4th Part – Contemporary Guitar Music on Books... Humberto Amorim

... A resounding passion product, subtly marked by fate, between Villa-Lobos and the guitar.

(Humberto Amorim, 2009, p.132)

Heitor Villa-Lobos e o violão

(Heitor Villa-Lobos and the guitar)

Publisher: Academia Brasileira de Música (Brazilian Academy of Music), Rio de Janeiro, 2009

Author: Humberto Amorim

Humberto Amorim is guitarist and professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; the book portrays Villa-Lobos' Poetics, walking between history and musical analysis. Some highlights: the author has done searches in original manuscripts, showing ambiguities in some dates of works; furthermore, there are analyses of Valsa de Concerto 2 and Valse-Choro, two works rarely seen in musicology and performance. The onomastic and content indexes are helpful for researchers.

The chapters follow the chronology of Villa Lobos, however here it can see figures that in the biographies of the carioca composer are much less remembered: Olga Praguer Coelho, Regino Sainz de la Maza and Abel Carlevaro.

On the issue dedicated to the initial chamber music pieces, Amorim has featured the Sexteto Místico, chamber music of Villa-Lobos that includes guitar. The avant-garde mind of this work is established between musical ideas and the historical moment – the modern twenties – including periods about this work are re-exposed (1917 vs. 1921). The combination of these six instruments is​​ unusual (flute, oboe, alto saxophone, harp, celesta, guitar), converging towards to relevance for Timbre; in the manuscript (1921) there is another idea of ​​set, which would include sitar and male chorus. Amorim believes that Villa-Lobos may have considered perform this work at Semana de 22 (an important artistic Brazilian modernist event in São Paulo city, in 1922). In this piece, there already are many significant procedures of the composer, as the characteristic musical idea of ​​open strings and parallelism on the board of the guitar.

In Distribuição de Flores (1937 in the official Catalogue; 1932, the manuscript investigated by the author), modal piece for flute and guitar, Amorim highlights the absence of time signature, musical ideas from the natural tuning of the guitar and the open strings, and percussion effects (tamboras).

About Valse-Choro, a piece discovered in 2005 by the French-Italian guitarist Frédéric Zigante, Amorim explains different points of conception and sustains: "Valse-Choro é indiscutivelmente uma peça que tem efeitos e recursos violonísticos mais ousados, além de uma harmonia que explora mais intensamente as dissonâncias e os cromatismos "(AMORIM, 2009, p. 74), (Valse-Choro is definitely a piece that has bolder effects and resources on guitar, plus a harmony that runs deeper dissonances and chromatisms), including the author points out some first-time procedures of Villa-Lobos' production until then.

In Chapter 4, appropriately titled Paris – uma mudança (Paris – a change), Amorim reiterates the fact of his stay in Paris, and what such change context has made to his poetic gesture. Besides the aspect of Parisian artistic effervescence interacting, the author lists the factors that favoured the guitar: the popularity of this instrument in Paris; favourable environment to the Brazilianness of the Villa-Lobos' oeuvre; and contact with the world's great guitar names in the twentieth century.

Letters of Andrés Segovia (to Villa-Lobos and Ponce) are analysed almost like a paradox: being both contemporaries a guitarist of category as Segovia and an avant la lettre composer as Villa-Lobos, and yet, it can verify the dismissal of a masterpiece as Studies by Segovia.

Also in this chapter, Amorim makes interesting considerations about short pieces in Villa-Lobos' output, identified as "best compositional resolution" by other analysts, including the great Mario de Andrade, also has perceived it in the architecture of the 12 Studies ­– such concentrated geniality in twelve small compartments. The statement is well grounded in the text of the researcher, who also makes comparisons with other works.

Turning to the historical aspects of the Studies, Amorim makes an undeniable tribute to Turíbio Santos, as the absolute pioneer in this renowned oeuvre: presentation of 12 Studies in concert; recording the full version; author of the first book (this will also be considered in this blog), among other wonderful feats of this real gentleman of Brazilian guitar.

From there, Amorim examines each of the 12 Studies, covering reciprocated technique and writing expressiveness of Villa-Lobos – major objective of his research.

Chapter 5 provides a historical confluence among Villa-Lobos, Abel Carlevaro and the Five Preludes. Amorim points out as intelligent procedure the exploiting of resources in the Preludes, even moments of unprecedented procedures – these are well-described considerations. The book ends with a summary of nearly 50 points identified in the guitar writing of Villa-Lobos.

Humberto Amorim has a well-balanced view of life facts of Villa-Lobos; he discerns the data collected with appropriate academic caution, even reiterating the importance of Stravinsky and Varèse (p. 137) on shares of Villa-Lobos' output. It is difficult for any Brazilian guitarist to abstain from privilege of having Villa-Lobos as a benchmark in the art of concert guitar, however Amorim has a plural version of events, which interconnect the destiny of Villa-Lobos towards the guitar.

 

Amorim’s book organizes very well the information that establish the guitar music of Villa-Lobos as a permanent realization for the concert guitar at a world level.