The use of train like rhythms is a recurrent element ‐

in Villa Lobos’ output. This is a very rustic use of the piano and makes no concession to ‐

delicate finger work. The pianist needs hammers for fingers to play this. Once again Villa

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Lobos is using the piano like a drum and the left and right hand alternation found in Negrinha and many other Villa Lobos works is again found here. Towards the end of section ‐

6 in the score, the pianist has quite a lot of work to do with little clusters of notes, played staccato and on the offbeat. This style of playing demands a good sense of rhythm and is typical of Latin music. The remainder of the work mostly features the left and right hand alternation, drum like playing mentioned before. As the music (train) comes to a stop the ‐

piano slowly decreases in speed and rhythmic rate. This final movement features the piano the most out of the four movements. This is a rhythmical approach to piano writing and is far removed from the world of concert piano technique with its cascading arpeggios and flashy showmanship. This really is piano music with a folk influenced root and the simplicity of its style conjures up images of dusty, ramshackle houses deep in the Brazilian countryside, where men wear straw hats and smoke cigars, playing cards in the shadows, seeking respite from the midday sun. He next uses the piano in the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3. The piano takes a much more leading role in this work and seems more like a piano concerto at times. The compositional style is rhapsodic with the pianist leaping around the keyboard in an almost improvised manner. In this work we can clearly detect the ‘Bachianas’ part of the title although the music still remains uniquely Villa Lobos with his use of impressionistic rhythms that seem ‐

worlds apart from Bach’s own rather uniform rhythms. The first movement Preludio opens with rich and powerful chords in the piano surrounded by harmonies from the clarinets,


bass clarinet, viola, cello and double bass. The piano writing is strikingly bold with the melody in the left hand being mirrored in octaves by the right. Where there are gaps in the melody the left and right hand place rich and deep chords before leaping back up to play out the melody. The piano starts a descending passage which essentially starts on beat two of bar four and continues descending down until bar 6. This passage is typically Latin with the demi semiquavers being grouped in threes, this causes the phrases to cut across the bar ‐

line and creates a sense of breaking down the meter (Ex. 2.1). After this section the music moves into a movement where the rhythms are continually the same, perhaps trying to emulate Bach’s own way of using relentless rhythm and the music is written out on three staves, a favourite device of Villa Lobos. After this section he ‐

introduces a baroque like melody with typically contrapuntal harmonisations. The violins ‐

weave in amongst the texture with semiquavers and later the oboe adds a beautiful sonorous melody which complements the melody in the piano. Gone are the impressionistic rhythms here and instead Villa Lobos presents us with something much more fugue like. ‐

This first movement is a good display of Villa Lobos’ versatility as a composer for the piano. ‐

Here we have something very different from Rudepoêma, this is neo baroque music with a ‐

Latin American colouring. Unlike his educational and overtly Neo classical music, here we ‐

have a good balance between, what seems to be the true character of Villa Lobos and him ‐

striving to imitate and emulate the musical styles of his predecessors. This music is far removed from the ramshackle sounds of the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 2 and shows Villa

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Lobos as a much more refined and learned composer. The second movement, Fantasia, starts out with a similar compositional style to the first movement but quickly descends into something much freer and also includes longer sections where the piano does not have anything to play. There are elements of Jazz in some of the rhythms too and the piece on the whole is a lot more fantasy like. The third movement is entitled Aria but has a Portuguese subtitle of Modinha. It is interesting to see how Villa Lobos fuses these two styles and sees them as belonging to a ‐

similar category of music. In fact the Modinha form does bear many similarities to the Aria the only real difference between the two being mood and idiom.


Ex. 2.1 Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3, Preludio, bars 1 6, piano part. ‐

In this movement the pianist does not play any notes until bar 18 where the piano is introduced with a moving and passionate melody that gradually increases in intensity. This music really could pass for baroque music and if bars 18 to 21 were played as an isolated fragment many musicians may mistake it for genuine baroque music.


