Chôros No. 12

Chôros No. 12
by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Catalogue W233
Genre Chôros
Form Chôros
Occasion José Cândido de Andrade Muricy
Composed 1925 (1925)–1945 (1945): Rio de Janeiro
Published 1986 (1986): Paris
Publisher Max Eschig
Recorded 9–10 September 1980 Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Pierre Bartholomée, cond. (LP recording, 1 disc: 33⅓ rpm, 12 in., stereo. Ricercar RIC-007. Gütersloh: Sonopress, issued 1980)
Duration 35 mins.
Movements 1
Scoring Orchestra
Premiere
Date 23 February 1945 (1945-02-23):
Location Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos
Performers Boston Symphony Orchestra

Chôros No. 12 is an orchestral work written between 1925 and 1945 by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is part of a series of fourteen numbered compositions collectively titled Chôros, 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. Chôros No. 12 is one of the longest compositions in the series, a performance lasting about 35 minutes.

History

According to the score and the official catalog of the Museu Villa-Lobos, Chôros No. 12 was composed in Rio de Janeiro in 1925, and the score is dedicated to José Cândido de Andrade Muricy. It was premiered at Harvard University by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, on 21 October 1945 according to the official catalogue of the composer's works (Villa-Lobos, sua obra 2009, 26). However, this programme was announced for 23 February of that year, and a broadcast of the work by the BSO with Villa-Lobos conducting was made on Saturday, 24 February 1945 (Anon. 1945a; Anon. 1945b). According to contemporary reports in the Daily Boston Globe, it was performed in Cambridge on 23 February and was to have been performed two more times at Symphony Hall on 23 and 24 February. At the time of the Boston premiere, Villa-Lobos said that he had written the work "for and in admiration of Serge Koussevitzky", whose Paris concerts he had attended in the 1920s (Durgin 1945a; Durgin 1945b).

Other sources give 1929 as the year of composition found in the score (Béhague 2001; Seixas 2007, 63). However, Lisa Peppercorn casts doubt on such an early date of composition, based on the fact that it was Villa-Lobos's habit to secure premieres of his works as soon as they were completed. In her opinion, the difference of two (or nearly two) decades between the nominal date of composition and that of the world premiere suggests that, although the score may have been begun or at least conceived in 1925, it was probably not completed until shortly before the premiere in 1945 (Peppercorn 1991, preface, unpaginated). Based on his detailed analysis of the score, Guilherme Seixas concludes that stylistic considerations do not support a date of completion as early as the mid-1920s, either, and agrees with Peppercorn's hypothesis (Seixas 2007, 63–64).

Analysis

What sets this work apart from all of the preceding Chôros is its use of traditional motivic developmental techniques. The motive that first appears at rehearsal number 1, for example, is developed intervallically, tonally, melodically, and—as in some of Stravinsky's works—by variation (Seixas 2007, 127).

Villa-Lobos here proclaims himself free of the strictly nationalist preoccupations of the preceding works in the series. Nevertheless, in the final section he draws on the esquinado, an almost forgotten Brazilian dramatic dance, and earlier on quotes a dance called charanga from the state of Espírito Santo, collected in 1912 by Santos Vieira (Appleby 2002, 90).

Discography

References

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