Symphony No. 5, ''A Paz'' (Peace) is a composition by the Brazilian composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
, written in 1920. The score has been lost.
History
According to the official account, Villa-Lobos composed his Fifth Symphony in 1920. It is the third of a trilogy of programmatic symphonies written to commemorate World War I, based on
arguments by . It is also the last of a cycle of five symphonies in the style of
Vincent d'Indy
Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Par ...
. It was never performed, and the score has been lost. A programme documenting a performance on 5 March 1961 at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
in New York, by the
New York Philharmonic conducted by
Eleazar de Carvalho
Eleazar de Carvalho (28 June 1912, Iguatu, Ceará – 12 September 1996, São Paulo) was a Brazilian conductor and composer.
Biography
De Carvalho's parents were Manuel Afonso de Carvalho and Dalila Mendonça. He studied in the United State ...
appears to have been a hoax. When asked by the Museu Villa-Lobos for confirmation, the conductor informed them that he had never had a copy of the score, and that concert never took place. Although a memorial concert in Carnegie Hall by members of the New York Philharmonic conducted by Carvalho was announced for that date, the all-Villa-Lobos programme was to include the ''Madonna Fantasia'', the Cello Concerto in A minor, ''
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5'', and ''Uirapuri'' . No mention was made of any symphony. In any case, Lisa Peppercorn doubts that the work was actually completed in 1920, but only progressed beyond the conception of the idea in 1946. According to her, the
Ricordi catalogue of Villa-Lobos's works published on 30 June 1965 lists the symphony under the title ''Odisséa da Paz'', and states it was composed in 1921. David Appleby, on the other hand, gives this as the subtitle of the
Seventh Symphony.
Analysis
The symphony has four movements:
# Allegro
# Scherzo
# Moderato
# Allegro grandioso
In 1928 or 1929, Villa-Lobos explained to music journalist Suzanne Demarquez that the as-yet unperformed Fifth Symphony, like its two predecessors, added a wind band to the orchestra, but also included a mixed chorus singing nonsense syllables borrowed from several languages: Russian, French, Chinese, African, etc. The object of such a text is to explore the influence of phonemes and rhythm on musical effect, as he did again later in the choir parts of the
Nonet and ''
Chôros No. 10
''Chôros No. 10'' ("Rasga o Coração") is a work for chorus and orchestra written in 1926 by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is part of a series of fourteen numbered compositions collectively titled ''Chôros'', ranging from sol ...
''.
References
Cited sources
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Further reading
*
Béhague, Gerard. 1994. ''Villa-Lobos: The Search for Brazil's Musical Soul''. Austin: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1994. .
* Enyart, John William. 1984. "The Symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos". PhD diss. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati.
* Salles, Paulo de Tarso. 2009. ''Villa-Lobos: processos composicionais''. Campinas, SP: Editora da Unicamp. .
{{portal bar, Classical music, Music
Symphonies by Heitor Villa-Lobos
1920 compositions
Lost musical works