THE PRELUDES OF VILLA-LOBOS SOME NOTES ‘The Five Preludes, written in 1940, are reported as having originally been six, one having been ‘lost’. That one, and not 1 six, should have been lost seems surprising; how did it ecome detached from the rest? Turibio Santos has suggested that there may never have been a sixth, and that Villa-Lobos ‘might even have ‘invented’ it in order to conform to the long: honoured practice of writing pieces in groups of six (or ‘multiples thereof). Villa-Lobos’ own comment, that the lost Prelude was ‘the most beautiful of them all’, may have been made tongue-in-cheek. The published catalogue of his works throws no fresh light, simply describing the sixth Prelude as “lost. It seems that Elgar did not bequeath the only ‘enigma’. ‘As a whole the Preludes present @ mini-panorama of the countryside and, even more, the peoples of Brazil. The set is dedicated to ‘Mindinha’, the familiar diminutive form of his wife’s name, Arminda. ‘What the published scores do not reveal is that each Prelude carries a separate dedication; ths is revealed in Turibio Santos’ monograph on Villa-Lobos" guitar music, the relevant parts of whose Portugese text have been translated for me by Mrs Braun of the Brazilian Embassy Prelude 1 — Homenajem ao sertanejo brasileiro ‘The dedication is to the people of one area of Brazil, and Turibio Santos describes it as being expressive of the paradox in the Brazilian character — melancholic but, in the rising curves of the main melody and the bustling activity of the central section (E major), cheerful and optimistic. ‘That big tune is a sort of pons asinorum, tempting the unwary to rob it ofits dignity by coating it with sentimentality — the frantic, ‘xaggerated vibrato, the demolition of the written note-values, 4 comes from the heart, but the heart is not worn on the sleeve. Coupled with the ‘chocolate-box-top’ rendition (a word use only with pejorative overtones) is the frenetic distortion of the steadily flowing cighth-note, accompanying chords. ‘These should be given their written values and treated as the “background” they represent, not as a series of intrusive, nervous tics; it i against this backcloth that the melody should be projected, and whilst 2 measure of rubato is quite proper it should not be allowed to distort the music by losing the beat. It ‘may be worth mentioning that on the first page there is a printing mistake: the C in the third bar ofthe last line should be sharp, not natural. This may seem obvious to anyone with half an ear but the mistake has twice been committed to a Fecording — and in each case i is repeated in the recapitulation (page 4, line 5, last bar) even though correctly shown in the printed music. One must conclude that, at best, the performer «did not bother to read the score, assuming it to be the same as in the first statement. The central section needs to be cleanly Played (too often it turns into messy chatter) and, once again, kept within the framework of a steady pulse. Make no speed- changes that Villa-Lobos does not ask for. It is a common disease of performances of his music in general, that players seem to feel it necessary to DO THINGS, to impose their own ‘character’ on the music instead of merely doing what is clearly marked by the composer; in some measure it is @ thing that haunts performances ofall the Preludes. Prelude M— ‘Melodia Capoeira Malandro Caric’ ‘Three inscriptions! The Capocira is @ dance, like a balletic fight in which no-one is physically touched. Those little moments of ‘rit. — a tempo’, the frst of which is in bar 5, can pethaps be seen as the transient endpoints of those token sword:thrusts, The brief pause is on the top note, each time, “Melodia Capadocia’ ‘Homenajem ao John Duarte the @ tempo being resumed with the three upbeat semiquavers that follow — don’t pause on the preceding note (the ‘appoggiatura’). A capadocia is a charlatan, a mountebank — make what you like ofthat! Finally, the Malandro Carioca isto Rio de Janeiro what the Cockney is to London. The chord progressions — round the cycle of Sths, are typical of the Chiro, popular music played by street bands. The whole should thus be played with lightness and a sense of fun, without which the piece loses its real point. Those pauses demand that, in order to make their effect, they must be separated by passages that flow in tempo and without noticeable rubato that would prevent the whole from getting up off its knees! Turibio Santos identifies the middle section (pages 2-3) with those ‘Rio Cockneys’, which suggests that this too should not be too heavily treated. Rarely is this central section heard without a steady barrage of left-hand-finger squeaks; if you can’t get rid of them don’t worry too much — Villa-Lobos is said to have liked them and to have regarded them as a part of the music! Such a thing is difficult to explain, however, to critics and other listeners who are not accustomed toaccepting ‘noises off as belonging to the musical message. Prelude M1 — “Homenajem a Bach’ Villa-Lobos had a special passion for the music of Bach and it is hardly surprising to find J.S.B. among the dedicatees. This Prelude follows the pattern of A/B instead of the usual ternary A/BIA format; the whole is marked to be repeated, The A section is pure Villa-Lobos, the B clearly relates to the mus of Bach. The balance between the tempos of these two sections is critical. Many performances, and some recordings, set such a slow speed for B that, not only does it” become lunconscionably long, making a slow-motion repeat of its leisurely and (it must be confessed) predictable sequences less than an alluring prospect, but it also makes it impossible to maintain the differential between the directives — Andante (ection A) and molto adagio (section B) within the metronome: marked ranges for these tempos. ‘Dolorido’, the remainder of the marking of B, is an indication