The fourth movement Toccata lives up to its name with the fast moving semiquavers often associated with Toccatas being the driving rhythm. Villa Lobos once again uses his device of ‐

left and right hand alternation in the piano. The Toccata is a very exciting piece of music and the piano takes a more rhythmical role once again in this movement although this is flashy showmanship type rhythm and not just supporting rhythm. Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3 is worlds apart from no. 2 in compositional style mood and

setting. Where we had the countryman in no. 2 we now have the world of the concert pianist in no. 3 and the whole of European piano musical heritage. There are elements of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, Liszt and Ravel all within in this one work. Without these composers to follow Villa Lobos would surely never have composed music like this, but it is ‐

Villa Lobos’ own unique character that gives the works their individuality. This tropical, ‐

extravagance, this Brazilian fascination with all things European and antique, this attempt at taming the wild Brazilian soul within European models is at the very heart of Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3.

One way of describing this composition is to compare it to a wild native Indian from the Amazon who has been dressed up in European clothing, taught something about European culture and etiquette then come to live amongst European people in a city. Although he essentially acts as the other city folk do, there will always remain something innately wild and Indian about him and though he tries to hide them, you can almost see the feathers poking out from under his hat, the ceremonial paint on his face and a spear in place of his brief case. Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4 (1941) is the only one out of the nine Bachianas that features

the piano solely. However, Villa Lobos made an orchestral arrangement later in the same ‐

year. The Preludio from this suite is a combination of an essentially baroque theme mixed with a mood that gradually gets more and more Latin, eventually descending into rich, passionate chords. One gets the impression of Villa Lobos trying to imitate Bach’s music but ‐

unable to contain his own flamboyant soul within the piece. The Preludio is based on a simple theme that, not unlike Pachelbel’s Canon, is extemporised and elaborated as the piece progresses (Ex. 2.2). In the second movement, Coral , Villa Lobos intends the piano to create an organ like effect ‐

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with the use of sympathetic vibrations and his marking in the score is ‘como um orgão’.


Ex. 2.2 Prelúdio (Introdução) Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4 bars 1 2 ‐

Piano music in Brazilian musical education

In June of 1930 Villa Lobos arrived at the Brazilian port of Recife with the intention of ‐

returning to Paris, however, political circumstances made this impossible. A revolution in October of 1930 bringing Getulio Vargas into power brought about 15 years of dictatorship that made it temporarily impossible to make payments abroad. This meant that Villa Lobos ‐

was unable to make the payments on his Parisian apartment and was duly evicted, his belongings were removed along with various autograph scores that are now lost. He thus turned his efforts to work in Brazil and in a visit to São Paulo he became aware of the appalling state of musical education in schools and was inflamed with the desire to remedy the situation. He approached the authorities with a proposal of institutionalising Brazilian musical education in public schools and devoted many years to these projects. In 1932 Villa Lobos was invited by the Director General of Education to become the musical ‐

director of SEMA (Superintendency of Artistic and Musical Education). It is thanks to this fortunate event that Brazilian people today benefit from a unique musical education system designed by Villa Lobos himself. He was quick to realise that to follow in the footsteps of the ‐

European education system would not have worked so well in Brazil and so he adapted and modified methods that had already proven beneficial, to better suit the Brazilian people. Villa Lobos believed that musical education in schools is not an end in itself but rather a ‐

means to create discipline, civic training and artistic education. It seems strange that Villa

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Lobos puts artistic education as the final point in musical training but he believed that before people can appreciate serious music they have to have a well grounded understanding of art. Perhaps his greatest educational achievement was his development of the manisolfa system, a system closely linked to the Tonic Solfa but with less syllables and more hand signs


making it applicable to any key and chromatic notes. It also has similarities to the Indian system of Sagam but Villa Lobos probably did not have this in mind when designing the ‐

method. However, it serves the same purpose as the Indian system in that it allows the student to concentrate on producing the right sounds rather than focusing on intellectual concepts. The children in Brazilian schools were then taught the national anthem, nursery, folk and national songs using his method. Villa Lobos’ aim through his musical system was to ‐

develop the Brazilian peoples’ understanding of their vast and diverse culture, to give them a healthy respect for their fellow Brazilians and also to widen their perception of musical styles from all around the world. At this time Villa Lobos’ compositional style inevitably changed. The characteristic sounds ‐

of his modernist period, the chordal clusters, the sharp dissonances and the tormented side to his music really had no place in educational and nationalistic music. His music became much more tonal at this time and his focus turned to using children’s songs, folk songs and nationalistic music to develop a musical heritage uniquely Brazilian. It was during the Vargas years that he gathered the material to compose and arrange the Guia pràtico (1932). The Guia pràtico consists of eleven volumes of piano music all arranged

from Brazilian children’s songs and folk songs. They were originally choral works but Villa

