Bachianas Brasileiras

The Bachianas Brasileiras (Portuguese pronunciation: [bakiˈɐ̃nɐz bɾaziˈlejɾɐs]) (an approximate English translation might be Bach-inspired Brazilian pieces) are a series of nine suites by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945. They represent a fusion of Brazilian folk and popular music on the one hand and the style of Johann Sebastian Bach on the other, as an attempt to freely adapt a number of Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures to Brazilian music. Most of the movements in each suite have two titles: one "Bachian" (Preludio, Fuga, etc.), the other Brazilian (Embolada, O canto da nossa terra, etc.).
In the Bachianas, Villa-Lobos employs the counterpoint and harmonic complexity typical of Bach's music and combines it with the lyrical quality of operatic singing and Brazilian song. The listener experiences the charm of the Brazilian landscape; the energy of Brazilian dance; the color, dissonance and expression of early 20th-century Brazilian modernism; and the refreshing originality of Villa-Lobos' compositional style.
Scored for orchestra of cellos (1930). Dedicated to Pablo Casals.
Scored for orchestra (1930). There are four movements. According to one opinion, the third movement was later transcribed for piano, and the others for cello and piano. According to another, it was the other way around: three pieces for cello and piano and a solo piano piece, none of them connected with each other and none of them originally with any Bach associations, were brought together and scored for chamber orchestra.
This work is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, tenor and baritone saxophones, bassoon, contrabassoon, 2 horns, trombone, timpani, ganzá, chocalho, pandeira, reco, matraca, caixa, triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum, celesta, piano, and strings.
Scored for piano and orchestra (1938).
The orchestral forces for this work, in addition to the solo piano, are: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, and strings.
CBS radio premiered Bachianas Brasileras No.3 on February 19, 1947, New York José Vieira Brandão (piano), CBS Orchestra, Villa-Lobos (conductor)
Scored for piano (1930–41); orchestrated in 1942 (Preludio dedicated to Tomas Terán; Coral dedicated to José Vieira Brandão; Ária dedicated to Sylvio Salema; Dança dedicated to Antonieta Rudge Müller).
The Bachiana Brasileira No. 4 begins with the beautiful Prelúdio (Introdução) (lit: introduction) and features broad lyrical melodies in lush imitative passages. The title of the second movement, Coral (Canto do Sertão) (song of the hinterlands), refers to a song from the arid backlands of the Brazilian northeast. The movement features a clear lyrical melody in a polyphonic setting that ends with a powerful homophonic texture typical of Bach's Lutheran chorales. In Ária (Cantiga), Villa-Lobos borrows a beautiful and nostalgic northeastern Brazilian melody about the sertão and uses it as a cantus firmus for the composition. The final movement, Danza (miudinho), is a bright and energetic dance-like piece subtitled Miudinho, which is a reference to the small playful-like steps typical of a number of Brazilian dance forms such as samba, forró, and capoeira (an African-influenced Brazilian martial art form). The orchestral version is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, celesta, and strings. The first movement (Prelúdio) is scored for strings alone.
Scored for soprano and orchestra of eight cellos (1938/45).
Scored for flute and bassoon (1938).
Scored for symphony orchestra (1942); dedicated to Gustavo Capanema [pt; fr; tr].
This work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, timpani, tam-tam, xylophone, coconut shell, bass drum, celesta, harp and strings.
Scored for symphony orchestra (1944); dedicated to Mindinha.
This work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, timpani, tam-tam, xylophone, 3 wood blocks (high, medium and low), tarol, bass drum, celesta, and strings.
Scored for chorus or string orchestra (1945).
Because Villa-Lobos dashed off compositions in feverish haste and preferred writing new pieces to revising and correcting already completed ones, numerous slips of the pen, miscalculations, impracticalities or even impossibilities, imprecise notations, uncertainty in specification of instruments, and other problems inescapably remain in the printed scores of the Bachianas, and require performers to take unusual care to decipher what the composer actually intended. In the frequent cases where both the score and the parts are wrong, the recordings made by the composer are the only means of determining what he actually intended.
Villa-Lobos made a number of recordings of the Bachianas Brasileiras, including a complete recording of all nine compositions made in Paris for EMI in the 1950s, with the French National Orchestra and Victoria de los Ángeles as the soprano soloist in No. 5. These landmark recordings were issued in several configurations on LP and were later reissued on CD. Other musicians, including Joan Baez, Bidu Sayão, Enrique Bátiz, Leonard Bernstein, Felicja Blumental, Nelson Freire, Werner Janssen, Isaac Karabtchevsky, Jesús López-Cobos, Cristina Ortiz, Aldo Parisot, Menahem Pressler, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Felix Slatkin, Leopold Stokowski, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Galina Vishnevskaya, have subsequently recorded some or all of the music.