He was largely responsible for the creation of a peculiar Brazilian language in classical music. He is considered the greatest exponent of musical modernism in Brazil and Latin America, composing works that highlight the spirit of nationalism and incorporates elements of folk songs, popular and indigenous inspiration.
Raul Villa-Lobos, the composer's father, an official of the National Library and amateur musician, taught him the first steps, adapting a guitar so that the small Hector learn to play cello. At age of 12, he began playing cello in theaters, cafes and balls. Later, he became interested in intense musicality of "chorões", representatives of the best popular music of Rio de Janeiro. Having a restless temperament, Villa-Lobos undertook journeys into the interior of Brazil, absorbing all the Brazilian musical universe. In 1913 he married the pianist Lucilia Guimarães.
The international impact of his work was felt especially in France and in the United States, evidenced by the extensive obituary that The New York Times dedicated to him. Villa-Lobos had no children.
"Trenzinho Caipira"a composition by Heitor Villa Lobos and integral part of the "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2". The music is characterized by the imitation of the motion of a locomotive using the instruments of the orchestra.
The first compositions of Villa-Lobos bear the mark of European styles from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, being mainly influenced by Wagner, Puccini, by French Romantic school of Cesar Frank and the impressionists Debussy and Ravel.
Dances in African features (1914), however, begins to move away from the European manner, and to discover their own language, which became established in the Amazon and Uirapuru ballets (1917).
In the creative audacity of the year 1920, which produced the serenades, the Choros, Studies Cirandas for guitar and piano, followed by a neo-Baroque period, whose flagship was the exquisite nine Bachianas Brasileiras (1930-1945), for different instrumental. In his work, the conductor combined indifferently all styles and all genres, without hesitation introducing typically Brazilian musical materials in typical forms of Western classical music, a procedure that led him to approach, in the same work, Bach and more exotic instruments.
"Music owes to this great genius not only the master pieces he created, but more importantly, his courageous attitude to oppose the so-called modern music. Villa Lobos followed the precepts of the true music, enriching it and marking it embedded in his strong personality. (...) he will remain as one of the greatest personalities of his time and one of the greatest glories of his country"(Pablo Casals, cellist genius).
(adapted from the article published at OperaMundi website, in 2011)
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