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Lobos later arranged them for solo piano. Much of the material used in Guia pràtico was also used in his 1926 suite Cirandas. The sophisticated treatment of the material in these earlier arrangements is in marked contrast to the simple and diatonic arrangement in Guia pràtico. Villa Lobos had an ability to extract hidden meanings from within these children’s ‐

songs while still staying true to the simplicity of them. Other works from the Guia pràtico are beyond the ability of children’s or beginner’s music and would not be out of place in the concert repertoire. The beautiful simplicity of Acordei de madrugada from volume 1 of the Guia pràtico shows Villa Lobos’ talent as an arranger and aptitude for letting the melody line ‐

sing. He does not overcomplicate the music with flashy showmanship but simply presents us with a clear arrangement that features a rhythmical motif in the left hand which repeats throughout the piece. Simple decoration in the right hand embellishes the melody which helps to break the monotony of the music (Ex. 2.3).


Ex. 2.3 Acordei de madrugada, bars 5 8 ‐

The second piece of music in volume 1 is a popular song from Paraíba in the north of Brazil. Villa Lobos allows himself a bit more extravagance with the opening here, using an ‐

introduction that seems to be unconnected to the actual song, being more an original creation of the composer. The piece has two main sections after the opening: a sentimental and reflective melody followed by a piece of punchy and truly Brazilian rhythm with the left hand playing staccato and the right hand playing chords on the offbeat. The folk melody from Na corda da viola, the fifth piece from volume 1, is a well know melody in Brazil and was also used by Antonio Carlos Jobim in his 1963 composition Gabriela. Villa Lobos makes a more classical arrangement of Na corda da viola here in the ‐

Guia pràtico but the original melody is clearly distinguishable in both Villa Lobos’ and ‐

Jobim’s work. There are 5 pieces of music in volume 1 of the Guia pràtico all in this simple style of piano playing and all very much children’s songs with that simplicity of melody that can only come from folk music. Still, these works are advanced in compositional technique and the clarity of them is refreshing. The Guia pràtico also provided Villa Lobos with yet ‐

more compositional resources and some of the melodies and rhythms found their way into some of his most memorable compositions.


Conclusion

Through the study of Villa Lobos’ music one begins to appreciate the diversity and ‐

originality of this composer. Villa Lobos in fact, is something of a hidden gem yet to be ‐

discovered and truly appreciated for all that he has to offer. How he came to compose in the way he did is the result of many sociological factors coming together at the right place and right time, mixed with natural creativity and the ability to experiment. The fact that Villa Lobos had models like Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Ravel, Liszt and many other composers ‐

as the source of inspiration for his music is the result of the era he lived in. The way in which information was distributed at the turn of the 20th century was much quicker and it was because of this that people all over the world could readily benefit from influences that came from faraway places. Perhaps composers before Villa Lobos would have had to wait a ‐

lot longer to pick up the latest trends from Paris and Europe as travel between these two countries was undoubtedly slower before the invention of modern transport systems. Not only this but the changes in government and monarchy began shaping Brazil and at the time of Villa Lobos’ birth, as we have already seen, the Emperor of Brazil had been overthrown ‐

by republicans. Such changes always have an effect on people and the way they live their lives, this too in turn leads to new trends in art and music as traditional values are broken down and new social structures arise. It was Villa Lobos’ own character however that played a large part in shaping his music. ‐

The diversity of his music and the prolific way in which he composed is evidence of a man possessed by an unshakeable self assertion and desire to be heard. Throughout his life Villa

