H
eitor Villa-Lobosborn in Rio de Janeiro on March 5, 1887.
He began to learn music from his father, who was an highly-cultured amateur of music. His father taught him the cello and the guitar. . Despite his father’s efforts he was undisciplined, frequently escaping into the streets of Rio de Janeiro to join the choroes: street musicians who sang the favourite folk songs of the day. In 1899, his father died of malaria. Heitor started to earn a little money by playing the cello in cafés. He refused to undergo any sort of formal musical training. Sometime after 1905, he joined the orchestras of several travelling theatre companies, which gave him the opportunity to tour the country.
After marriage to Lucília, a concert pianist, in 1913 he made attempts to undergo formal musical study. Again he failed to find the necessary discipline, but at about this time his compositions started to be played in public. His work was heard and subsequently promoted by American pianist Artur Rubenstein. As a result he was provided with the funds which enabled him to travel to Europe, where his concerts were a sensation (particularly in France). By 1923, he had attracted enough official favour to win a government grant to study in Paris. Perhaps the best illustration of Villa-Lobos’ life and approach to music comes from his arrival in Paris in 1923. One of his first comments was ‘I didn’t come to study with you, I came to show you what I’ve done’.
In 1930 he returned to Brazil. Although in his home country he and his music had always been controversial, the national element in his output attracted the attention of the new, post-revolutionary government. He had also become interested in the idea of leading the mass population to the appreciation of serious music through the medium of folk music. The outcome was that the government created for him the post of Director of Music Education in Rio de Janeiro (then the capital of Brasil) and his programme of cultural change was announced at the city university.
He separated from Lucília in 1936 (divorce was not possible in Brazil at the time) and his companion for the rest of his life was Arminda, a former pupil.
In 1944, Villa Lobos made a trip to the United States to conduct his works, to critical and even some popular acclaim. Important new works were commissioned by American orchestras, and he even wrote a movie score for Hollywood, for the interesting 1945 film The Green Mansions. The 1940's were a period of triumph on an international scale. As a composer and conductor of his own music, Villa Lobos was lionized from Los Angeles to New York to Paris.
In 1957 Heitor Villa-Lobos was at the peak of his success. On the occasion of his seventieth birthday he was cited by Mayor Robert Wagner of New York City "for distinguished and exceptional service." Wagner called Villa-Lobos a "talented interpreter of music: inspired teacher who led the movement to make the folk music of Brazil an important social force in the lives of her youth... original composed of first rank who has contributed to diverse branches of his universal art." On March 4th, 1957, The New York Times honoured him with an editorial stating that he was "one of the truly distinguished men of music of our time ... a remarkable figure in any age."
In 1948 Villa-Lobos was successfully treated for cancer. He continued to pursue a demanding career for another ten years, until the after-effects of the cancer treatment finally killed him.
Thirty years later, this composer of about 1,500 works was almost entirely unknown, except for his Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 and his guitar music. In 1987, the centenary of his birth, Brazil finally rerecognized one of her greatest sons, and placed his portrait on the 500 cruzado banknote. In New York, under the aegis of the Americas Society, the Villa-Lobos Music Society began operating in an effort to revitalize and preserve an interest in his music, much in the same spirit as the Bach Society of Leipzig had done for its composer during the nineteenth century.