I have no idea as to the popularity of Villa Lobos in his native Brazil or South America in general. What I do know is that this vastly prolific composer's music is sadly ignored in Europe. He was a master of orchestration as demonstrated in his 12 symphonies and a wonderful exponent of chamber music in his 17 String Quartets. Here, he lets his hair down a little and provides a chamber work of colour and uses the instruments with agility. It's 17 minutes of Villa Lobos at his finest writing for a small ensemble.
This is a typically French formation, with highlights as Roussel, Florent Schmitt, Darius Mihlaud, Cras, and smaller or larger derivatives form Debussy and Ravel. In addition, beyond instrumental consideratons, it "sounds" like Franch music. This shows how the Frabch music is extremely intricated with the Brazilian influence under several aspects in that attractive composer's woaks, which tends to be forgetten or at least left aside nowadays.
There is a Brazilian film about Villa-Lobos that talks about his stay in Paris and the success achieved by his works in the French capital, due to the exotic element that was then in vogue. Villa-Lobos is reputed to be a mythomaniac, and it is impossible to know what is true, what is his spontaneous invention and what is European manufacture for consumption of "local color" in the stories he told about his travels in the Amazon and his contact with indigenous peoples. Much of the "primitivism" that characterizes some of his most famous works he derived from his contact with the Indians, while certain scholars of his work think that it is more just to credit him to Stravinsky's influence. In addition, here's what the CD leaflet says about this quintet: "This work was commissioned by the Quintette Instrumental de l’Orchestre de la Radiodiffusion Française, written in 1957 and posthumously premiered in Rio de Janeiro. The rather more conventional combination of flute, strings and harp seems to suggests it was commissioned to take advantage of a combination often used in French music of the 1920s, found in works by Roussel, Jean Cras and in Vincent d’Indy’s Suite. Villa-Lobos had studied d’Indy’s works in his formative years, but these works are very different from each other. While d’Indy’s has a pastoral outlook, Villa-Lobos creates a robust structure, where he induces the listener to look out for a sonata form-related method as a reference." Brazil and all of Latin America was a French cultural colony between the mid-19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In the case of Brazil, the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte and the spiritism of Alan Kardec exercised and still exercise an influence that they never had in France itself. The authoritarian governments that ruled Brazil for much of the twentieth century, the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas and the military regime of 1964-1985 had a Comtean positivist ideological matrix.
@@pedrohenriqueprata I know all that, and this spiritst background has switched to become strong supporters of J. Bolsonaro. You are perfectly right about the Franch (and begnian) quiçntets, buit you should quoite the mpost powerful of them, Roussel's "serenade", and I think that the "robust structure" that you quote comes partly friom the mazing writing of Rouseel's quintat. Indeed, Roussel had a strong influence on some composers (Martinu for instance) that we cannot imagine right now. All in all, Villa-Lobos created an amazing (sometime inhomogeneous) mui sic that would indeed lack in the musical XXth century's musical landscape.
@@gerardbegni2806 It is very difficult to talk about Brazilian politics, the theme involves a lot of hatred and in the current situation it has created tensions and dissidents even within families. The current president, in any case, has no understanding of Brazilian history or the military regime, and among the cadres of influence and interests that he wanted his government to comprise, the military are among the least dangerous and irrational groups. Among the five military presidents who ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, there was a division between what was known as "the Sorbonne group", people who had de Gaulle as a reference, and who were liberals with a good cultural background, and called Hardline. Marshals trained at the Escola Superior de Guerra, such as Castelo Branco and Geisel, believed that a military government was a necessary anomaly that should be as brief and as limited in action as possible. The other group, which included President Costa e Silva, was responsible, for example, for Institutional Act No. 5, which implemented in Brazil for ten years, between 1968 and 1978, a suspension of all constitutional guarantees. During this period, curiously, Brazil was the country that had, however, the highest annual economic growth rates in the world. Anyway, forgive me, but I don't want to talk about politics. I'm just waiting for this to end.
@@gerardbegni2806 Another thing I wanted to talk about and I forgot: I know that Martinů was a fervent admirer of Roussel and that, apparently, he moved to France expressly to take classes with this composer. But in my ears, Martinů's music does not sound anything like his master's. I imagine that their way of working was also very different. Roussel seems to have been meticulous, while Martinů left a vast catalog with hundreds of works, perhaps more or less equivalent in number to the production of Darius Milhaud. In any case, they say, Villa-Lobos was the most prolific composer in the history of music.
Parts of this have extreme rhythmic difficulty. It is his finest work for the harp. The Quatour is more elaborate in its writing, but the balance of instruments is not as fine as this. It is comparable to Debussy's Sonate.
