Born Heitor Villa-Lobos in 1887 in Rio de Janeiro, he began life during a period of upheaval in Brazil. With the abolishing of slavery in 1888 and the Empire of Brazil in 1889, the musical landscape in which Villa-Lobos was raised transitioned from a heavy European influence to that of the local styling. Over his first few years, his musical interest was sparked by the weekly musical gatherings his father would host at their house, eventually leading him to master the cello, clarinet and guitar.
His family often enjoyed traveling around the country, and he began to pick up an interest in the various regions’ folk music which he would later introduce into his own compositions. Upon his return from travelling, he started playing with local musicians around the city. At 18, he left home to escape the pressure from his mother to become a doctor. He wound up traversing the different states and performing for money, learning even more about the local Brazilian music. When he finally came back to Rio, he brought with him a knowledge of Brazilian music. He also began to seriously study the works of Puccini, Wagner and Bach, true masters of classical music. 1913 marked the beginning of composition publication and his chamber concerts held until about 1921. During these presentations, his music shows a clear grappling of Brazilian and European musical elements as Villa-Lobos began to settle into his musical voice.
This went on for a few years until about 1916 with the compositions of Amazonas and Uirapuru where he officially began to draw most inspiration from Brazilian folk influences. In 1919, he met Artur Rubenstein, a famed pianist, who supported the young composer by playing Villa-Lobos’ pieces throughout the world. By the time he finally set out to other countries, he had over 2,000 published compositions to his name.Unfortunately, Villa-Lobos’ developing voice was met with disdain by the people of Brazil. In 1922 at a festival of modern art, he performed original compositions and was met with audience and critic mockery. Immediately after this, Rubenstein’s performance of Villa-Lobos’ A Prole do Bebe was met with booing. Finally, Villa-Lobos decided his music was too good for his native countrymen and packed up to perform a tour of Europe where he would increase the exposure of his works.
His stay in Paris from 1923 to 1924 and again in 1927 to 1930 brought him into the company of such renowned minds as Aaron Copeland, Leopold Stokowski and Pablo Picasso. His music also found a strong following on the European stage.In 1930, because he was forced to stay in Brazil due to revolutionary financial issues, Villa-Lobos began his period as a composer for the nation. He became the director of SEMA following his presentation of a plan for music education within the school system and arranged concerts featuring the premieres of compositions by Bach and Beethoven. He spent time composing propaganda for Brazilian nationhood and writing books on teaching and theory. His Guia Practico contained 11 volumes and Canto Orfeonico was comprised of songs to be sung at civic events and other patriotic tunes. In 1939, his arrangement of the Brazilian national anthem was performed on their Independence Day by a group of 30,000 children.
Finally, in 1945 with the fall of Vargas from power, Villa-Lobos was free to travel to Paris once more as well as Great Britain, the US and Israel where audiences adored his works. He was gifted with countless commissions and produced works for a broad array of instruments such as the piano, classical guitar, cello, harp and harmonica. He also completed his opera, Yerma. He was even asked to compose for the movie Free Mansions starring Audrey Hepburn. It was for this he composed his famous Forest of the Amazon with parts for a soprano soloist, male chorus and orchestra. In 1959, just before his death, he remarked that Brazil’s taste in music was mediocre. Even so, his death was marked as a major civic event.
Today, Villa-Lobos’ work is heavily marked by its mixture of Western classical influence and that of Brazilian folk music. Of his plethora of works, Bachiana brasileiras stands out as his most well-known. It is a complex construction featuring nine pieces for instruments and voice that offer an eclectic blend of the technique of Bach with Brazilian themes. It wasn’t until Paris where he stripped away the trappings of Western form to create his own. His poema, Suite for Voice and Violin, and then his later Rudepoema are the perfect examples of this, truly marking his achievement to find a marriage of styles he so loved growing up as a child.
