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GUITAR HISTORY
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artistic capital of the world, and its audiences were hungry for the
sounds and rhythms from far-off exotic lands like
Brazil.Villa-Lobos was quick to realize that he could make his fame
with this type of music.
Villa-Lobos composed his fourteen Choros for a variety of
performing media. Among these fourteen works, several stand out
for their uniqueness. Choros No. 2, for flute and clarinet, is a
conversation between two virtuoso street musicians. A Brazilian
Indian song is the inspiration for Choros No. 3; the song is sung in
the Parecis Indian language by a male chorus accompanied by
seven woodwind instruments. Choros No. 5 for solo piano, titled
Alma Brasileira (Soul of Brazil), displays the expressive qualities
of a serenade with its pulsating and melancholic themes, perhaps
inspired by the piano music of Nazareth. Considered to be one of
his masterpieces (if not his greatest work), Choros No. 10 utilizes
the forces of an orchestra augmented with native Brazilian
instruments and chorus to create a monument of nationalistic
Brazilian music. Choros No. 11 is an immense panorama of Brazil
in the form of a piano concerto, utilizing some of Villa-Lobos most
daring orchestration. It should be noted that the full scores for
Choros No. 13 and No. 14 are presumed lost these two works
have never been performed.
After completing the fourteen Choros, Villa-Lobos composed
Introduction to the Choros for guitar and orchestra, which
incorporated many of the themes found in the Choros series. In this
unique work, the guitar plays a very prominent role with several
extended solos. At the beginning of the printed score, Villa-Lobos
lists the instrumentation, clearly specifying guitar with
microphone - obviously Villa-Lobos realized that an unamplified
guitar would not be heard over the full sound of an orchestra. From
an historical perspective, Introduction to the Choros, composed in
1929, should be considered a groundbreaking work; it demonstrates
that the guitar can be effective in an orchestral setting. It lays the
foundation for the great guitar concertos of Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joaqun Rodrigo, and Manuel M. Ponce,
which would appear in the 1930s and 1940s. In addition,
Introduction to the Choros sows the seeds for Villa-Lobos
Concerto for Guitar, completed in 1951, which many considered
the culmination of all his works for guitar.
The great Mexican composer Manuel M. Ponce (1882-1948)
became acquainted with Villa-Lobos in the 1920s when both
composers were in Paris. In a letter to his wife, Ponce wrote about
his first meeting with the Brazilian composer and their discussion
about the Choros. yesterday I was working at the office and
Edgar Varse came looking for me. He had been there twice
already without finding me. He invited me to his house; naturally, I
accepted. Roussel, Florent Schmitt, the pianist Teran, Heitor
Villa-Lobos, Cotapos the Chilean composer were there, with
writers, painters, sculptors, etc. Among the women there was
Madame Roussel who remembered you and sends greetings. There
was also the Countess of Polignac, the lady who invited us to a
concert at Versailles, you remember? Villa-Lobos was very amiable
to me, invited me to visit him. The whole world knew me by name
either through Segovia or the Gaceta.
Villa-Lobos, in his curious trilingual dialect (French, Spanish,
Portuguese) tells me that his music comes directly from the
Brazilian forests. It evokes his far-off Amazonas, the violence of the
savage rhythms, negro melodies twisted in their bodies
syncopations, in the frenzy of dances which the composers genius
has managed to link together in the prodigious choros, one of
which caused a scandal in the Pasdeloup concerts.
Choros, explains Villa-Lobos, means weeping, and this name
applies to the serenade of a lover as well as to the native
ceremonies
More than any of his other works, the Choros are considered
Villa-Lobos most daring masterpieces. The series originated with a
singular guitar work, Choros No. 1, and concluded with a large
orchestral work, Introduction to the Choros, which featured the
guitar in a most prominent role. In the Choros series, Villa-Lobos
synthesized the popular music of Rio de Janeiro to create what has
been described as one of the most important manifestations of
Brazilian musical folklore. The eminent classical guitarist Jess
Silva (1914-1996), who knew Villa-Lobos and played for him on
two occasions, wrote: The music of Heitor Villa-Lobos has
revealed to me an unexpected dimension of life. It is clear that his
music is that of a great composer; inspired and beautiful, very
spontaneous. His wisdom and great musical technique are present,
without effort, like that of the great Masters of music. Villa-Lobos
Choros are magnificent creations, full of craftsmanship and
emotion, from the mind and soul of one of the twentieth centurys
greatest and most original composers.
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