Editing Heitor Villa-Lobos (section)

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos}}
[[File:Arte-moderna-8.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Poster announcing appearance of Villa-Lobos in São Paulo (February 17, 1922)]]

His earliest pieces originated in guitar improvisations, for example ''Panqueca'' (Pancake) of 1900. The concert series of 1915{{ndash}}21 included first performances of pieces demonstrating originality and virtuosic technique. Some of these pieces are early examples of elements of importance throughout his œuvre. His attachment to the [[Iberian Peninsula]] is demonstrated in ''Canção Ibéria'' of 1914 and in orchestral transcriptions of some of [[Enrique Granados]]' piano ''Goyescas'' (1918, now lost). Other themes that were to recur in his later work include the anguish and despair of the piece ''Desesperança – Sonata Phantastica e Capricciosa no. 1'' (1915), a violin sonata including "histrionic and violently contrasting emotions",{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=6}} the birds of ''L'oiseau blessé d'une flèche'' (1913), the mother–child relationship (not usually a happy one in Villa-Lobos's music) in ''Les mères'' of 1914, and the flowers of ''Suíte floral'' for piano of 1916{{ndash}}18 which reappeared in ''Distribuição de flores'' for flute and classical guitar of 1937.

Reconciling European tradition and Brazilian influences was also an element that bore fruit more formally later. His earliest published work ''Pequena suíte'' for cello and piano of 1913 shows a love for the cello, but is not notably Brazilian, although it contains elements that were to resurface later.{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=8–9}} His three-movement ''[[String Quartet No. 1 (Villa-Lobos)|Suíte graciosa]]'' of 1915 (expanded to six movements c. 1947 to become his String Quartet No. 1){{sfn|Peppercorn|1991b|loc=32}} is influenced by European opera,<ref>{{harvnb|Villa-Lobos, sua obra|1972|loc=(2), 229}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Wright|1992|loc=9}}.</ref> while ''Três danças características (africanas e indígenas)'' of 1914{{ndash}}16 for piano, later arranged for octet and subsequently orchestrated, is radically influenced by the tribal music of the Caripunas Indians of [[Mato Grosso]].{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=9}}
[[File:Facsimileescravosdejobvl.jpg|thumb|Facsimile of Villa-Lobos's "Escravos de Jó" (Slaves of Job)]]

With his tone poems ''Amazonas'' (1917, first performed in Paris in 1929) and ''Uirapurú'' (1917, first performed 1935) he created works dominated by indigenous Brazilian influences. The works use Brazilian folk tales and characters, imitations of the sounds of the jungle and its fauna, imitations of the sound of the nose-flute by the [[stroh violin|violinophone]], and not least imitations of the [[Musician wren|uirapuru]] bird itself.{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=13–21}}

His meeting with Arthur Rubinstein in 1918 prompted Villa-Lobos to compose piano music such as ''Simples coletânea'' of 1919—which was possibly influenced by Rubinstein's playing of Ravel and Scriabin on his South American tours—and ''Bailado infernal'' of 1920.<ref name="Wright 1992, 24"/> The latter piece includes the tempi and expression markings "vertiginoso e frenético", "infernal" and "mais vivo ainda" (faster still).

''Carnaval das crianças'' of 1919{{ndash}}20 saw Villa-Lobos's mature style emerge; unconstrained by the use of traditional formulae or any requirement for dramatic tension, the piece at times imitates a [[mouth organ]], children's dances, a [[harlequinade]], and ends with an impression of the carnival parade. This work was orchestrated in 1929 with new linking passages and a new title, ''Momoprecoce''. Naïveté and innocence is also heard in the piano suites ''A Prole do Bebê'' (The Baby's Family) of 1918{{ndash}}21.

Around this time he also fused urban Brazilian influences and impressions, for example in his ''Quarteto simbólico'' of 1921. He included the urban street music of the ''chorões'', who were groups containing flute, clarinet and cavaquinho (a Brazilian guitar), and often also including [[ophicleide]], trombones or percussion. Villa-Lobos occasionally joined such bands. Early works showing this influence were incorporated into the ''[[Suite populaire brésilienne]]'' of 1908{{ndash}}12 assembled by his publisher, and more mature works include the ''Sexteto místico'' ({{circa}}1955, replacing a lost and probably unfinished one begun in 1917),{{sfn|Peppercorn|1991b|loc=38–39}} and his setting of the poetry of [[Mário de Andrade]] and Catulo da Paxão Cearense in the ''Canções típicas brasileiras'' of 1919.{{sfn|Anon.|2016}} His classical guitar studies are also influenced by the music of the ''chorões''.{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=59}}

The 12 etudes for guitar commissioned by Andre Segovia during the 1920's serve as a testament to Villa-Lobos’s ability to create and compose meaningful music across a multitude of different instruments. Each piece focuses on the development of different core guitar skills while simultaneously representing the different sounds and techniques found amongst Brazilian street performers, blending both his own nationalistic composition style with a more technical, study first` approach. This is well-demonstrated in the first etude of his collection, presenting an almost exclusively arpeggiated piece with an incredibly unique right-hand pattern.

All the elements mentioned so far are fused in Villa-Lobos's Nonet. Subtitled ''Impressão rápida do todo o Brasil'' (A Brief Impression of the Whole of Brazil), the title of the work denotes it as ostensibly chamber music, but it is scored for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, celesta, harp, piano, a large percussion battery requiring at least two players, and a mixed chorus.

