Chôros No. 1

Chôros No. 1 (Chôro típico brasileiro) is a composition for guitar by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1920.

Chôros No. 1
Chôro típico
by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
EnglishA Typical Chôro (subtitle)
KeyE minor
CatalogueW161
GenreChôros
FormFive-part rondo
Composed1920 (1920): Rio de Janeiro
DedicationErnesto Nazareth
Published1920 (1920): Rio de Janeiro; second edition: 1960 (1960): Paris
PublisherArthur Napoleão; Max Eschig
Recorded1940 (1940) Heitor Villa-Lobos (guitar) (one monaural 78rpm disc, Victor (Brazil) 12-204)
Duration4 mins.
Movements1
ScoringGuitar solo
Premiere
DateUnknown
LocationUnknown
PerformersUnknown

History

Villa-Lobos composed Chôros No. 1 in Rio de Janeiro in 1920, originally publishing it under the title Chôro típico, then Chôro típico brasileiro. The title is taken from an improvisational genre of Brazilian instrumental popular music that originated in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century. The Portuguese word choro (pronounced [ˈʃoɾu]), means "cry" or "lament", though most music of this type is far from being sorrowful. Four years after composing this work, at the time of his first visit to Paris, he decided to make it part of an extended cycle of works collectively titled Chôros, which eventually included fourteen numbered compositions, plus an Introduction aux chôros (Introdução aos chôros): Ouverture, for guitar and orchestra, designed to be played before a complete performance of the cycle, and Chôros bis, a two-movement duo for violin and cello, considered as a sort of encore piece. A Quintet ("em forma de chôros"), for five woodwind instruments (1928) is sometimes considered as related.

In the context of the larger cycle, Chôros No. 1 "is like the essence, the embryo, the psychological model that will be developed technically in the conception of all the Chôros" (Villa-Lobos 1972, 210).

The score of Chôros No. 1 is dedicated to Ernesto Nazareth, and a recording of it made by the composer lasts just under four minutes. Unlike the successor works, there is no attempt here to synthesize different aspects of Brazilian music into a stylistic montage. Instead, it employs the patterns, figurations, and simple structure characteristic of the improvised music of such celebrated chorões of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as Zequinha de Abreu, Quincas Laranjeiras, Chiquinha Gonzaga, and Catulo da Paixão Cearense (Wright 1992, 62) This simplicity and the beauty of its composition have made it a favourite with professional guitarists (Appleby 2002, 80).

Analysis

According to the composer:

Choros No. 1 was deliberately written as if it were an instinctive production of the naive imagination of these types of popular music, in order to serve as a simple point of departure and extend proportionally, later, in form, in technique, in structure, in class, and in the psychological cases that include all these musical genres. The main theme, the harmonies and modulations, although pure invention, are shaped in the rhythmic practices and cellular melodic fragments of popular singers, guitarists, and pianists such as Sátiro Bilhar, Ernesto Nazareth, and others. (Villa-Lobos 1972, 198)

Chôros No. 1 is formally and tonally both the simplest and the most traditional of the series of Chôros, consisting of a five-part rondo in an ABACA pattern (Appleby 2002, 80). The substance of the work draws on traditional elements of the Brazilian popular choro, including the three-note opening gesture, where each note is marked with a fermata, and a four-measure introduction (Nóbrega 1975, 28).

References
  • Appleby, David. 2002. Heitor Villa-Lobos: A Life (1887–1959). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4149-9.
  • Negwer, Manuel. 2008. Villa-Lobos: Der Aufbruch der brasilianischen Musik. Mainz: Schott Music. ISBN 3-7957-0168-6. Portuguese version as Villa Lobos e o florescimento da música brasileira. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2009. ISBN 978-85-61635-40-4.
  • Nóbrega, Adhemar Alves da. 1975. Os chôros de Villa-Lobos. Rio de Janeiro: Museu Villa-Lobos.
  • Villa-Lobos, Heitor. 1972. "Choros: Estudo técnico, estético e psicológico", edited in 1950 by Adhemar Nóbrega. In Villa-Lobos, sua obra, second edition, 198–210. Rio de Janeiro: MEC/DAC/Museu Villa-Lobos.
  • Villa-Lobos, sua obra. 1989. Third edition. Rio de Janeiro: MinC-SPHAN/Pró-Memória, Museu Villa-Lobos. Online edition, 2009
  • Wright, Simon. 1992. Villa-Lobos. Oxford Studies of Composers. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-315476-5 (cloth); ISBN 0-19-315475-7 (pbk).

Further reading
  • Béhague, Gerard. 1994. Villa-Lobos: The Search for Brazil's Musical Soul. Austin: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. ISBN 0-292-70823-8.
  • Béhague, Gerard. 2001. "Villa-Lobos, Heitor". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
  • Demarquez, Suzanne. 1929a. "Les Choros de Villa-Lobos". Musique: Revue mensuelle de critique, d'histoire, d'esthétique et d'information musicales, No. 4 (15 January): 707–13.
  • Demarquez, Suzanne. 1929b. "Villa-Lobos". Revue Musicale 10, no. 10 (November): 1–22.
  • Gomes, Vinícius José Spedaletti. 2010. "Helio Delmiro, Villa-Lobos e o choro: Uma análise comparativa entre 'Chama' e Choros No. 1". Anais do SIMPOM (Simpósio Brasileiro de Pós-Graduados em Música) 1:673–82.
  • Negwer, Manuel. 2008. Villa-Lobos: Der Aufbruch der brasilianischen Musik. Mainz: Schott Musik GmbH & Co, KG. ISBN 978-3-7957-0168-0.
  • Wade, Graham. 1998. "Un approccio al choros n. 1 di Heitor Villa-Lobos". Il Fronimo: Rivista di chitarra 26, no. 103 (July–September): 41–49. Also published as "Annäherung an Choros no. 1 von Heitor Villa-Lobos", translated by Leo Freitag. Gitarre und Laute 20, no. 1 (January–February 1998) 15–19.
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