Guitar music by Heitor Villa-Lobos: genre traditions of Brazilian choro
Authors: Filatova Tetiana 
Published: December 2024

The relevance of the article is to consider Brazilian guitar music as an important component of the modern South American repertoire. On the example of choros of famous composer Heitor Villa-Lobos connections with the folklore traditions of the country, Afro-Brazilian, AfroCuban primary and derivative patterns of the genre have been revealed.
The main objective of the study is to discover in H. Villa-Lobos's guitar music metrorhythmic and intonation-melodic archetypes of the Brazilian choro genre as an essential component of the southeastern regions of the country. The novelty of the article consists in the introduction to the Ukrainian musicological circulation of the genre-style analysis of the guitar works of H. VillaLobos, which, thanks to the names, are defined by the author as representatives of the specifics of this genre phenomenon.
The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary approach and methods of historical, cultural, musicological, systemic, structural, and functional analysis, applied to the study of the genesis of the choro rhythmic archetype, primary ethnic sources, intonation-melodic manifestations and stylistic interactions in the composer's music.
Results and conclusions. Choro is considered as one of the main heraldic genres of Brazilian musical culture, spread to a large extent in the southeastern regions of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Among the local folk traditions of music-making in the middle of the 20th century choro (ancient wailing) and samba belong to the hybrid field of genres of Afro-Brazilian roots. The genesis of choro is connected with the local folklore of street musicians (choroens), as well as with tropical soundscapes and noise signals of the "polyphony of the city". Choro is characterized as a genre model, an instrumental composition of performers, singing, dancing and a figurative state of suffering. Linguistic and genre features of choro are revealed in the example of guitar works from the "Popular Brazilian Suite" by Heitor Villa-Lobos and his solo guitar composition from the largescale cycle of the same name "Chôros" for various ensembles of performers. Connections of choro with mazurka, ecossaise (scottish), waltz, gavotte are determined. The means of creating sound effects of ensemble playing thanks to the idiomatic resources of the solo guitar are considered. In the process of analytical research, a schematic generalization of the rhythmic choro archetype is proposed. The basic and derivative patterns of the archetype create a system of variant means of alternating rhythmic formulas that generalize the features of Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian habanera, African lundu and batuk, European and Brazilian polka. The modernist means of choro representation are characterized thanks to the comparison of the guitar version with the language findings of the following parts of the grandiose cycle "Chôros": the use of Indian ritual-tribal folklore elements, techniques of sound imitation, stylistic allusions, a modern language arsenal, which together with the further development of the fundamental technique of playing the guitar with movements of the same positions along the guitar neck formed their individual and stylistic platform of musical thinking.