Heitor Villa-Lobos - String Quartet No. 2 (1915)
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- čas přidán 6. 06. 2024
- 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.
1.Allegro non troppo (0:00)
2. Scherzo: Allegro (6:40)
3. Andante (9:16)
4. Allegro deciso - Presto - Prestissimo final
(14:26)
Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Mexico City)
Villa-Lobos composed his Second Quartet in 1915, either in Rio de Janeiro or Nova Friburgo. It was first performed on 3 February 1917 by a quartet consisting of Judith Barcellos and Dagmar Noronha Gitahy, violins, Orlando Frederico, viola, and Alfredo Gomes, cello. The published score bears the indication "Op. 56".
This early quartet in Villa-Lobos's catalogue is composed according to the cyclic principles developed by César Franck and Vincent d'Indy. Franck and Debussy were two of the most important influences on Villa-Lobos's early style, and he had studied d'Indy's 1912 textbook, Cours de Composition Musicale (Salles 2012a, 25).
The composer describes the scherzo as a novelty, played in harmonics, "whose harmonies involve a syncopated melody in a context that suggests small bamboo rustic flutes (a sort of Panpipe played using the nose by the Pareci Indians of Mato Grosso)" (Villa-Lobos 1972, 229). - Hudba
Thank you, Bartje, for helping us spread this wonderful music (and all of VL quartets) to wider audiences! What you do with the score and audio is simply wonderful!
You are welcome! Thank you for your feedback and your marvelous performances!
@@bartjebartmans Fully agree here.
Thank you for tackling the VL quartets!
Thank you
It eventually caugt my eye that the Allegro non troppo with 132 beats per quarter note written in the score is much faster than played on this recording. I think it would be much to fast. All the lovely details would rush by unnoticed. Played as done here I still have an allegro feeling.
Thank you Bartje for your enthusiastic effort with music and scores. I have listened to this quartet quite a few times, the first and third movement in particular for closer study. The harmonic with its smooth chromatic flow is marvelous when done like this in what for me is in a very poetic musically way. And he is full of inventivness both in figures and colours. I had to know more for a comparison. So you really sent me on 1900-quartet tour. I listened to all 15 of Shostakovich parallell with the 17 of Villa Lobos. But that was not enough so I had a relistenig of Bartok's six and Hindemith's seven. And Schonberg of course. All here on youtube where other aficionados like yourself present the music with scores. And I found that Villa Lobos can be quite as complex as any of these other masters if I he cares for it, and always with this very musically lovely flow. In my ears undoubtly one of the great contributors to the string quartet in the 20th century.
Another great 20th Century string quartet composer is Elizabeth Maconchy. She composed 13 quartets which hold their own next to Shostakovich and Bartok. If I had access to the scores I would upload them in a heartbeat.
@@bartjebartmans Thanks for the tip. I have wondered if there were other composers with at least five string quartets in the 20th century worthwhile listening to. I will follow it up.
Trond Arne Pettersen, Alberto Ginastera has only three string quartets but worth hearing
@@RodrigoJFL Thanks! I will try to find them and listen.
@@RodrigoJFL
Dear
Rodrigo, you directed me to music that I was not aware of, and it was "quit a bit more" than worth listening to. It was just "my cup of tea"! Marvellous! Europian modernism with a latino feeling of "melodic continuity"? Well,I am not sure yet, but I appreciated this music very much. The third quartet touch upon Schönberg with the soprano solo voice. So far I only recognised Lorca as poet. I also love reading poetry. I will seach for translations, or what it is called in Norway "repoeticisation", the way of giving the poem a poetic translativ form. Once more, thank you!!
He's trying to tell a story, a story that is happy and sad. I have never liked modern music before, but there is something decidedly mesmerizing about this piece. 90% of the modern "music" I have listened to (because I have listened to tons trying to understand it) sounds like random notes thrown together with little, if any, thought into actually expressing anything besides a desire to be cacophonous. This, in spite of its dissonance, sounds like MUSIC.
Most "modern" music is highly organized unless you are talking about "chance" music. The problem with much modern music is that it is actually cerebral music for which score reading is almost a must in order to see how the music has been organized as it is often impossible to follow it satisfactory just by ear. Once the score, technique or style has been understood the listening gets easier and the underlying architecture will be discovered. There is much hidden which will be easily missed by a first hearing, but, I say it again, you need to be open minded and go with the flow. There is no way one can fully appreciate for instance 12tone music without completely understanding what is going on.
I sincerely believe that many modernist composers put little, if any, thought into composing melodies and just throw together random notes, usually throwing together a bunch of augmented 4ths just for the sake of throwing together augmented 4ths. There is unfortunately nothing to gain by reading the score or re-listening because nothing is there. It's as empty as a cheap pop song. Villa-Lobos was writing music and expressing ideas; too many of his contemporaries and those that succeeded them weren't.
Since I notice it heavily in this piece, I defer to your more experienced ear on this. Did Villa-Lobos frequently incorporate canon and fugue into his pieces? I notice many such elements in this work, particularly the first movement.
Overall, I'd say I chose a good piece for my introduction to truly atonal music.
He indeed uses polyphonic techniques as imitations, fugato, and many others. I noticed, without really studying the score and notes the use of inversions, lengthening and shortening of melodies, themes. He has a fondness for the bourdon bass of fifths but what strike me most is his experimenting with different sound effects and combinations, like the imitation of guitars, whistling, rhythms instruments etc. etc. all very innovative and original. At times the quartet literally rocks. How many composers managed to do that, and at such early moment in time like 1915's.
To really understand 20th century music and develop some appreciation the best thing to do is to take classes at some decent University. Traditional harmony and counterpoint is also a must I would say.
I've spent many hundreds of hours studying those techniques. I'd say my goal is to be able to understand when my friends say they enjoy this music. Music, however, is something never mastered, and I enjoy the prospect of always being a student.
Listen to his Bachianas Brasileiras. Those are full of counterpoint.
Villa Lobos uses it extensively in his other quartets as well but he's not the only modern composer to use such techniques. Other composers like Bartok and Shostakovich use it alot but in a "disguised" manner so it may not be easy to spot on the first listen.
To me the most enjoyable part about modern music is listening to how these composers slip in contrapuntal devices like fugues and inversions into their music. It really helps you appreciate the construction of pieces.
What makes modern composers really interesting(again, personal opinion) is that they tend to use these contrapuntal devices even during cadential moments so before you realise it, the music has already flown seamlessly into the next idea and you're like "did that really just happen?!". This is especially effective in recaps because it injects some surprise by lessening the feeling that the same ideas are being repeated when, paradoxically, they are in fact derived from the same ideas as before. Pre 20th century composers(to the best of my knowledge) don't do that. Their sections are always clearly delineated. Perhaps this is why modern composers may be harder to follow but more rewarding to listen to. I prefer to have to discover the interesting bits in the music for myself rather than have them all presented to me explicitly
Amazing, where is the third one ?
Relax. Wait and see. There are 17 Quartets plus I also have a life to live.
Bartje Bartmans ahah you're right ! Thank you for your work
Excuse me, where did you find the info about this composition that appears in the description? I need to know more about this composition in particular, but I can't find anything online