Heitor Villa-Lobos - String Quartet No. 3 (1916) "Quarteto de pipocas"

Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 - November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces). His Etudes for guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia, while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to Arminda Neves d’Almeida, a.k.a. "Mindinha." Both are important works in the guitar repertory.
String Quartet No. 3 (1916) "Quarteto de pipocas" (Popcorn Quartet)
1. Allegro non troppo
2. Molto Vivo (6:33)
3. Molto Adagio (10:17)
4. Allegro con fuoco (17:34)
Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Mexico City)
Villa-Lobos composed his Third Quartet in Rio de Janeiro in March 1916. It was first performed on 2 November 1919 at the Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, by a quartet consisting of Pery Machado and Mario Ronchini, violins, Orlando Frederico, viola, and Newton Pádua, cello. The first North American performance took place on 16 January 1933 in Hollywood, performed by Samuel Albert and Doris Cheney, violins, Raymond Menhennick, viola, and Lysbeth LeFevre, cello (Jones 1933). The UK premiere was given by the Stratton String Quartet (George Stratton and Carl Taylor, violins; Watson Forbes, viola; John Moore, cello) on 9 January 1934, at the Wigmore Hall, London (Scott 1934, 174).
Because of the persistent percussive pizzicato patter in the second, scherzo movement, Villa-Lobos gave it the onomatopoeic, alliterative nickname "pipocas e potócas" (popcorn and tall tales), and this nickname is also applied to the entire quartet (Salles 2012, 88).
The opening of the first movement establishes a motive that recurs throughout the quartet in various transformations. At first, it recalls Prokofiev or Shostakovich, but later is given a context more suggestive of Ravel. The generally pentatonic melodic contours and long ostinatos initially tend toward monotony and inexpressiveness, but the ostinatos give way to a more plastic and lively treatment later in the movement. The second movement, Molto vivo, was listed in the programme for the premiere performance as "Scherzo satirico". Like the first movement, it is largely dependent on ostinatos, but in place of pentatonic melodies its thematic material utilizes the whole-tone scale. The third, slow movement, transforms the leitmotif into something resembling the theme of the piano piece Lenda do caboclo. The finale restates motives from all of the preceding parts, especially the main subject of the first movement, to produce a cyclic formal closure. However, despite this motivic cross-referencing, Villa-Lobos does not take advantage of the possibilities this offers for the kind of rich thematic development found in the Viennese classical masters (Tarasti 2009, 231-32).
Lisa Peppercorn (1991, 36) agrees with Tarasti's assessment, stating that Villa-Lobos rarely develops his musical ideas, but instead merely uses them as stereotyped, repeated formulas, in contrast to composers who relate their different themes, or have evolved them all from a common germ cell. With specific reference to the Third Quartet, she finds the thematic material is "clearly stated and is obviously suitable for development", but that Villa-Lobos fails to provide this development, which is essential to sonata form, instead letting the themes "take their course through the instruments exactly as they were originally conceived" (Peppercorn 1991, 39). Paulo Salles (2012, 85-86), however, contests this view. According to his analysis, both of the main themes of the first movement are taken from the same germ motive, which permeates not only the exposition but the entire first movement of the quartet, "in a process of continuous variation", and compares this high thematic density to the music of Joseph Haydn.
Villa-Lobos emphasizes the beginning of the recapitulation in the first movement with a sudden change of register of the accompanying triplets. At bar 153 (rehearsal-number 12), over an augmentation of the first cyclic theme, he introduces for the first time a figuration evoking the call of a Brazilian bird called sabiá da mata (English name: cocoa thrush). This call occurs in several of Villa-Lobos's later works, including the Fourth and Eighth String Quartets, but most notably in the second movement (Dança: Martelo) of the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, where text by Manuel Bandeira names the bird. This is the only moment in this quartet where there is any hint of nationalism (Salles 2012, 87)

[@ronaldbwoodall2628]

When I think of great string quartets, four composers first come to mind: Haydn, Beethoven, Villa-Lobos and Shostakovich. I hear the same level of excellence and greatness in the Villa-Lobos works as in those of the others. Are there any who would disagree?

[@Trombosilbo]

Not me

[@Tylervrooman]

Beethoven, Bartok.

[@SOBIESKI_freedom]

What an interesting piece of music.

[@fransmeersman2334]

Thank you, for this for me unknown composer. Great ! The sort of refined and subtle music that l like.

[@choiminseon7863]

하나하나 주옥같은 명곡이군요!!!!

[@grammatikerfanatiker]

Thank you so much for uploading these great quartets. I hope to see all of them uploaded. Thank you!

[@marcsmith7789]

That last movement is a tour de force.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Wow ! What a surprise .I thought of Debussy ' openess and harmonies but this has a rich SouthAmerica everywhere in it. This music really should be played more often. Audiences really dont want Hindemith and Bartok always in the almost contemp second-half programmes.

[@slateflash]

I love this one! Can't wait for the 7th and 9th as well

[@majorcproductions]

Villa-Lobos didn't have to develop the themes in the way that German composers of the day expected him too. He was different. Not German or European.

[@0Videoteca0]

very similar to the spectacular Ravel's String Quartet

[@maxray9754]

Yes.

[@majorcproductions]

Could any of you considered the possibility that his use of pentatonic scales is derived from Native American music of Brazil? Pentatonic does not always equal Asian.

[@Tylervrooman]

Cross cultural for sure... Pentatonic scales are all over the world.

[@johnnynoirman]

Thank you always...
I wish I knew the name of the software of doing these videos.

[@takaharrue]

is it not manually done?

[@bartjebartmans]

Yes. Pretty simple. Windows Movie maker, Paint and a lot of patience. But you get to know the works inside out. That is why, believe it or not, I am basically doing this. Plus as a student I was always dreaming about scrolling scores while listening to music. Well, now I am fulfilling my dream... lol

[@bartjebartmans]

that happens when the Mp3 is not converted correctly. When you cut it it will jump to weird places and is impossible to correct.

[@Uhor]

Is this Ravel String Quartet No.2?

[@kleydesilva7151]

No, it's Villa-Lobos String Quartet No. 3

[@HenryMidfields]

The opening did kind of sound similar though!