''Chôros No. 8'' is a work for orchestra and two pianos, written in 1925 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 globally bec ...
. It is part of a series of fourteen numbered compositions collectively titled ''
Chôros
''Chôros'' is the title of a series of compositions by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, composed between 1920 and 1929.
Origin and conception
The word ''chôro'' (; nowadays spelled simply ''choro'') is Portuguese for "weeping", "cry", ...
'', ranging from solos for guitar and for piano up to works scored for soloist or chorus with orchestra or multiple orchestras, and in duration up to over an hour. A recording of ''Chôros No. 8'' conducted by the composer lasts 22 minutes.
History

''Chôros No. 8'' was composed in Rio de Janeiro in 1925, and the score is dedicated to the pianist Tomás Terán. It was premiered in Paris on 24 October 1927, at the
Salle Gaveau
The Salle Gaveau, named after the French piano maker Gaveau, is a classical concert hall in Paris, located at 45-47 rue La Boétie, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It is particularly intended for chamber music.
Construction
The plans for t ...
, with the composer conducting the Orchestra of the
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.
History
While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead ...
and
Aline van Barentzen
Aline van Barentzen (born Aline Hoyle; 17 July 1897 – 30 October 1981) was a Franco-American classical pianist.
Biography
Van Berentzen was born in Somerville, Massachusetts and gave her first concert at the age of four. At a young age, her ...
and Tomás Terán, pianos. The first American performance took place on 12 April 1929 in Philadelphia, again with Barentzen and Terán playing the pianos, and the
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...
conducted by
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...
. Despite these documented performances, the year of composition has been called into question by one scholar, who asserts that the work was conceived in Paris in 1925, but completed only after the composer's return to Rio de Janeiro in 1930.
The work was never performed in Latin America in the composer's lifetime. The first performance in Brazil took place in the context of a Villa-Lobos Festival at the
Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro on 23 November 1963, with Luiz Carlos de Moura Castro and Luiz Medalha, pianos, and the Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional, conducted by
Isaac Karabtchevsky.
Instrumentation
''Chôros No. 8'' is scored for two pianos and an orchestra consisting of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, tam-tam, tambourine,
tamborim
A ''tamborim'' ( or ) is a small round Brazilian frame drum, developed from other similar percussive instruments brought by the Portuguese.
The frame is 6" in width and may be made of metal, plastic, or wood. The head is typically made of nylo ...
, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, 2 metal
chocalho
''Chocalho'' is the generic name for "shaker" in Portuguese. There are various types of idiophones using this name in Portuguese, not always being the same instrument:
*a shaker;
*a kind of jingle stick used to play samba music;
*a cowbell;
C ...
s (small and large),
reco-reco
The reco-reco (also called the raspador, caracaxá or querequexé) is a scraper of African origin used as a percussion instrument in Brazilian music,ROCCA, Edgar Nunes "Bituca", ''Escola Brasileira de Música: Uma visão Brasileira no ensino da m� ...
,
caracaxá, caraxá,
puíta, ratchet, xylophone), celesta, 2 harps, and strings.
Analysis
At the time of its Paris premiere, this ''Chôros'' was called "Le fou huitième" (The Mad Eighth), for its extravagant scoring and unconventional performing techniques, as well as for its superimposition of multiple opposing rhythms and tonalities. It has been described as Villa-Lobos's most
fauvist
Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...
and "
modern
Modern may refer to:
History
*Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Philosophy ...
" composition from the 1920s, formally the most irregular, most violent, and "tropical" of all Villa-Lobos's works, whose leading feature is its almost complete
atonality
Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on ...
and dissonance. It has been claimed there is virtually nothing in this work that could be called a "
theme
Theme or themes may refer to:
* Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos
* Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software.
* Theme (linguistics), topic
* Theme ( ...
", and the work "is not about thematic groups and their symphonic development". Instead, its material consists of motifs, phrases, and thematic fragments, mostly consisting of between three and five
diatonic or chromatic notes and note repetitions.
Both of these positions have been challenged. While it is conceded to be Villa-Lobos's most dissonant work, analysis shows this is a case of
polytonality
Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key (music), key simultaneity (music), simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one di ...
, rather than atonality, and while the use of short repeated motifs with variations and rhythmic transformations are the essence of primitivist rhythmic animation, these procedures are also the very definition of symphonic
thematic development.
The composer characterised the work as the "Dance Chôros", and construed the fragmented and
contrapuntally intertwined opening themes as "sensually complex and atonal in order to deliberately give the feeling of nervousness of a crowd that is gathering to dance". The work appears to be conceived as an exploration of the possibilities of concatenation of sound blocks assembled from
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from the Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces inc ...
figurations. In fact, there are something like thirty-six different ostinatos, which are used to coordinate a complex stream of sounds.
References
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Footnotes
Further reading
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External links
villalobos.iu.eduVilla-Lobos site at Indiana University: Maintained by th
Latin American Music Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choros No. 8
Chôros by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Compositions that use extended techniques
1925 compositions
1945 compositions
Music dedicated to ensembles or performers
Compositions for piano and orchestra
Concertante works by Heitor Villa-Lobos