of manner, and it is quite possible to convey sadness without proceeding at the pace of a State funeral. Safest to keep it gent his recording. ‘We will return to this Prelude next month, moving, as Bream does inThe Preludes of Villa-Lobos Some Notes PART 2 John Duarte \ Regarding the tempo balance in Prelude HT, bear in mind that the slowest ‘Adagio" is MM. 66 (if you equate ‘molto’ to ‘moltisimo’) and the fastest “Andante is MM 1085 this isthe largest difference you can make between the two tempos without departing” from the conventional ranges of speed corresponding to them. There are other points to be noted 1) The sixteenth-notes in the first two bars on page 3 are nor indicated to be slurred but should be detached. To slur is to over-accent the D and to under-emphasise the following Can apposgiatura note 2) Through bar 3 ofthe same line (top of page 3) crescendo is marked. Why so many performers convert this toa descrescendo remains a mystery 3) Only two reductions in speed are marked on page 3: ‘ral.” (line 5) and ‘ri.’ (ast line). Had Villa-Lobos wanted others he ‘would have marked them, so don’t follow the lead of too many “inerpretes’ by adding to them 4) If you take section B too slowly and repeat the whole Prelude, as marked, the descending sequence will appear four times, wearing out its welcome for most listeners. Filuve 10 repeat goes against the composer's directive but it does not affect the balance between the two sections, so the exercise of personal. preference (to fepeat oF not t0 repeat) is not a “hanging matter’ inthis cas, Prelude IV ‘Homenajem ao Indio Brasileiro’ ‘The dedication here is to Brazilian-Indian culture. In his book Turibio Santos records that, when asked by a Parisian ‘TV producer for music that was expressive of the Brazilian jungle, he supplied him with a variety of records — from which’ the producer selected this Prelude. ‘The somewhat brooding melody of the opening is punctuated by chords, producing an ‘orchestral’ effect and its restatement in natural harmonics suggests that Villa-Lobos may well have discovered it guitar in hand — and coffee cup and cigar equally 0 hand “To use more than the slightest touch of vibrato on this melody is to destroy its brooding atmosphere, a8 surely as it can contradict the ‘musing’ ofthe first part of Britten's Nocturnal Many players interrupt these flanking sections — with demonstrative pauses, which are neither written nor helpful, the passage is t00 short for such interruptions, which also obscure the timessgnatures and their bar-by-bar changes. Likewise the central arpeggio section must flow relentlessly; don't impose any rllentando that isn’t asked for (none i) and if one arises through technical difficulty, work hard to eliminate it — don’t make an ‘expedient virtue’ of it in the ame of “nterpretation’ Pretude V— ‘Homenajem a Vida Social” ‘Aor rapizinhot e mochinas Jresquinkos qu fequentam os concertos eo tearos no Rio ‘A charming dedication: ‘To social life’ “To the fresh young men and women who go to concerts and theatres in Rio". Unlike any other of the Preludes, it falls into three sections, the frst simply repeated atthe end: A/BICIA. B occupies page 2, C is the first three lines of page 3. The A section in Particular has a ‘popular’ air about it shared by C, and it should be played simply, with no attempt to make more of it that it really — a nice, attractive, ‘popular’ tune. The whole Prelude might fit comfortably into the Suite popular Brasileira if it were not for the cello-like melody of section B, marked ‘meno’ ~ in other words, alittle slower than A, but don’t make 100 much of it, keep it flowing and, once again, note that Villa Lobos asks for no rallentando before the final bar. ‘The ‘opening of the piece is marked ‘poco aimaro’; bear the ‘poco’ in mind and don’t curn it into a romp. Recordings — Apart from the inclusion of detached items in mixed programmes, there are the following integral recordings of the Five Preludes: Julian Bream: RCA RL 43518 ‘Turibio Santos: Erato MUS 19026 John Williams: CBS $ 73545 Ivan Scott: Discourses DCM 1217 Eric Hill: Saga 5453 Joseph Bacon: Arch $1771 Antti Sairanen: MILS 812 (from: Markku Lulli-Seppald, Sorrontie, SF-20780 Kaarina, Finland) T apologise in advance to anyone T may inadvertently have left out. The first three are in my own order of preference (it is the quality of the recorded sound that places Santos second instead of joint first) but the others are not. Strangely, none is entirely respectful of Villa-Lobos’ instructions. It’s hard to collect the works of any composer (whether for the guitar or not) without duplicating some items, so these are the works with which the top three versions ofthe Preludes Bream: Villa-Lobos — Guitar Concerto. Brasileira Santos: Villa-Lobos — Sextour mystique (only recording). Williams: Scarlatti — six Sontats. Bream interchanges Preludes I and V, so that the set starts from and returns to a tonic of E (so too does Sairanen). If they are to be played as an integral set, as they are meant 10 be, a start on E and a finish on D (wrongly given on the sleeve of Williams’ disc — my copy at least — as C major) is not satisfactory, so the revised order seems justifiable. Teasingly, it also invites the speculation, was there a sixth Prelude — in the key of E major or minor? Maybe, but not necessarily; the 12 Enudes begin with E minor and end with A minor, though they occupy a greater time-span, minimising the ‘offence’ 10 those with good pitch-memory. Finally, the catalogue of Villa-Lobos’ works records the existence of their ‘transcription for piano by Vieira Brandao’ ‘but does not indicate its publication or recording! Suite popular Bibliography Villa-Lobos, sua obra (1972) Heitor Villa-Lobos eo violao (Turibio Santos) (1975) both published by the Meseu Villa-Lobos, ME Assuntos Culturais, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dept. de