Heitor Villa-Lobos - String Quartet No. 10 (1946)

Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 – November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces). His Etudes for guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia, while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to Arminda Neves d’Almeida, a.k.a. "Mindinha." Both are important works in the guitar repertory.

String Quartet No. 10 (1946)
Dedicated to Midinha

1. Poco animato
2. Adagio (7:11)
3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) (15:38)
4. Molto Allegro (20:42)

Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Mexico City)

Description by Seth Brodsky [-]
Heitor Villa-Lobos' String Quartet No. 10 continues the preoccupations of the composer's previous two works, and generally operates in a similar style. It also continues Villa-Lobos' apparent "one quartet a year" policy, an ambitious program, considering his many other works written in these years. This very fecundity may explain the redundancy some feel upon hearing the Tenth; after the new ground broken by the Eighth, with its wobbling chromaticism and exacting economy, and the atonal extremes and angularity of the Ninth, Villa-Lobos' next quartet can sound unflatteringly moderate. And in certain ways, it is a less-"original" piece: its basic materials can be interpreted as leftovers from the string trio the composer also wrote around the same time; perhaps his "policy" was becoming more demanding than his invention. But innovation is not the main attraction of Villa-Lobos' quartet-oeuvre; rather, its magnetism arises from its inimitable sound-world, full of a cool, well-constructed optimism in both the technical and expressive senses. And in this, the Tenth does not disappoint: it is as sharp as any Villa-Lobos score in its weaving together of contrasts, its formal tributaries, its sunlit affections, and the characteristic ease of its unfolding. In particular, Villa-Lobos had, by this time, honed a specific ability to fuse melody and accompaniment with tremendous deftness. Many times over in this score, the main theme is coupled with a catchy ostinato and this concoction freely fragments itself around the ensemble, allowing for a game of dialogue. Combined with the suave, often chromatic, slipperiness of the harmony, this penchant allows Villa-Lobos to have fun with the structure of the movements; they flit and freewheel, sounding less like sonic architecture than enthusiastically distracted conversation. This mixing-up occasionally allows for some more unusual qualities. In particular, the quartet's slow movement really digs into difficult harmonic terrain; as Arnaldo Estrella, a scholar of Villa-Lobos' quartets, observed, this is music quite self-consciously distanced from the serestiero and mondinha of the composer's earlier, more folkloric allusions. Rather, it suggests -- not without a wink of parody -- the more overwrought melos of the Second Viennese School, whose presence undoubtedly informs the Eighth, and especially the Ninth, quartets. That being said, Villa-Lobos can be depended upon to exploit such missing links later, as when he quotes a folkish motive from the earlier score Amazonas. Soon, however, the composer was re-thinking his quartet aesthetic: the Eleventh quartet begins a new "late phase."