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Lobos regularly had to champion his own music as other people were reluctant to add his repertoire into their concert programmes. It is hard to imagine him being disheartened and one gets the impression of a man who never lost the drive to promote his work, in an almost business like fashion. In fact examining Villa Lobos’ life and music one begins to see ‐

that a large part of his character was academic and that his compositional style was strongly directed by his ability to experiment, almost like an inventor rather than a musician. ‘Villa Lobos’ special gift is his ability to absorb, coupled with an imaginative power and a skill ‐

for experimenting’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos Collected Studies p. 14). ‐


However, Villa Lobos’ musicality is undisputable he was after all one of the musicians ‐

talented enough to be accepted by the Chorões who were said to judge a man by his appearance and ability to improvise. If you could improvise and accompany they would accept you among their ranks, otherwise, they wouldn’t let you waste their time. Villa Lobos ‐

was innately musical in that way that many Latin musicians are; playing by feeling, instinct and listening rather than pursuing the intellectual side of music. The vast diversity of Villa Lobos’ music sums up the character of Brazil beautifully, that ‐

almost chaotic mixture of races, cultures, religions and music can be heard in Villa Lobos’ ‐

own mosaic like approach to composing. It is almost as if Brazil deliberately created Villa ‐

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Lobos to express to the wider world her diversity and colours. The music of Villa Lobos is a ‐

synthesis of Brazilian culture. Yet, ever present behind this Latin soul is the foundation of European classical music, Villa Lobos’ music may have been completely different had he ‐

never been influenced by it. Despite this, Villa Lobos himself claimed to have no outside ‐

influences and stated that: In my music there are no so called influences. It is thoroughly American – of our continent

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belonging to no school or special trend. How do I know what inspired choros no. 8 and no. 9? My answer is that I do not know what the word inspiration means. I create music out of necessity, biological necessity. I write because I cannot help it. I follow no style or fashion. My artistic creed is la liberté absolue. When I write, it is according to the style of Villa Lobos ‐

(Oxford studies of composers Wright p. 67 ).

These kinds of statements seem typical of an artistic temperament and it seems hard to believe that any composer can write music without some influence from outside. Still, Villa

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Lobos was an original and individual composer and Rudepoêma is an example of one of his most original works. At other times Villa Lobos seems more of a musical magpie collecting ‐

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ideas or fragments and then weaving them all together to form his own unique creation. Villa Lobos was not the type of composer that depended on any special mood or ‐

inspiration to write music and it has been noted that he often composed music whilst at parties, playing billiards and holding a conversation on the phone. This approach seems worlds away from the deep sentimentality of some of his music and on hearing and playing his music one gets the impression of a man with a sense of tragic loss and sadness. Even his lighter pieces are often interspersed with sections of anxiety and torment before returning to a short lived contentment.


When considering the idiomatic writing Villa Lobos has achieved for many instruments we ‐

also see that he had a very good knowledge of many instruments, in particular the cello, guitar and piano. His more traditional music for guitar is in marked contrast to the modernistic and experimental piano music he wrote. And yet both types of music work well for the chosen instrument. Eccentricity also plays a big part in his compositional style and writing music for 8 cellos often makes it hard for regular performances of his music. Still, Villa Lobos did just that. As ‐

has often been said about Villa Lobos, he was a man who seemed to make it his personal ‐

ambition to be completely different from everyone and these eccentricities are perhaps a result of that desire. ‘Possessed by a strange ambition to be different from others in every way, he has embellished his rather uneventful and struggling life with fictitious happenings in which his belief is unshakeable.’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos Collected Studies p. 14). ‐

Other eccentricities include writing music for voice without words and creating words based on Indian and African languages. ‘The attraction of mixing unfamiliar sounding words with musical tones has inspired Villa ‐

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Lobos to go even a step further and create his own words to emphasize his musical ideas’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos Collected studies p. 20). ‐

In Chôros no. 8, on page 109 of the miniature score he tries to create an interesting effect by asking the performer to place paper between the strings of the piano. The problem is that the player only has four bars in which to do this and the fact that another ordinary piano is used at the same time means that the effect goes unheard. No doubt these eccentricities can create difficulties in ensuring regular performances of his music. Villa Lobos’ use of ‐

Brazilian percussion instruments also hinders frequent performance of his works, although they add to the authenticity of Brazilian folk music their use seems to be another case of Villa Lobos striving to be different. ‐

