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Villa-Lobos ‘ben trovato’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Lisa M. Peppercorn
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Extract

Heitor Villa-Lobos's musical output is very comprehensive. Nevertheless, he thought it useful or necessary, at some later stage, to incorporate certain pieces – in their original form or in transcription – into other compositions, apparently for lack of time to write a completely new work, or sheer laziness. Or, he found delight in teasing his listeners, friends and admirers, unless they discovered his hoax. The Brazilian composer-conductor Walter Burle-Marx (b. 1902), in a letter to me of 31 May 1981 from Caracas, Venezuela (and reproduced here by his kind permission), commented on this characteristic of Villa-Lobos

A typical example of Villa-Lobos's temperament and way of thinking concerns the Bachianas Brasileiras # 5.1 did the U.S premiere in New York at the World's Fair on May 4th, 1939 with the New York Philharmonic and Bidú Sayão, using the manuscript of Villa-Lobos. Later on, when I saw the manuscript again, there was a repeat sign on the first introductory measure in 5/4. I asked him why he did that and he replied that he felt that the introduction was too short. I asked why he didn't compose two different measures – he who had so much imagination – and he smiled and said: ‘To tell the truth, I felt lazy’. This was one of his faults; once a work was finished, he very rarely went back to polish it much less to change it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 177 , June 1991 , pp. 32 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 Lisa Peppercorn, M., Heitor Villa-Lobos, Leben utid WerU ties brasilianischen Komponislen (Zurich: Atlantis, 1972) p.37 Google Scholar.

2 Villa-Lobos, The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers by Lisa Peppercorn (London: Omnibus Press, 1989), p.95 Google Scholar.

3 Peppercorn, op. cit.p.99, footnote 8.

4 A review of Rubinstein's recital appeared in Rio de Janeiro's Jornal do Comercio on 9 July 1922. The date 21 October 1922 is quoted as premiere in the Villa-Lobos catalogue, issued by the Museu Villa-Lobos (MVL) in Rio, de Janciro under the title: Villa-Lobos – Sua Obra, 2nd Ed. p. 165 Google Scholar and 3rd Ed. p.144. This date is copied in the Bio-Bibliography by David P. Appleby, p.34, item W117. This information is incorrect.

5 Peppercorn, op. cit., p. 106 Google Scholar. The MVL catalogue, 2nd Edition p.28 mentions 3 September 1938 and the Second Festival. Appleby, op. cit, p. 64 Google Scholar item W247 states 3 September 1934, which is also mentioned in the MVL catalogue, third edition, p. 41. Nóbrega's, Adhemar As Bachianas Brasileiras de Villa- Lobos, Rio de Janeiro, 1971, p. 37 Google Scholar gives the date 1934 and says it was the second Festival. My most recent research reveals that Venice's Second International Biennale Art Exhibition was held in 1932 (not 1934), in tandem with a Festival of the ISCM which presented, in a concert of South American music, four of Villa-Lobos's Chansons Tyjiiques Bresiliemies (not the Bachianas Brasileiras No.2). The Third International Biennale was held in Venice in 1934, and the musical part of the Festival peŕformed no Villa-Lobos work at all. (Source: La Revue Musicale, September 1932 and September 1934).

6 The MVL catalogue 2nd Ed. p. 178 erroneously states that O Canto do Capadocio, written in 1930, was premiered fifteen years before (!) on 29 January 1915 at the Teatro D. Eugenia in Friburgo, Brazil; which Appleby copied, op. cit., p.64 item W251. He also writes that the four pieces ‘were transcribed from Bachianas Brasileiras No.2’ while just the opposite is correct, namely the solo pieces existed first and were later orchestrated. The MVL catalogue, 3rd Ed. p. 123, gives the first performance date as 23 January 1931.

7 Peppercorn, , op. cit. p.42.Google Scholar The MVL catalogue, 2nd Ed, states the composition dates from 1925, Appleby, op. cit. p.55 Google Scholar, item W214 mentions 1916, and so do others.

8 Peppercorn, , op. cit. p. 183 Google Scholar. The MVL catalogue, 2nd and 3rd editions, list the première in orchestrated form as 9 December 1922, copied by Appleby, op. cit, p. 46 Google Scholar item W174. Guimarães, Luiz in Villa-Lobos, Visto da Platéia e na Intimidade 1912/1935, (Rio de Janeiro, n.d.), p. 89 Google Scholar states the date 12 December 1922. Upon my request to verify the correct date, Thereza Aguiar Cunha, Deputy Chief of the Music Division of the National Library in Rio de Janeiro, provided me on 11 February 1988 with a copy of the programme and the rectified date of the concert announcement, herewith reproduced by courtesy of the National Library. In Cunha's handwriting is added at the bottom: ‘Programme belonged to Ronald de Carvalho [Brazilian poet 1893–1935] Collection Ronald dc Carvalho. The same change of date – 9–15 – December appears in another programme in the collection of Ibere Lemos’. [Arthur de Iberé Lemos, (1901–1967), Brazilian composer, pianist and critic].

9 Peppercorn, op. cit. p. 216 Google Scholar and the MVL catalogue, second ed. p. 110. The third edition of the MVL catalogue, p.90, states ‘adaption of Martírio dos Insectos’.

10 Peppercorn, op. cit. p. 117 Google Scholar. The MVL catalogues, 2nd Ed. (p.152), and third ed. (p.129) date the première to 17 September, as does Appleby, op. cit. p. 42 Google Scholar, item 157; but O Imperial, the Brazilian publication, on 24 September 1925, refers to the concert in a review as ‘the day before yesterday’, (quoted in Guimarães, Luis, op. cit. p. 114–116)Google Scholar.

11 The MVL catalogues, 2nd and 3rd editions, state as première: 1929 Amsterdam with Magdalena Tagliaferro as soloist and Pierre Montreux as conductor.