In Paris, his musical vocabulary established, Villa-Lobos solved the problem of his works' form. It was perceived as an incongruity that his Brazilian impressionism should be expressed in the form of quartets and sonatas. He developed new forms to free his imagination from the constraints of conventional musical development such as that required in sonata form.{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=41}} The multi-sectional ''poema'' form may be seen in the ''Suite for Voice and Violin'', which is somewhat like a triptych, and the ''Poema da criança e sua mamã'' for voice, flute, clarinet, and cello (1923). The extended ''[[Rudepoêma]]'' for piano, written for Rubinstein, is a multi-layered work, often requiring notation on several staves, and is both experimental and demanding. Wright calls it "the most impressive result" of this formal development.{{sfn|Wright|1992|loc=48}} The ''Ciranda'', or ''Cirandinha'' is a stylised treatment of simple Brazilian folk melodies in a wide variety of moods. A ''ciranda'' is a child's singing game, but Villa-Lobos's treatment in the works he gave this title are sophisticated. Another form was the ''Chôros''. Villa-Lobos composed more than a dozen works with this title for various instruments, mostly in the years 1924{{ndash}}1929. He described them as "a new form of musical composition", a transformation of the Brazilian music and sounds "by the personality of the composer".<ref>Note in the score of ''Chôros'' No. 3, quoted in {{harvnb|Wright|1992|loc=62}}</ref>

He also composed between 1930 and 1945 nine pieces he called ''Bachianas Brasileiras'' (Brazilian Bachian pieces). These take the forms and nationalism of the ''Chôros'', and add the composer's love of Bach. He incorporated [[Neoclassicism (music)|neoclassicism]] in his nationalistic style.{{sfn|Yang|2007|loc=6}} Villa-Lobos's use of archaisms was not new (an early example is his ''Pequena suíte'' for cello and piano of 1913). The pieces evolved over the period rather than being conceived as a whole, some of them being revised or added to. They contain some of his most popular music, such as No.{{nbsp}}5 for soprano and eight cellos (1938{{ndash}}1945), and No.{{nbsp}}2 for orchestra of 1930 (the ''Tocata'' movement of which is ''O{{nbsp}}trenzinho do caipira'', "The little train of the Caipira"). They also show the composer's love for the tonal qualities of the cello, both No.{{nbsp}}1 and No.{{nbsp}}5 being scored for no other instruments. In these works, the often harsh [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonances]] of his earlier music are less evident: or, as Simon Wright puts it, they are "sweetened". The transformation of ''Chôros'' into ''Bachianas Brasileiras'' is demonstrated clearly by the comparison of No.{{nbsp}}6 for flute and bassoon with the earlier ''[[Chôros No. 2]]'' for flute and clarinet. The dissonances of the later piece are more controlled, the forward direction of the music easier to discern. ''Bachianas Brasileiras'' No.{{nbsp}}9 takes the concept so far as to be an abstract ''Prelude and Fugue'', a complete distillation of the composer's national influences.<ref>{{harvnb|Wright|1992|loc=81–99}} discusses the ''Bachianas Brasileiras'' in some detail</ref> Villa-Lobos eventually recorded all nine of these works for [[EMI]] in Paris, mostly with the musicians of the French National Orchestra; these were originally issued on LPs and later reissued on CDs.{{sfn|EMI catalogue}} He also recorded the first section of ''Bachianas Brasileiras No.{{nbsp}}5'' with [[Bidu Sayão]] and a group of cellists for [[Columbia Records|Columbia]].{{sfn|Sony Masterworks catalogue|1972}}

During his period at SEMA, Villa-Lobos composed five string quartets, nos. [[String Quartet No. 5 (Villa-Lobos)|5]]{{nbsp}}to{{nbsp}}[[String Quartet No. 9 (Villa-Lobos)|9]], which explored avenues opened by his public music that dominated his output. He also wrote more music for Segovia, the ''Cinq préludes'', which also demonstrate a further formalisation of his composition style. After the fall of the Vargas government, Villa-Lobos returned full-time to composition, resuming a prolific rate of completing works. His concertos—particularly those for the classical guitar, the harp, and the harmonica—are examples of his earlier ''poema'' form. The Harp Concerto is a large work, and shows a new propensity to focus on a small detail, then to fade it and bring another detail to the foreground. This technique also occurs in his final opera, ''Yerma'', which contains a series of scenes each of which establishes an atmosphere, similarly to the earlier ''Momoprecoce''.

Villa-Lobos's final major work was the music for the film ''[[Green Mansions (film)|Green Mansions]]'' (though in the end, most of his score was replaced with music by [[Bronisław Kaper]]) and its arrangement as ''Floresta do Amazonas'' for orchestra, as well as some short songs issued separately. In 1957, he wrote a [[String Quartet No. 17 (Villa-Lobos)|Seventeenth String Quartet]], whose austerity of technique and emotional intensity "provide a eulogy to his craft".<ref name="Wright 1992, 139"/> His ''Bendita Sabedoria'', a sequence of ''[[a cappella]]'' chorales written in 1958, is a similarly simple setting of Latin biblical texts. These works lack the pictorialism of his more public music.

Except for the lost works, the Nonet, the two concerted works for violin and orchestra, ''Suite for Piano and Orchestra'', a number of the symphonic poems, most of his choral music and all of the operas, his music is well represented on the world's recital and concert stages and on compact disc.

[[File:Brazilian 500 cruzados obverse.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Villa-Lobos on a 1987 500 [[Brazilian cruzado]]s banknote]]