Villa Lobos seemed to be most at ease when composing folk based material. He remained ‐

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quite modest in his lifestyle, choosing to live in a small down town apartment in Rio rather than any grand house. No stranger to the street life, he seemed at ease among the ordinary people of Rio and yet had no problem socialising with great artists and the bourgeoisie alike. He seems the type of man that would have had the same airs and graces around world


renowned artists or simple folk musicians. Only he could have prized Andres Segovia’s beloved guitar from his fingers at a party and proceeded to improvise on it, with heavy hands, for an entire night. Of course moments like these made him lifelong friends and many people talk of his amicable and loveable character. Sergei Prokofiev, while he was a critic for the Revue musicale, commented on his; ‘charm, sincerity, his freedom from academicism, and, most important, his restless but tender spirit’ (Oxford Studies of Composers, Simon Wright p. 44).

What drove him to compose so prolifically is hard to say and his frenetic lifestyle seems one that many people would have found to be a burden. Questions regarding unusual character traits inevitably arise when regarding many of the great composers and Villa

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Lobos did have some rather unusual tendencies. Despite this he really was rather a personal man and easily befriended others. There are no accounts of him being violent though his music sometimes suggests otherwise. If anything one could say Villa Lobos had a tragic and ‐

profound side to his nature that can be heard persistently throughout his oeuvre. The true failing of Villa Lobos as a composer is his inability to create cohesive and logical ‐

forms as is pointed out by Lisa M. Peppercorn in her book of collected studies. It seems he lacks the ability to follow a straight and narrow path in his artistic progression and instead tries to capture an impression of everything all at once. These inconsistencies run throughout the entirety of his compositional life and a good case in point is the Bachianas Brasileiras, where he composed no. 4 before no. 3, reusing old material patched onto a new

idea. Perhaps the greatest summary of his compositional style comes from the composer himself “I do not compose, I improvise in the dark”. On hearing many of his works one has the impression that he stitches together patches of improvisation. Peppercorn talks of his inability to conceive formal structures and fuse works into an organic whole and she undermines his proud comment that Chôros are a “novel form of musical composition” and states: ‘…they make a virtue of a weakness in constructing organic forms’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa

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Lobos Collected Studies p. 19).

One of the driving forces behind Villa Lobos’ desire to be a great composer was in fact ‐

borne of his need to be noticed, admired and talked about. ‘…it was less an inner urge but rather a desperate necessity trying to seek fame and fortune, be talked about and call attention’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos Collected Studies p. 53). ‐


The multi faceted and eclectic nature of Villa Lobos leaves his critics and followers with the ‐

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difficult job of answering the question: What exactly is the compositional style of Villa

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Lobos? As has already been stated by many of his critics; folk music is definitely at the forefront of his style, but whether or not Villa Lobos would have accepted the claim to being ‐

a folk musician or not is one we can no longer answer. Perhaps the best way we can describe the music of Villa Lobos is to consider it as a musical mosaic, representing all the ‐

different cultures and musical styles he was influenced by. This ‘mosaic’ is as brightly coloured, vibrant and diverse as Brazilian culture itself. As a composer he wrote music unlike any other Brazilian composer that came before and yet in this process he utilized perhaps every style of Brazilian music in existence. He took a little inspiration from one source a little from another and blended them altogether in a way that was unique and daring so that, although he may have taken inspiration from impressionism for example, it is an impressionism unique to him. He had a way of conceiving music that seemed to be all his own yet familiar enough to capture our attention and form links and comparisons with other works. The influence of Bach in his work is undeniable and his pseudo Baroque melodies are so convincing at times that one may ‐

believe they are in fact hearing Bach, that is until Villa Lobos’ Latin spirit springs forth and ‐

reminds us that this is actually 20th century music. A quote by Peppercorn is a good example of the way in which he conceived music:

‘Harmony itself has little attraction for Villa Lobos; he prefers rather to exploit other fields ‐

nearer his heart. Colour, timbre and sound are all that matter to him; harmony is a mere necessary support, formal structure an inevitable foundation’ (L.M. Peppercorn Villa Lobos ‐

Collected Studies p. 21).

Villa-Lobos-Heitor-dissertation

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