String Quartet No. 13 (Villa-Lobos)

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Villa-Lobos in June 1952

String Quartet No. 13 is one of a series of seventeen works in the medium by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1951. A performance of it lasts approximately twenty minutes.

History[edit]

According to the catalog published by the Museu Villa-Lobos, the Thirteenth Quartet was composed in New York, but details of the occasion of the first performance are unknown[1] Another source says it was composed in Rio de Janeiro and first performed in 1953.[2] Both sources agree the year of composition was 1951 and that the score is dedicated to the Quarteto Municipal de São Paulo.

Analysis[edit]

Like most of Villa-Lobos's works in the medium, the quartet consists of four movements:

  1. Allegro non troppo
  2. Scherzo (Vivace)
  3. Adagio
  4. Allegro vivace

All four movements of this quartet are in ternary, ABA form.[3] In the first movement, the return of the A section is restricted to its first half, the remainder being replaced with a ten-bar coda.[4]

The second movement is a scherzo, concluding with a coda made from material taken from the central, B section.[5]

The third, slow movement exhibits subtle features of modinha rhythms in 6/4 time.[6] The main theme of this movement has been criticised as "exceptionally shapeless".(Tarasti 1995, p. 317)

The finale is very similar to the opening movement, and uses as its main theme a subject connected by its intervallic structure to that of the fugato that opens the first movement.[7] Eero Tarasti finds this theme "surprisingly feeble".(Tarasti 1995, p. 317)

Discography[edit]

Chronological, in order of dates of recording.

  • Villa-Lobos: Quatuors a Cordes Nos. 12–13–14. Quatuor Bessler-Reis (Bernardo Bessler, Michel Bessler, violins; Marie-Christine Springuel, viola; Alceu Reis, cello). Recorded at Multi Studio in Rio de Janeiro, June–July 1991, and at Studio Master in Rio de Janeiro, July 1989. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Le Chant du Monde LDC 278 1066. France: [S.n.], 1991.
    • Also issued as part of Villa-Lobos: Os 17 quartetos de cordas / The 17 String Quartets. Quarteto Bessler-Reis and Quarteto Amazônia. CD recording, 6 sound discs: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Kuarup Discos KCX-1001 (KCD 045, M-KCD-034, KCD 080/1, KCD-051, KCD 042). Rio de Janeiro: Kuarup Discos, 1996.
  • Heitor Villa-Lobos: String Quartets Nos. 1, 8 and 13. Danubius Quartet (Judit Tóth and Adél Miklós, violins; Cecilia Bodolai, viola; Ilona Wibli, cello). Recorded at the Hungaroton Studios in Budapest, 10–19 October 1990. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Marco Polo 8.223389. A co-production with Records International. Germany: HH International, Ltd., 1992.
  • Villa-Lobos: String Quartets, Volume 5. Quartets Nos. 5, 10, 13. Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Saúl Bitrán, Arón Bitrán, violins; Javier Montiel, viola; Alvaro Bitrán, cello). Recorded at the Sala Blas Galindo of the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, 24–28 January 2000. Music of Latin American Masters. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Dorian DOR-93211. Troy, NY: Dorian Recordings, 2000.
    • Reissued as part of Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Complete String Quartets. 6 CDs + 1 DVD with a performance of Quartet No. 1 and interview with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. Dorian Sono Luminus. DSL-90904. Winchester, VA: Sono Luminus, 2009.
    • Also reissued (without the DVD) on Brilliant Classics 6634.

Filmography[edit]

  • Villa-Lobos: A integral dos quartetos de cordas. Quarteto Radamés Gnattali (Carla Rincón, Francisco Roa, violins; Fernando Thebaldi, viola; Hugo Pilger, cello); presented by Turibio Santos. Recorded from June 2010 to September 2011 at the Palácio do Catete, Palácio das Laranjeiras, and the Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro. DVD and Blu-ray (VIBD11111), 3 discs. Rio de Janeiro: Visom Digital, 2012.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Villa-Lobos, sua obra 1989.
  2. ^ Gutiérrez 2006, p. 3.
  3. ^ Gutiérrez 2006, p. 194.
  4. ^ Gutiérrez 2006, p. 163.
  5. ^ Gutiérrez 2006, p. 69.
  6. ^ Gutiérrez 2006, p. 70.
  7. ^ Gutiérrez 2006, pp. 73–74.

Cited sources[edit]

  • Gutiérrez, Juan José. 2006. "Performance Aspects of String Quartets No. 12, 13 and 14 by Heitor Villa-Lobos". DMA diss. Tallahassee: Florida State University.
  • Tarasti, Eero. 1995. Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Life and Works, 1887–1959. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.
  • Villa-Lobos, sua obra. 1989. Third edition. Rio de Janeiro: MinC-SPHAN/Pró-Memória, Museu Villa-Lobos

Further reading[edit]

  • Béhague, Gerard. 1979. Music in Latin America: An Introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
  • Béhaque, Gerard. 1994. Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Search for Brazil's Musical Soul. Austin: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin.
  • Béhague, Gerard. 2003. Villa-Lobos, Heitor: String Quartets, Cuarteto Latinoamericano. [review] Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 24, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter): 293–94.
  • Estrella, Arnaldo. 1978. Os quartetos de cordas de Villa-Lobos, second edition. Rio de Janeiro: Museu Villa-Lobos, Ministério da Educação e Cultura.
  • Farmer, Virginia. 1973. "An Analytical Study of the Seventeen String Quartets of Heitor Villa-Lobos". DMA diss. Urbana: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • Gilman, Bruce. 1999. "Enigma de vanguardia", translated by Juan Arturo Brennan. Pauta: Cuadernos de teoría y crítica musical 17, no. 69 (January–March): 29–34.
  • Macedo Ribeiro, Roberto. 2000. "A escrita contrapontística nos quartetos de cordas de Heitor Villa-Lobos". In Anais do I Colóquio de Pesquisa de Pós-Graduação, edited by Marisa Rezende and Mário Nogueira, 71–76. Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Escola de Música).
  • Tarasti, Eero. 2009. "Villa-Lobos's String Quartets". In Intimate Voices: The Twentieth-Century String Quartet, vol. 1: Debussy to Villa-Lobos, edited by Evan Jones, 223–55. Eastman Studies in Music 70. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 978-1-58046-322-5; ISBN 978-1-58046-229-7; ISBN 978-1-58046-340-9.
  • Villa-Lobos, sua obra: Programa de Ação Cultural. 1972. Second edition. Rio de Janeiro: MEC, DAC, Museu Villa-Lobos.
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