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String Quartet #01

Appleby Catalogue W number: 
W099

Written in Fribourgo, 1915.  Or was it?  The version we hear today is Villa-Lobos's 1946 re-write of the Suíte graciosa from 1915.  Tarasti says, though, that "Musical analysis supports the hypothesis that it really is a work of youth." p. 300.

"In the First String Quartet the Brazilianism is manifested rather mildly.  The work is, in fact, a series of small mood pictures (somewhat in the style of Nepomuceno and Levy)..." - Tarasti (1995), p. 298.

Movements:

  1. Cantilena - Andante
  2. Brincadeira - Allegretto Scherzando
  3. Canto Lirico - Moderato
  4. Canconeta - Andantino quasi Allegretto
  5. Melancolia - Lento
  6. Saltando como um Saci - Allegro 

Cuarteto Degani, from Madrid, play the first String Quartet on video.

"The potpourri form of the First Quartet refers to the Suite popular brasileira (for guitar) from the same time." - Tarasti p. 295.

Year Composed: 

1915

Category: 
Chamber Music
Instrumentation: 

String Quartet

Scores: 

Southern Music Publishers

The score and parts are available from Peermusic.

Villa-Lobos, Heitor. 1953. Quartet no. 1, for 2 violins, viola and 'cello. New York: Southern Music Publishing Co. 

Recordings: 
Performances: 

The premiere of SQ#1 was at the Friburgo home of Brazilian composer Homero Barreto.

This piece has become really popular: there are 27 records in the Villa-Lobos Concerts database as of July 2009.