Background
At the age of six Heitor Villa-Lobos was taught by his father to play the cello, and after his father's death five years later he mastered the guitar, clarinet, and other instruments.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0045014086/?tag=2022091-20
( Publisher ID: ME6704 )
Publisher ID: ME6704
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0045026351/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029U2OWQ/?tag=2022091-20
((Editions Durand). Introduction by Frederick Noade. The m...)
(Editions Durand). Introduction by Frederick Noade. The music in this collection has probably been more studied, performed and recorded than any other guitar compositions of the twentieth century. This collection gathers Villa-Lobos' most famous works in their original forms and complete with Andres Segovia's original introduction to the Twelve Etudes. Includes: Choros No. 1 * Suite Populaire Bresilienne * Douze Etudes * Cinq Preludes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145842376X/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029U2QEC/?tag=2022091-20
At the age of six Heitor Villa-Lobos was taught by his father to play the cello, and after his father's death five years later he mastered the guitar, clarinet, and other instruments.
Although his father, a college professor and librarian, had encouraged this interest, Villa-Lobos ran away from home at 16 to escape his widowed mother's attempt to keep him from developing further his musical talents. Soon Villa-Lobos began drifting.
Although he occasionally enrolled for formal schooling, he found such experiences boring; he remained principally self-taught.
Then he returned to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied European music on his own. Meanwhile, Villa-Lobos experimented continuously and wrote a great deal, always seeking to express Brazilian qualities.
Heitor Villa-Lobos was fascinated early by the popular music and samba rhythms of his native Rio de Janeiro at a time when gentility forbade such interests.
He absorbed the folk music of whatever region he passed through, listening, mimicking, improvising, elaborating, and composing as he went.
He traveled along the Amazon in a canoe, listening to the songs of tropical birds and the drums of the Indians.
His nationalism was reflected in the followingincident.
Indeed, Parisians showed more interest in his works than had Brazilians, perhaps because in Europe they were considered exotic.
The semiauthoritarian dictator Getulio Vargas gave him full support in this campaign, and Villa-Lobos's influence can still be seen in musical education in Brazil. At this time Villa-Lobos composed the nine suites entitled Bachianas brasileiras.
These are his best-known works; in all of them he used a contrapuntal and fugal technique superimposed upon typically Brazilian themes, although otherwise they are quite diverse.
Not all his work is good, but at his best it is superb.
In 1932 he was appointed director of music education in the public schools of Brazil.
( Publisher ID: ME6704 )
((Editions Durand). Introduction by Frederick Noade. The m...)
In 1912, Villa-Lobos married the pianist Lucília Guimarães, ended his travels, and began his career as a serious musician.
