String Quartet No. 17 (Villa-Lobos)

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Villa-Lobos in June 1952 Heitor Villa-lobos TA.jpg
Villa-Lobos in June 1952

String Quartet No. 17 is the last of seventeen quartets by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1957. A performance lasts approximately twenty minutes.

Contents

History

The Budapest Quartet, who premiered Villa-Lobos's Quartet No. 17 Budapest String Quartet 1961.jpg
The Budapest Quartet, who premiered Villa-Lobos's Quartet No. 17

Villa-Lobos composed his Seventeenth Quartet in Rio de Janeiro in 1957. It was first performed by the Budapest String Quartet on 16 October 1959, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., exactly one month before the composer's death. Villa-Lobos was too ill to attend. [1] He had given a copy of the score to the violinist Mariuccia Iacovino in Paris, before returning to Rio, mortally ill. He repeatedly asked her to arrange a reading of it, but adverse circumstances prevented this, and he died without knowing the premiere had already taken place: [2]

Analysis

The quartet consists of the traditional four movements:

  1. Allegro non troppo
  2. Lento
  3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
  4. Allegro vivace (con fuoco)

The first movement is in ternary, ABA form, rather than the expected sonata-allegro form, and has a long concluding coda of thirty-seven measures. [3]

The second movement is also in ternary form and has the character of the improvised instrumental serenade called a choro. [4]

The third movement is a traditional scherzo with trio, followed by a concluding coda. [5]

The finale breaks with traditional forms, offering instead a succession of three unrelated sections, a transition, and a recapitulation of the first half of section one, and an extended coda. [6]

Discography

Chronological, by date of recording.

Filmography

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String Quartet No. 2 is the one of a series of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1915. A performance lasts approximately twenty minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 3 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 3 is the third of seventeen works in the medium by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1916. A performance lasts approximately twenty-three minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 4 (Villa-Lobos)</span> Composition by Heitor Villa-Lobos

String Quartet No. 4 is the fourth of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1917 and revised in 1949. A performance lasts approximately 23 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 5 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 5 is the fifth of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1931. A performance lasts approximately 17 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 6 (Villa-Lobos)</span> 1938 work by Heitor Villa-Lobos

String Quartet No. 6 ("Brazilian") is one of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1938, in between his early and late periods. Villa-Lobos considered naming it "Quartet Popular No. 2" as opposed to "Brazilian," and while the work is indeed one of his more nationalist pieces, it also bears direct connections to the Viennese tradition of string quartet composition. A performance lasts approximately 24 minutes.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 8 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 8 is one of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1944. A performance lasts approximately twenty-five minutes.

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String Quartet No. 9 is part of a series of seventeen works in the medium by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1945. A performance lasts approximately 25 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 10 (Villa-Lobos)</span> Musical composition by Heitor Villa-Lobos

String Quartet No. 10 is one of a series of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1946. A performance lasts approximately 23 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 11 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 11 is a 1947 string quartet, part of a 17-work series in the medium by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. A performance lasts approximately 27 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 12 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 12 is the part of a series of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1950. A performance lasts approximately twenty-two minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 13 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 14 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 14 is the one of a series of seventeen works in the medium by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1953. A performance lasts approximately seventeen minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 15 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 15 is one of a series of seventeen works in the medium by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1954. A performance lasts approximately nineteen minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 16 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

String Quartet No. 16 is the penultimate of seventeen quartets by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1955. A performance lasts approximately twenty minutes.

References

  1. Wright 1992, pp. 139–40.
  2. Estrella 1972.
  3. Farmer 1973, p. 79.
  4. Farmer 1973, pp. 91–92.
  5. Farmer 1973, p. 96.
  6. Farmer 1973, pp. 100–101.

Cited sources

Further reading