Heitor Villa-Lobos Research Paper

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Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) was one of the leading composers of nationalism in the 20th century in Brazil. He has been recognized for his achievement in creating unique compositional styles in which contemporary European techniques such as Impressionism and reinterpreted elements of national music are combined. He collected many original folk tunes through trips to the various areas of Brazil. Villa-Lobos introduced the South American music to the West by using both materials of western contemporary music such as Impressionism and folk tunes of Brazil originating from Africa and Portugal in his piano music, Prole do Bebê, series 1, W. 140 (1918) simultaneously. This piece shows his tendency of nationalism and became the driving force in the development of Brazilian nationalism. This study will focus on …show more content…

His father, Raúl Villa-Lobos, was an employee of the National Library and an amateur musician. Although he rejected formal schooling, he had the benefit of his father on his music education. Villa-Lobos attended rehearsals, concerts and operas with his father and also learned how to play instruments from him. Despite being exposed to classical music, he was attracted by city's popular music playing a guitar, which lasted influence on his work. It seems clear that he was destined to become a musician, but he was expected by his family to study medicine, but he didn’t have any interest in it. After the death of his father in 1899, Villa-Lobos immersed himself fully in playing on Rio's street as a guitarist. In his later teenage years, he played the cello in the Teatro Recreio, in hotels, and in the Odeon cinema, where he met some musicians of popular music of the time, including Ernesto Nazareth, Eduardo das Neves and Anacleto de Medeiros and listened to chorões music. The chorões music that he experienced at that time especially fascinated him and remained of interest to him throughout his lifetime. In 1905 to 1913, Villa-Lobos traveled to the

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