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Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 2
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By Joe Lopes
Here is part 2 of Joe's article about the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. To read the previous part click the relevant link at the end of the article.
Paris Sojourn & the New Nationalism
Of all the classical works written by Brazilian musicians from the time of Carlos Gomes, up to and including the early twentieth century, none could be accused of having taken full advantage of the incredible wealth and variety of native indigenous music, along with West African, Caribbean, folkloric, caipira (country), and urban-style street influences, as had the numerous hybrid creations of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
The remarkable collection of local airs, ditties, songs, sounds, themes and tunes he had amassed during this and other subsequent periods of his life were put to fruitful, and often ingenious, use in much of his voluminous output. In this, Villa-Lobos can be construed as the most nationalistic of Brazilian artists, and his country‘s first truly authentic, resident musical representative:
"Yes, I‘m Brazilian - and very Brazilian. In my music, I let the rivers and seas of this great Brazil sing. I don‘t put a gag on the tropical exuberance of her forests and skies, which I instinctively transpose to everything I write."
- Heitor Villa-Lobos
Where exactly the Carioca composer faltered, if one may be so bold as to use that term in connection with such a profoundly brilliant virtuoso, was in the area that he was most needed: the opera.
Two youthful short works, Aglaia (sometimes written as Algaia) and Elisa, written in 1909 and 1910, respectively, were later fused into a single, four-act piece entitled Izath (or Izaht), completed between 1913 and 1914. It was met with some favor, especially after the Second World War and in the late 1950s, when the work was revived in Rio de Janeiro for such prominent Brazilian singers as tenor Assis Pacheco and baritone Paulo Fortes.
Unhappily, Izath has virtually vanished from the modern Brazilian repertoire and, to my knowledge, has never been performed in this country, neither has it received a complete commercial recording.
In 1922, Villa-Lobos participated in the now legendary Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art) in São Paulo. The resultant Modernist movement, launched by such intellectual luminaries as poet Oswald de Andrade, writer and diplomat Graça Aranha, painters Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Malfatti, and many other Brazilian artists, represented a cultural backlash against the previous generation‘s obsession with European influences, and was a major first step toward forging a purely nationalist and fundamentally native-grown literary, artistic, and musical identity.
With the success of the Modernist agenda behind him, Villa-Lobos was encouraged in the mid-twenties to spend time in Paris, the epicenter for artistic development. While there, he met and hobnobbed with the leading aristocracy of the avant-garde, most notably composers Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie and Darius Milhaud (who he had previously befriended in Brazil), conductor Leopold Stokowski, French cinéaste Jean Cocteau, Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, eccentric Russian émigré Igor Stravinsky, and Polish-born pianist Artur Rubenstein, to whom he dedicated a vivacious piano piece called Rudepoêma (1921-26), and who in turn promoted and played much of the Brazilian‘s music abroad.
It was around this time that "Villa," as he was more affectionately known to friends, began work on his Canções Típicas Brasileiras ("Typical Brazilian Songs," 1919), the Epigramas Irônicos e Sentimentais for solo voice and orchestra (1921), and the Serestas, a fourteen-song voice and piano cycle (1925) reminiscent of Portuguese serenades.
Having done well for himself, artistically speaking, under the Old Republic, Villa-Lobos was less sure of his standing with the Vargas regime, which came to power in October 1930. He need not have been concerned, for the authoritarian Getúlio was most receptive to the composer‘s nationalistic leanings and fully embraced his public-spirited stand.
This happy coincidence dovetailed perfectly with both Villa-Lobos and the administration‘s plans to bring music and choral education to the nation‘s culturally deprived youth.
For quite unlike the captivated Carlos Gomes, who became, in his musical language and lifestyle, every inch a European the more he was exposed to Continental culture-taking as his wife the Italian-born pianist and teacher Adelina de Conte Peri, a former Milan Conservatory graduate, and adding along the way a bevy of contessas and duchessas to his string of society conquests - the worldly Villa, a bon vivant by nature, had remained wholly and ingratiatingly Brazilian to the core. He inspired one Modernist poet, Manuel Bandeira, to write upon the composer‘s return:
"You would expect whoever has just returned from Paris to be full of Paris. Villa-Lobos has come back full of Villa-Lobos."
Villa-Lobos himself went on to expound eloquently upon his own innate and, for the times, uncharacteristic sense of Brazilianness:
"The way I write is a cosmic consequence of the studies I‘ve done, of the synthesis I‘ve arrived at, to mirror a Brazilian nature. I went on, comparing my studies [of the people and the natural wonders of this land] with foreign compositions, and I sought something to support and strengthen my personalism, and the inalterability of my ideas."
While this passion for, and pride in, his native country proved most refreshing, and endeared him overall to the populace at large (and to the powers that be), they tended to alienate him completely from so Western European an art form as the opera, to the unfortunate detriment of the domestic product.
Part 3 next week...
Copyright © 2007 by Josmar F. Lopes
A naturalized American citizen born in Brazil, Joe Lopes was raised and educated in New York City, where he worked for many years in the financial sector. In 1996, he moved to Brazil with his wife and daughters. In 2001, he returned to the U.S. and now resides in North Carolina with his family. You can email your comments to JosmarLopes@msn.com.
To read previous articles by Joe Lopes click below:
Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 1
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 11
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 10
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 9
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 8
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 7
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 6
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 5
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 4
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 3
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 2
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 1
Teaching English In Brazil Part 21
Teaching English In Brazil Part 20
Teaching English In Brazil Part 19
Teaching English In Brazil Part 18
Teaching English In Brazil Part 17
Teaching English In Brazil Part 16
Teaching English In Brazil Part 15
Teaching English In Brazil Part 14
Teaching English In Brazil Part 13
Teaching English In Brazil Part 12
Teaching English In Brazil Part 11
Brazil: Thrills, Spills, and... Oh Yes, No Ifs, Ands or Head-Butts, Please
Teaching English In Brazil Part 10
Teaching English In Brazil Part 9
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 4
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia‘s Fragile Wings Part 4
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 3
Brazilian World Cup Debacle: Just Wait Till 2010! Part 2
Brazilian World Cup Debacle: Just Wait Till 2010! Part 1
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia‘s Fragile Wings Part 3
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 2
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia's Fragile Wings Part 2
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 1
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia‘s Fragile Wings Part 1
Teaching English In Brazil Part 8
Teaching English In Brazil Part 7
Teaching English In Brazil Part 6
Teaching English In Brazil Part 5
Teaching English In Brazil Part 4
Teaching English In Brazil Part 3
Teaching English In Brazil Part 2
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 4
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 3
Teaching English In Brazil - Part I
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 2
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 1
"Down in Brazil," with Michael Franks Part 3
"Down in Brazil," with Michael Franks Part 2
"Down in Brazil," with Michael Franks Part 1
Brazil: A Candid Talk with Gerald Thomas
Getting to the "bottom" of Brazil‘s Gerald Thomas
A Brazilian Diva Torn Between Europe and Brazil
The Enraged Genius of Brazil's Maestro Neschling
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest
Brazil‘s Musical Polyglots: What Was That You Were Singing?
Did Bossa Nova Kill Opera in Brazil?
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1/17/2007
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