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Technical Notice
| Classical Composer: | Villa-Lobos, Heitor |
|---|---|
| Work: | Bachianas brasileiras No. 9 (version for string orchestra) |
| Year Composed: | 1945 |
| Instrumentation: | Str orch |
| Publisher: | Schott Music |
| Duration: | 00:10:00 |
| Period: | 20th Century |
| Work Category: | Orchestral |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Bachianas brasileiras. These pieces range from instrumental and chamber to large orchestral forces, and are given focus through the Brazilian idioms being wedded to harmonic and contrapuntal techniques directly derived from the Baroque era. From his adolescence Villa-Lobos had been fascinated by Bach, finding in his work analogies with the traditional music of Brazil. Thus the present sequence was intended as an explicit homage to Bach, a factor most evident in the designation of almost every movement with twin titles alluding both to the actual movements of Baroque suite forms and also to specific Brazilian popular styles.
Bachianas brasileiras No. 9, composed in New York during 1945, is in many respects a summation of the whole series. Originally written for an unaccompanied chorus, it sounds equally convincing when played by string orchestra, and might be thought of as a musical paradigm for the synthesis that Villa-Lobos had sought in the previous eight works. Thus the Prelúdio is taken up with a long-breathed melody, unfolding in expansive harmonies that could almost be a composite of those already heard. Only when the Fuga proceeds is the theme revealed as the subject of the latter movement, which ranks among the most impressive of the composer's such pieces. Although the range of contrapuntal techniques is applied, the most striking factor is the composer's blurring of the distinction between what is Bachian and what is Brazilian, surely an intentional QED as the work, and the series as a whole, reaches its affirmative close.
Writer: Richard Whitehouse
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