5th Part – Contemporary Guitar Music on Books... Paulo de Tarso Salles

It's amazing the effort made in Brazil to decrease Villa-Lobos from the prominent position, really enviable, he has in the musical scene of the twentieth century. I think only Freud can explain.

(Gilberto Mendes, Uma Odisseia musical, 1994, p.118)

Villa-Lobos: Processos Composicionais
(Villa-Lobos: Compositional Processes)
 Publisher: Editora Unicamp, Campinas, 2009

Author: Paulo de Tarso Salles

Paulo de Tarso Salles is a composer, researcher, professor at the University of São Paulo and guitarist. This book is the result of his Ph.D. at the Universidade de Campinas. The study deeps in the  procedures of the great musical creation of Villa-Lobos and approaches historical moments of the twentieth century, prevailed by their innovation processes; so, from Wagner and through modern figures as Messiaen, Varèse, Webern and Berg, Salles takes up the essence of new sonorities, doing this in a very attractive and explored way.

The author sees on the Villa-Lobos' output, specifically between 1918 and 1929, as the time when "new musical syntax" is much more evident (SALLES, 2009, p. 17), including guitar pieces – it reinforces all the literature surrounding Villa-Lobos, which used to claim the innovation in his poetry precisely in the 20s of the twentieth century. The dialogue between Poetics is promoted here, not as an influence – it was a disposition of carioca composer for innovation, rather be beyond tradition.

An approach to Wagner is present in the series of Preludes for guitar (1940) – Salles points out the Tristan Chord in the middle section of the Prelude 3 (p. 35); it is an examination of the piece from that connection, reformulating the common vision about this Preludio.

One of the most important aspects on the Salles' thesis is the Symmetry, explaining this concept from the music in general and then focuses on Villa-Lobos. It’s interesting that in the Study n.12 the symmetrical combinations from the instrumental fingering are identified by the author as a process that would resume Villa-Lobos' output in general: “Da escrita violonística de Villa-Lobos emergem aplicações interessantes da técnica de gerar material a partir da digitação” transportando “essa classe de operações para sua música orquestral e camerística” (From the guitar writing of Villa-Lobos, interesting uses emerge for the technique to generate material from fingering) transporting “essa classe de operações para sua música orquestral e camerística” (this kind of operations for his orchestral and chamber music)"  (SALLES, 2009, p. 48-49).

The comparative method permeates the entire text of Salles, which allows addressing works such as the Studio n.5 for guitar, Moreninha (piano) and the orchestral work Uirapuru, in symmetries context (p.56-57). Mentioning aspects of the 12 Studies (p. 57-62), Salles notes how this cycle clearly has revealed some of the most common procedures in Villa-Lobos' output "perhaps by the small size of each study" – such verification is further visible by "more concentrated action" on the instrument. In Study n.1, Salles sees a combination of tonal harmonic progressions, idiomatic writing and planes of symmetry; in Studies n.8 and 11, another symmetries mode.

The author explains procedures involving Textures, into usual context of post-tonal music, exemplified in works like Valsa-Choro (p. 71-72) – it’s still tonal way, though as the idea of ​​establishing layers and plans.  However, a topic is open exclusively to treat textures in the 12 Studies for guitar (p. 93-96), and Salles highlights in particular the achievement of "continuous sound" in Studies n.10, n.11 and n.12. Salles reiterates the importance of this cycle, placing the guitar in a "new level".

He makes an interesting conclusion about the second creative phase of Villa-Lobos; those years provided the basis for all subsequent output. A focus on Sexteto Místico (p. 118) explains interesting processes detected by the author in this and other compared works, reinforcing the idea that this period of the composer's life has been the experiential one in his Poetics.

There is much more to consider, like the idea of ​​cadences in Villa-Lobos in close approaches to Varèse and Wagner (p. 143-146), the instrumental choice emphasises the Timbre, foreseeing colours and atmospheres searched by names like Messiaen, Ligeti or Xenakis. These are propositions that must be assimilated by the reader, which have on hand a book by an author who is a composer, guitarist and teacher, making a very instructive analytical text, covering several specific terms, beside explaining them substantially. For researchers in the area, there is a bibliography of more than 200 titles, onomastic and content of indexes, which lead quickly to the concerning terms.

The guitar is present throughout the text in numerous findings, which Salles imparts to the reader and also suggests arguments for other uses because its many interlocutions, including performance.

The title of the book isn't just rhetoric'; Salles seeks to disprove the discourse of mere suppositions about the composer and demonstrate the technical and Poetics construction of this famous artist.

 

Salles' book analyses the work of Villa-Lobos in a rarely seen manner, with analytical tools and approaching great avant-garde Poetics from the twentieth century, demystifying the so-called eccentricity of the composer.