The Villa Lobos Book & Record Store

November, 2004:

Please note that the Villa-Lobos Website is no longer being updated.

This resource will remain on the RDPL server.

CD's by Ricardo Peres. Order directly from the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website. 

by Eero Tarasti 

Eero Tarasti's work is my favourite of the recent major studies.

Missa São Sebastião
Bendita Sabedoria
Praesepe
Cor Dulce, Cor Amabile
Sub Tuum Praesidium
Ave Maria
Pater Noster
Magnificat-Alleluia

by Lisa M. Peppercorn 

This long-awaited book was published in late 1996.  It contains a wealth of detail, with many interesting pictures and some new insights into the life of Villa-Lobos.

by Lisa Peppercorn 

An earlier, standard one-volume study by Lisa Peppercorn.

by Lisa Margaret Peppercorn

This book collects many of Ms. Peppercorn's articles, in three or four languages, from various musical and general periodicals. Contains lots of interesting articles.

by Gerard Behague

An important recent work.

by E. Bradford Burns 

This is the standard text, in an economical paper format.

by David P. Appleby 

Abbleby's "bio-bibliography" is another of the fairly recent English studies - it's really quite surprising there have been so many!

by Simon Wright 

The last of the major recent English studies, available in hardcover and paperback. Very highly recommended.

Paperback, 146 pages List: $24.00 -- Amazon.com Price: $24.00 Published by Oxford Univ Pr (Short Disc) Publication date: April 1, 1992 Dimensions (in inches): 8.50 x 5.48 x .43 ISBN: 0193154757 

This is "Villa-Lobos par lui-meme," featured in the first CD of the Month on this website. This is an absolute necessity for the serious Villa Lobos fan, and an excellent introduction to the master's orchestral music. Contains the following works:

• Descombrimento do Brasil (4 Suites).
• Invocacao em defesa da Patria.
• Bachianas Brasileiras 1-9.
• Choros No. 2, 5, 10, 11.
• 2 Choros (bis) for violin & cello.
• Momoprecoce (fanasia for piano & orchestra.)
• Piano concerto no. 5.
• Symphony no. 4 "A Vitoria."

by Heitor Villa-Lobos 

This excellent compilation of early piano music includes Prole do Bebê 1, Danças Caracteristicas Africanas and Carnival das Crianças.  Pianists used to paying the very high prices for Eschig editions will be pleased to see how reasonable this (public domain?) music is in the usual sturdy Dover edition.

by Leslie Bethell

by Leslie Bethell (Editor) 

Another of the very highly recommened Cambridge History series, in an inexpensive paper format.

by Joseph A. Page 

Amazon.com's synopsis: "The most informed and meticulous study of the alluring paradoxes and extremes that characterize Brazilian culture. In The Brazilians, Page, author of the bestselling Peron, conjures a definitive portrait of "Brazilness" by distinguishing between the many opposing faces of Brazilian society."

by John Krich 

Amazon.com's synopsis: "Music echoes on every page of this superb portrait of South America's most diverse country, by the author of El Beisbol and Music in Every Room. This remarkable book is both a vivid look at a vast land, where the cult of pleasure lives side by side with grinding poverty, and the first in-depth study of the music and musicians of the most musical country on Earth."

by Claus Schreiner

by W. H. Hudson 

This classic novel, written by William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) is the source for the 1959 MGM film of the same name that Villa Lobos wrote music for. Amazon.com also has a number of paperback editions available.  As well, Green Mansions is in the public domain, so it appears on various electronic text compendiums, including the indispensible Project Gutenberg.

by Mario De Andrade 

The classic novel by the great Brazilian folklorist and modernist, written in 1928, finally published in English translation in 1988. 

From the author's preface: "What interested me in Macunaima, was without doubt just to reveal as much as possible the national individuality of the Brazilians. However, I had to notice one thing which seems to me to be sure: a Brazilian does not have a character..."

directed by Marcel Camus 

This film from 1959 introduced Antonio Carlos Jobim's music to the world. It's a fine film in its own right: a powerful story (Orpheus and Eurydice) told in an atmospheric, mysterious way.