Super underrated
I have no idea as to the popularity of Villa Lobos in his native Brazil or South America in general. What I do know is that this vastly prolific composer's music is sadly ignored in Europe. He was a master of orchestration as demonstrated in his 12 symphonies and a wonderful exponent of chamber music in his 17 String Quartets. Here, he lets his hair down a little and provides a chamber work of colour and uses the instruments with agility. It's 17 minutes of Villa Lobos at his finest writing for a small ensemble.
He's very loved in French
He's very loved in French
@TECHUNTER I am very pleased to hear that.
I agree. He is sadly rarely played on the classical radio stations in the UK
Lindíssimo
This is a typically French formation, with highlights as Roussel, Florent Schmitt, Darius Mihlaud, Cras, and smaller or larger derivatives form Debussy and Ravel. In addition, beyond instrumental consideratons, it "sounds" like Franch music. This shows how the Frabch music is extremely intricated with the Brazilian influence under several aspects in that attractive composer's woaks, which tends to be forgetten or at least left aside nowadays.
There is a Brazilian film about Villa-Lobos that talks about his stay in Paris and the success achieved by his works in the French capital, due to the exotic element that was then in vogue. Villa-Lobos is reputed to be a mythomaniac, and it is impossible to know what is true, what is his spontaneous invention and what is European manufacture for consumption of "local color" in the stories he told about his travels in the Amazon and his contact with indigenous peoples. Much of the "primitivism" that characterizes some of his most famous works he derived from his contact with the Indians, while certain scholars of his work think that it is more just to credit him to Stravinsky's influence. In addition, here's what the CD leaflet says about this quintet: "This work was commissioned by the Quintette Instrumental de l’Orchestre de la Radiodiffusion Française, written in 1957 and posthumously premiered in Rio de Janeiro. The rather more conventional combination of flute, strings and harp seems to suggests it was commissioned to take advantage of a combination often used in French music of the 1920s, found in works by Roussel, Jean Cras and in Vincent d’Indy’s Suite. Villa-Lobos had studied d’Indy’s works in his formative years, but these works are very different from each other. While d’Indy’s has a pastoral outlook, Villa-Lobos creates a robust structure, where he induces the listener to look out for a sonata form-related method as a reference."
Brazil and all of Latin America was a French cultural colony between the mid-19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In the case of Brazil, the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte and the spiritism of Alan Kardec exercised and still exercise an influence that they never had in France itself.
The authoritarian governments that ruled Brazil for much of the twentieth century, the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas and the military regime of 1964-1985 had a Comtean positivist ideological matrix.
@@pedrohenriqueprata I know all that, and this spiritst background has switched to become strong supporters of J. Bolsonaro. You are perfectly right about the Franch (and begnian) quiçntets, buit you should quoite the mpost powerful of them, Roussel's "serenade", and I think that the "robust structure" that you quote comes partly friom the mazing writing of Rouseel's quintat. Indeed, Roussel had a strong influence on some composers (Martinu for instance) that we cannot imagine right now. All in all, Villa-Lobos created an amazing (sometime inhomogeneous) mui sic that would indeed lack in the musical XXth century's musical landscape.
@@gerardbegni2806 It is very difficult to talk about Brazilian politics, the theme involves a lot of hatred and in the current situation it has created tensions and dissidents even within families. The current president, in any case, has no understanding of Brazilian history or the military regime, and among the cadres of influence and interests that he wanted his government to comprise, the military are among the least dangerous and irrational groups. Among the five military presidents who ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, there was a division between what was known as "the Sorbonne group", people who had de Gaulle as a reference, and who were liberals with a good cultural background, and called Hardline. Marshals trained at the Escola Superior de Guerra, such as Castelo Branco and Geisel, believed that a military government was a necessary anomaly that should be as brief and as limited in action as possible. The other group, which included President Costa e Silva, was responsible, for example, for Institutional Act No. 5, which implemented in Brazil for ten years, between 1968 and 1978, a suspension of all constitutional guarantees. During this period, curiously, Brazil was the country that had, however, the highest annual economic growth rates in the world. Anyway, forgive me, but I don't want to talk about politics. I'm just waiting for this to end.
@@gerardbegni2806 With regard to music, what is in quotes is not my own. I pasted what was written on the CD booklet, from Naxos record label.
@@gerardbegni2806 Another thing I wanted to talk about and I forgot: I know that Martinů was a fervent admirer of Roussel and that, apparently, he moved to France expressly to take classes with this composer. But in my ears, Martinů's music does not sound anything like his master's. I imagine that their way of working was also very different. Roussel seems to have been meticulous, while Martinů left a vast catalog with hundreds of works, perhaps more or less equivalent in number to the production of Darius Milhaud. In any case, they say, Villa-Lobos was the most prolific composer in the history of music.
Parts of this have extreme rhythmic difficulty. It is his finest work for the harp. The Quatour is more elaborate in its writing, but the balance of instruments is not as fine as this. It is comparable to Debussy's Sonate.
1:50
Who did the lovely painting of Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais?
Alberto da Veiga Guignard.