Villa-Lobos: from Brazil to the world

Villa-Lobos:  from Brazil to the world

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He composed over a thousand works [1],conducted [2] dozens of orchestras in Europe and the USA, and was considered to be the greatest Latin American composer in the first half of the 20th Century  

The work produced by this composer from Rio is very rich.However, at the beginning of his career there were some music critics he could not please [3]. Villa-Lobos’ music was probably too modern for them. Heitor Villa-Lobos was an erudite musician, but he believed it was possible to enrich classical music with popular influences. He was in love with Brazil’s rich culture. In his youth, he spent months, maybe years, travelling around the North and Northeast of Brazil, researching Brazilian folk [4] music. Heitor used to describe his music as “as natural as a waterfall [5]”. His best known works are “O trenzinho do Caipira” and “Bachianas no5.”

Music in school

Villa-Lobos loved the guitar and was an excellent player. He used to use the guitar to compose chorinhos. He was also a master of the cello. In addition to his beautiful compositions, Villa-Lobos made another important contribution to Brazilian culture. He was responsible for introducing music teaching and singing to schools throughout Brazil.  Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1887 and lived for some years in Paris and New York. He was married twice, but had no children. He died on November 17th 1959. In many Brazilian cities you can find squares, streets, avenues and schools called “Heitor Villa-Lobos.”

Matéria publicada na edição de outubro / novembro da Revista Maganews (ed. número 51)

Ilustração – Calberto

Vocabulary

1 work – aqui = músicas / peças musicais

2 to conduct – conduzir / aqui = reger 

3 he could not please – ele não conseguiu agradar

4 folk - folclore

5 waterfall – cachoeira