Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. 9

Richard B. Gibson.
MH352WI Dr. Granade

Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. 9

Out of the two pieces that I picked for the listening journal for Mr. Villa-Lobos I chose his No. 9. Mr. Villa-Lobos attempts to join Bach with Brazil with this piece by using a continuos fluid movement to represent Bach and Brazilian folk tunes for the melodic line. It includes a "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico" that runs for only 2:37 orchestrated for strings and also a "Fugue: Poco apressado" that lasts 6:32, which is orchestrated for only strings as well. I can see why this piece does not make it into the Canon of classical music due to the rather simplistic nature of these two movements. There is nothing to really grab your attention throughout the entire two movements which leaves you wanting more. It starts out slow and remains that way until the end. Although that is not saying much because its total running time is only 9:09. Please do not get me wrong, it is a very enjoyable piece, but not one that I feel should belong in the Canon.
Villa-Lobos begins with a chord establishment in the strings with the cello sustaining the note while the violin plays a pretty melody. This is the way it goes, with a beautiful and tranquil melodic line in the violin until the dissonance is brought in. No other instruments just yet, just the main strings. Throughout the "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico" the cello does not receive a lot of attention. It is mainly there to keep the key established and to add just a small layer of texture. I will say, however, the way Villa-Lobos has the violins play descending minor thirds gives it a very sultry sound that is appealing to the ear. It is almost as if he kept taking different little themes and playing with them in the violin to make it more interesting. To me it almost sounds like a variation, something like Rachmaninov would write in that it has a flavor of romanticism with the fluidity of the lines and the flare of modernism due to all of the dissonance. It is a very lethargic movement, with hints of suspension, because the cello mainly plays the same note the entire time and everything layered on top of that can only give you a nice 4-3 suspension every once in a while. I feel that this movement lacks stylistic uniformity as a whole. It just keeps changing themes after it embellishes the last theme a little bit. Only every once in a while does it feel like a uniform piece.
The "Fugue: Poco apressado" starts out much differently. It is much more upbeat, faster and louder and it gives the movement the contrast that has been lacking. There is some nice syncopation right away that keeps your ears perked up listening for what is next. Villa-Lobos does seem to stick to the original theme in this piece more than before. Yet how he tries to remain there often times gets away from it because it holds no semblance of the theme after the theme is first repeated, much like the "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico." The biggest difference tempi-wise is all of the syncopation. Villa-Lobos does not get very inventive with it, but it is so different that your ear holds onto it. You want to hold onto it actually because it gives it a much different texture and feel. Now it feels like a waltz type dance. It is only at the end of the movement that he builds everything up to this lovely crescendo that takes you away to another place. If only he could have written everything to fluidly come to this point so that it would seem the crescendo has purpose, then maybe it would belong in the canon.
It is obvious why this work did not make it into the classical music Canon once you hear it. It lacks uniformity, there is almost no musical flow leading down a distinct path and the texture is lacking. There is not very much contrast within the individual movements and the melodic lines get old and boring after a short time. With that said, I feel that if Mr. Villa-Lobos could have used a little more imagination with the themes he could have made a masterpiece. It is hard for me to imagine that Villa-Lobos didn’t have a better choice of traditional Brazilian folk tunes to choose from that would have given this movement a more interesting line. He could have played with the melodic lines to draw them out more and give them more structure. That way he wouldn’t have to bore us with repeating the same boring short melody. He could also give more contrast to the dynamics and used the dissonance to bring out more even more contrast. All of this would have given the piece the texture it lacks and made for a greater flow of the whole piece.