Week 7

Hector Villa- Lobos (1887- 1955)

  • Grew up in Rio de Janeiro

  • Most Important composer from Brazil

  • Studied in France

  • Street musician due to not liking the conservatory environment

  • Performed in Groups called Choros

  • Chorar means “to cry” in Portuguese

Suite Populaire bresilienne: “Mazurka-Choro”

  • “Choro” - Triple Meter and a minor key

  • Wrote Popular Brazilian Suite, made for classical guitar

  • Played Piano, Cello, Guitar

  • Andres Segovia would perform them

  • Mazurka being originally a Polish dance

  • Usually in triple meter

  • This one has a melancholy mood, typical of Brazilian music

  • Called Saudade in Portuguese

Bachianas Brasileiras

  • Villa-Lobos went to Paris in 1923 to study

  • He wanted to TEACH the French

  • Became Brazil’s leading composer and was even put in charge of the nation’s system of music education

  • Established multiple conservatoires in the country ( irony)

  • in 1930 he began composing the Bachianas Brasilerias

  • combined elements of Brazil and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1: Introduction (Embolada)

  • Composed for an Orchestra of Cellos

  • Inspired by the Brazilian embolada

  • Lively rhythmic stream, resembling a toccata by Bach

  • Presented in duo, embolada or reunites two singers who play two tambourines, or two singers who play two Brazilian violas.

Argentina

  • Pampas : grasslands

  • Cowboy culture, Cowboys being called gauchos

  • Same cultural identify as cowboys in the U.S or Charros in Mexico

Buenos Aires

  • Means “Good winds”

  • Forms a Megaolpolis with Montevideo, The Uruguayan Capital on the other side of the river

  • Birthplace of the Tango

  • “The Paris of the West”

  • Teatro Colon: their renowned opera houses in the world

  • Many of the immigrants from Argentina were from Italy

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)

  • Regarded as Argentina’s leading composer of the 20th century

  • Had Catalan and Italian ancestry

  • Traveled in the U.S and Europe

  • Had a powerful attraction to the pampas and its gaucho culture

  • None of his works evoke the tango

Estancia: “La Doma: (Horsebreaking)

  • 1941 Ballet Estancia ( the ranch) , Premiered at the Teatro Colon

    Tells the story of a young city slicker who goes to live on a ranch among gauchos in order to become a real man

  • It is cast in a form of malambo, a fast paced and athletic dance of endurance often done as a competition

  • rhythm is competitive, meter alternates simple triple with compound duple, a technique called hemiola

First Piano Sonata, movement 1

  • By the 1950s Ginastera’s evocation of the Argentine rural folklore became more abstract, more symbolic less overt and obvious

  • his harmonies became more dissonant, and he uses traditional methods of organizing his musical materials

  • Composed Piano Sonta No.1 in 1952

  • Its form is called Sonata form

  • This form features an exposition in which themes are presented a development in which they are varied and a recapitulation in which they are restated. The whole things is tied off with a coda and Italian word meaning “tail”

  • Three Parts:

    • Exposition: Represents the Main musical themes

    • Development:

    • Recapitation:

Allegro Marcato

  • Latin American Elements beginning themes recall Argentine criollo music with doublings in thirs

  • Use Andean pentatonic scale in second theme

  • Poly meter: the use of two or more meters in a piece

  • Western Elements: Argentine rural folklore became more abstract, more symbolic, less overt and obvious.

  • Rhythms and melodies of guanco music with classical techniques and harmonies