The work that composer Heitor Villa-Lobos is perhaps most famous for is his
Choros, composed between 1920 and 1928. These Choros represent a wide variety of style, class, instrumentation, color and rhythm. These pieces are enough to keep audiences wanting more and more in concert. What surprises me is that I once thought that Choros were just specialized pieces for guitar. But opening up and listening to each of these Choros, I find a special delight at the variety of color and textures used throughout. These also show the composer's flexibility with instruments (being that he played cello, guitar and clarinet growing up). To really have that open-minded and rather free approach to composing (knowing each instrument's limitations and techniques), is especially important for any composer writing for such instruments. This is why I am often spellbound by these types of multi-instrumental composers. They know their technique. I, on the other hand, when trying to write for some of these instruments, am surprised by my lack of knowledge of these instruments and therefore have great difficulty composing for them at times.
In Choros 1 and 2, tasteful and colorful similarities in rhythm draw me in as a listener. You can definitely tell where the composer is from because of the Brazillian and Latin-esque rhythmic styles he uses.In Choro number 3, The chord qualities of the ninths and added sixths are impressive against punchy tones of highly colorful dissonance. For example, right before the end of the piece, he resolves on a A-flat 9 (ish) chord. What is also striking is the sharp, punctuated rhythms he uses all throughout the work. The horns are pivoting back in fourth in eighth or sixteenth note values on E-flat and B-flat. The clearness and specificity of these rhythms are characteristic of Stravinsky, which is why I don't understand why the fellow contemporary had to be a real schmuck about it. The clearness in the rhythms adds a different kind of spunk and excitement to the music. It is not really as cold and deliberate as Stravinsky, but optimistic, vibrant and upbeat. The E-flat tonality is voiced in almost a drone while the tenor voices sing their simple chromatic line over it. The singers sing sharp and punchy syllables together with the woodwinds to create this unique Brazillian-French syncopated rhythm style. On several of the accented rhythms the brass could be heard flourishing up to A-flats and B-flats and then going chromatically downward again.
In Choro number 4 for brass quintet, the brass are in exquisite form as they deliver a stunning dissonant free-flowing adagio, adding chromatic suspense with every chord they play. This adagietto soon turns into a quasi-allegro with the lower brass leading a pulsing rhythm of A, E, F#, G, A, etc. Then the trombone goes chromatically backward in triplets thus ending that section. Now the adagietto comes back in differing guises for the ensemble to chromatically open up on an A tonality with an added D# in it. After several tense movements of uncertainty and several more chromatic flourishes, the familiar Villa-Lobos Brazillian rhythm comes back in this B-flat major (almost blues) tonality with chords reading Bb, Eb, Bb, Bb, Eb, Bb, C, C, F. The reason that I'm commenting on it as being blues sounding is because of the chromatic D-flat passing tone resolving to the third (D) of the B-flat major chord. The resulting melody is: F, G, A,
B-flat, B-flat, B-flat, B-flat, E-flat, E-flat, E-flat, E-flat, D-flat, D, B-flat, F in a succession of eighth notes, followed by dotted quarter eighth, dotted quarter, eighth.Choro number 5 is a bit of a different exercise. I categorize into parts because that is how I hear each melodic idea he does in the piece.It is a somber adagietto in E minor with a melody revolving around the pitches C, D, E, F# and G for much of the first part of the piece. The second part of the piece gives me the impression of Debussy and maybe Ravel, because of the way the harmonies fit into an added sixth sort of tonality. For example, there is a section that is in this bossa type rhythm on the chords E (add 6), B, F# (add 6). Those chords are very common of Ravel and various other composers of the late 19th century. This particular section does display some of the spatial hits of color that we hear in Schoenberg, but these are tonal. The third part features a dazzling chromatic and far reaching turn into a rhythm in F# major that uses alternating eighth and sixteenth note patterns to make the texture into a lively allegro. I must say that this particular section takes so much dexterity and coordination to play. After this important climax, the texture comes back to that E minor tonality at the beginning with the notes C, D, E, F# and G in the right hand melody once again. The piece ends on a chromatic tonality and slows to a stop in tempo. There really isn't much of an ending as far a form is concerned, but overall this is a great piece.
Choro number 6 features strings in their high registers with the lower strings playing pizzicato. A flute is playing a highly chromatic motive that sounds like it has a hint of Gershwin in it. Another low instrument in a tone at least a half step off in reference to the lower strings resounds in the background creating a slightly harsh texture. Two flutes duet on an A minor melody that goes from being really chromatic to rather consonant with only minor dissonances. This descends into a syncopated march- like rhythm accentuated by the the brass and percussion. The texture goes wild as a majority of the woodwinds perpetuate a spiral upward to the note. After a brief climax without the syncopated march-like rhythm and a brief melodic stint in an F (almost an F blues) tonality with a swaggering swing-like rhythm, the texture and tonality sadden to a C minor tonality going up the scale until the music flourishes on an A-flat major ninth chord, which, with the sounding melody over it, sounds like something from Rachmaninov. I would most closely reference the flourish and the soaring violin line topping out on a D# to rest on top of the A 9 chord to Rachmaninovʼs Symphony Number 2. Speaking of flourishes, Choros No. 6 has these woodwind and string flourishes all throughout the piece. For example, toward the eighth minute of the work, I hear several very fast downward flourishes that suggest turbulence lies ahead. The texture resolves into a few seconds of quiet murmuring as if contemplating whatʼs to come next.
Around the seventeenth minute of this Choro, Villa-Lobosʼ tonality falls nicely into a B-flat add 6 harmony (melody: C, B-flat, D, E-flat, F) going to F9, and resolving back to B-flat add 6. I hear a lot of interesting bubbling kinds of sounds from the woodwinds that is very characteristic of Debussy and Ravel. I guess this piece, as with a majority of pieces that Villa-Lobos wrote around this time, were inspired by his visit to France. A lot of this cross country, cross-cultural stuff is in the air at this time, Iʼm pretty sure that whatever is getting heard is getting injected to everyoneʼs works at this time. At the end of the choro, Villa-Lobos ends with a startling chromatic climax that could stand to be a mix of the sounds of Rachmaninov, maybe Perkofiev. The music in this section has a ton of chromatic tonalities mixing with tonal, Romantic drama. The ending chords project out in C# major with other non-chord tones in the chord resolving out to a C# unison note. This piece, I believe is the best of all the Choros I have listened to thus far. This set of pieces, especially this piece is a brilliant display of color that past composers such as Berlioz would have been very fond of. Iʼm fond of it because of the way itʼs orchestrated. Iʼm really big on huge orchestrations and different sets of instrumentations. So, these sets are perfect for the musical listener to get a little bit of everything in one package.
