Composed 1928: 11 minutes

The largely self-taught Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote prolifically across traditional Western forms—symphony (he counted 12), string quartet (17), and sonata among them. But when European structures clashed with his drive to capture Brazil’s musical spirit, he forged his own. “I compose in the folk-style,” he said, somewhat ingenuously. His most distinctive work lies in the series he called chôros—a name he used for a wide range of instrumental combinations. In these pieces, Villa-Lobos channels the street improvisations of Brazilian chorões, along with African and native Amerindian traditions, fusing them with the modernist currents of European art music. His mix of Portuguese, African, and Amerindian elements, he said, was “transformed by the personality of the composer” into “a new form of musical composition.”

Through the 14 chôros, Villa-Lobos set out to create a new musical structure, one that captured the full spectrum of Brazilian life. Most were written during the 1920s, including his years in Paris, where his flamboyant style and musique sauvage fascinated the artistic élite. In 1928, he composed the ‘Wind Quintet in the form of a chôros’ as an addition to the series, and it premièred at the Salle Chopin on March 14, 1930. Originally scored for flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, and bassoon, the piece was reissued in 1953 with French horn replacing the English horn, making it playable by a standard woodwind quintet. It has since become one of Villa-Lobos’s most performed works. The music unfolds in five contrasting sections, rhythmically alive, dynamically varied, pitting folk tunes against the edgy modernism of the 1920s, by turns whimsical, lyrical, and bold.

— D'Rivera and Villa-Lobos program notes copyright © 2025 Keith Horner. 
Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca