An enormously prolific composer and a man of exuberant energy,
Heitor Villa-Lobos transformed the musical life of his native
Brazil and put the country on the international musical map.
His musical education was anything but academic. From an early
age he learned the cello with his father, and it was always an
instrument close to his heart. He also gained a virtuosic command
of the guitar, on which he improvised with popular musicians in
his home city, Rio de Janeiro.
Between the ages of 18 and 25, Villa-Lobos travelled all over
Brazil exploring various forms of Brazilian music and collecting
materials. He later entertained Parisian circles with tales of
being captured by cannibal Indians, who released him unharmed only
because of his musical abilities. On his return to Rio, his
attempts at formal training in composition proved uncongenial to
his fiery and impatient temperament, but he did study the works of
the great masters while earning his living playing in cafes. He
composed continuously, gaining increasing recognition, and in 1922
received an official commission for a work about World War I — his
Third symphony "A guerra" (To war).
With the help and encouragement of the pianist Arthur
Rubinstein, Villa-Lobos was able to go to Paris in the late 1920s,
where he was influenced by Satie and Milhaud. He caused a
sensation with the exotic brilliance and vitality of his
Choros, a series of works for forces varying from solo guitar
to chorus, band, and orchestra, all re-creating the sounds and
forms of Brazilian popular music. Villa-Lobos lived mainly in
Paris until 1930, and was much admired by fellow musicians,
including Edgar Varese and Olivier Messiaen.
His return to Brazil coincided with the arrival of the new
nationalist regime, under which Villa-Lobos was put in charge of
organizing the musical life of the country: his energy and
imagination in the educational reforms he carried out are
comparable only to the achievements of Kodaly in Hungary. The
works which best encapsulate his thinking during these years are the Bachianas
Brasileiras, which abandon
the wildness of much of his earlier music in favour of a Classical
serenity. He paid homage to his beloved Bach by pointing to the
parallels between Bach's counterpoint and the independent lines of
much Brazilian folk music. No. 5 of the Bachianas,
for wordless soprano and eight cellos, is a haunting example of
this.
In 1945 Villa-Lobos founded the Brazilian Academy of Music and
nominated its first 50 members. The works of his last years
include some virtuosic concertos, as well as a large proportion of
his 17 string quartets. He died in 1959 and was accorded the
honour of a state funeral.
