Heitor Villa Lobos's Biography

Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in 1887 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is one of the prolific composers of his time. He started his studies at the age of six with his father, who worked as a librarian and amateur cellist. He taught young Heitor cello by using a specially adapted viola. He also learned music theory from his father. Later, Heitor learned the clarinet, piano, and was introduced to the music of J. S. Bach when his aunt gave him the book, The Well Tempered Clavier. Bach would later become a great influence to Heitor.

The Villa-Lobos home was filled with music every Saturday night when musician friends came over and played their instruments late into the night. But Heitor was most captivated by the music called choro, composed and played by the street musicians (chorões) who gathered during Carnival, parties, and in the streets regularly for the shear pleasure of playing music together. After his father’s death, Heitor taught himself guitar and often joined in with the chorões where he learned the art of improvisation. His mother wanted her son to become a doctor but to her surprise, Heitor declared that he would devote all his attention to music, since that was what surrounded him most of his young life.

When he turned eighteen, Villa-Lobos began a seven year odyssey through Brazil where he collected thousands of musical themes and folk songs from the various regions and wrote them all down using a made-up short hand. He used these for future compositions. Also during this time, he continued his self-education by studying pieces from the great masters and then composed his first major composition, the Piano Trio No. 1.

Villa-Lobos returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1912 and married a pianist named, Lucilia Guimarães. He also enrolled in formal music education. However, he did not stay at his classes for long, as his personality and musical endeavors were mismatched with the traditional academic establishment. Instead, he played cello in cafes and cinemas and continued composing.

In 1915 Villa-Lobos gave his first series of concerts in Rio de Janeiro. His modernistic music generated negative press reports and provoked rage in the conservative ranks. In 1918, another negative incident happened when he was invited by the National Institute of Music to conduct a concert of his own music, the Symphony No. 1 and Amazonas. The musicians in the orchestra, accustomed to traditional music, refused to play what they considered to be something made up of only dissonances.

Meanwhile, Arthur Rubinstein was in Rio de Janeiro on tour and befriended Villa-Lobos. They would become life-long friends, and it is Rubinstein who prompted Villa-Lobos to write more piano music. Rubinstein was the first to perform Villa-Lobos’ Prole do Bébé (the Baby’s Family) a suite based on children’s themes. Heitor would later become friends with such names as Edgard Varése, Pablo Picasso, Serge Prokofiev, and Leopold Stokowski.

Encouraged by friends, Villa-Lobos traveled to Europe in 1923, making his first stop in Paris, France where in less than a year he made a name for himself with the help of Rubinstein and singer Vera Janacopulus who performed his works in several European countries. He returned to Paris in 1927 to organize concerts and publish several works. During this second stay in Paris, he performed his compositions at recitals, conducted orchestras (he introduced the Choros – his work based on the time when he was with the wondering street musicians) and gained international prestige, while still provoking controversy over his modernistic and musical daring. He then became Professor of Composition at the International Conservatory of Paris.

When he went to Sao Paolo in 1930 for a concert he ended up staying for two years because of his concern with the poor music education program currently offered in the schools. He developed a new plan and became Rio’s Director of Musical and Artistic Education. He focused on choral music in schools, out of which grew the National Conservatory for Choral Music. In 1936 he traveled by Zeppelin to Europe to gain support for his many plans regarding choral programs and at one time organized a choral group consisting of 40,000 school children.

Villa-Lobos embarked on his first tour in the United States in November, 1944 where the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed a concert of his music only. With his popularity soaring, he traveled next to Los Angeles, New York and back again to Paris. Serious health problems in 1948 forced Villa Lobos to travel to the United States for surgery related to cancer. After recovering, he continued his worldly travels and fulfilled many commissions for works, including a guitar concerto for the famous guitarist, Andres Segovia.

Heitor Villa Lobos returned to Rio where he died on November 17, 1959.