heitor villa lobos

The Brazilian compose, Heitor Villa-Lobos, learned music from his father, who was a widely-read, highly-cultured amateur of music and a librarian. By the turn of the century Villa-Lobos had turned himself into a professional musician. He earned his living as a cafe musician; his instrument was the cello.

n 1905 Heitor Villa-Lobos made the first of his trips to Brazil's north-eastern states, to collect folk music. Such trips would continue in the future, though Villa-Lobos spun a web of mystery around them; his own testimony of adventures with the cannibal tribes of the North-East is not always trustworthy. Afterwards, he studied at the National Institute of Music in Rio de Janeiro, though his compositional style never conformed to any academic norms.

 




Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Raul, was a wealthy, educated man of Spanish extraction, a librarian, an amateur astronomer and musician. In Villa-Lobos's early childhood, Brazil underwent a period of social revolution and modernisation, abolishing slavery in 1888 and overthrowing the Empire of Brazil in 1889. The changes in Brazil were reflected in its musical life: previously European music had been the dominant influence, and the courses at the Conservatório de Música were grounded in traditional counterpoint and harmony. Villa-Lobos underwent very little of this formal training. After a few abortive harmony lessons, he learnt music by illicit observation from the top of the stairs of the regular musical evenings at his house arranged by his father. He learned to play the cello, the guitar and the clarinet. When his father died suddenly in 1899 he earned a living for his family by playing in cinema and theatre orchestras in Rio.

Born: March 5, 1887 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Died: November 17, 1959. - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Fonte: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Villa-Lobos-Heitor.htm