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137-464: Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 – November 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 best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber , instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2,000 works by his death in 1959. His music

274-487: A Seventeenth String Quartet , whose austerity of technique and emotional intensity "provide a eulogy to his craft". His Bendita Sabedoria , a sequence of a cappella chorales written in 1958, is a similarly simple setting of Latin biblical texts. These works lack the pictorialism of his more public music. Except for the lost works, the Nonet, the two concerted works for violin and orchestra, Suite for Piano and Orchestra ,

411-736: A composer was dashed in 1894 when Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov told him he had no talent. In 1898, several members of The Pickwickians founded the journal Mir iskusstva ( World of Art ) under the editorship of Diaghilev. As early as 1902, Mir iskusstva included reviews of concerts, operas, and ballets in Russia. The latter were chiefly written by Benois, who exerted considerable influence on Diaghilev's thinking. Mir iskusstva also sponsored exhibitions of Russian art in St. Petersburg, culminating in Diaghilev's important 1905 show of Russian portraiture at

548-401: A conversation, often truly beautiful, often oddly and turbidly woven, among four people." Their awareness is exemplified by composer and virtuoso violinist Louis Spohr . Spohr divided his 36 string quartets into two types: the quatuor brillant , essentially a violin concerto with string trio accompaniment; and quatuor dialogue , in the conversational tradition. During the 19th century, with

685-427: A crisis of identity, as to whether European or Brazilian music would dominate his style. This was decided by 1916, the year in which he composed the symphonic poems Amazonas and Tédio de alvorada , the first version of what would become Uirapurú (although Amazonas was not performed until 1929, and Uirapurú was only completed in 1934 and first performed in 1935). These works drew from native Brazilian legends and

822-410: A full orchestral section. J. S. Bach: Trio sonata on YouTube from The Musical Offering , played by Ensemble Brillante Baroque chamber music was often contrapuntal ; that is, each instrument played the same melodic materials at different times, creating a complex, interwoven fabric of sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodies, all the instruments were equal. In

959-567: A giant of Western music. Beethoven transformed chamber music, raising it to a new plane, both in terms of content and in terms of the technical demands on performers and audiences. His works, in the words of Maynard Solomon , were "...the models against which nineteenth-century romanticism measured its achievements and failures." His late quartets , in particular, were considered so daunting an accomplishment that many composers after him were afraid to try composing quartets; Johannes Brahms composed and tore up 20 string quartets before he dared publish

1096-423: A hall and collecting the receipts from the performance. Increasingly, they wrote chamber music not only for rich patrons, but for professional musicians playing for a paying audience. At the beginning of the 19th century, luthiers developed new methods of constructing the violin , viola and cello that gave these instruments a richer tone, more volume, and more carrying power. Also at this time, bowmakers made

1233-418: A huge sensation, completely reinvigorating the art of performing dance, bringing many visual artists to public attention, and significantly affecting the course of musical composition. It also introduced European and American audiences to tales, music, and design motifs drawn from Russian folklore . The company's employment of European avant-garde art went on to influence broader artistic and popular culture of

1370-454: A hundred string quartets, and more than one hundred quintets for two violins, viola and two cellos. In this innovative ensemble, later used by Schubert , Boccherini gives flashy, virtuosic solos to the principal cello, as a showcase for his own playing. Violinist Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and cellist Johann Baptist Wanhal , who both played pickup quartets with Haydn on second violin and Mozart on viola, were popular chamber music composers of

1507-609: A keyboard instrument (harpsichord or organ) or by a string quartet or a string orchestra . The instrumentation of trio sonatas was also often flexibly specified; some of Handel's sonatas are scored for " German flute , Hoboy [oboe] or Violin" Bass lines could be played by violone , cello , theorbo , or bassoon , and sometimes three or four instruments would join in the bass line in unison. Sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemann's 'Tafelmusik' (1733), for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, ending with

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1644-576: A living for his family by playing in cinema and theatre orchestras in Rio. Around 1905 Villa-Lobos started explorations of Brazil's "dark interior", absorbing the native Brazilian musical culture. Serious doubt has been cast on some of Villa-Lobos's tales of the decade or so he spent on these expeditions, and about his capture and near escape from cannibals, with some believing them to be fabrications or wildly embellished romanticism. After this period, he gave up any idea of conventional training and instead absorbed

1781-584: A lost and probably unfinished one begun in 1917), and his setting of the poetry of Mário de Andrade and Catulo da Paxão Cearense in the Canções típicas brasileiras of 1919. His classical guitar studies are also influenced by the music of the chorões . All the elements mentioned so far are fused in Villa-Lobos's Nonet. Subtitled Impressão rápida do todo o Brasil (A Brief Impression of the Whole of Brazil),

1918-399: A love for the cello, but is not notably Brazilian, although it contains elements that were to resurface later. His three-movement Suíte graciosa of 1915 (expanded to six movements c. 1947 to become his String Quartet No. 1) is influenced by European opera, while Três danças características (africanas e indígenas) of 1914–16 for piano, later arranged for octet and subsequently orchestrated,

2055-467: A movement that contended that "pure music" had run its course with Beethoven, and that new, programmatic forms of music –in which music created "images" with its melodies–were the future of the art. The composers of this school had no use for chamber music. Opposing this view was Johannes Brahms and his associates, especially the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick . This War of the Romantics shook

2192-634: A music lover and amateur baryton player, for whom Haydn wrote many of his string trios. Mozart wrote three string quartets for the King of Prussia, Frederick William II , a cellist. Many of Beethoven's quartets were first performed with patron Count Andrey Razumovsky on second violin. Boccherini composed for the king of Spain. With the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of new social orders throughout Europe, composers increasingly had to make money by selling their compositions and performing concerts. They often gave subscription concerts, which involved renting

2329-564: A new propensity to focus on a small detail, then to fade it and bring another detail to the foreground. This technique also occurs in his final opera, Yerma , which contains a series of scenes each of which establishes an atmosphere, similarly to the earlier Momoprecoce . Villa-Lobos's final major work was the music for the film Green Mansions (though in the end, most of his score was replaced with music by Bronisław Kaper ) and its arrangement as Floresta do Amazonas for orchestra, as well as some short songs issued separately. In 1957, he wrote

2466-479: A number of the symphonic poems, most of his choral music and all of the operas, his music is well represented on the world's recital and concert stages and on compact disc. Notes References Chamber music Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". For more than 100 years, chamber music was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes, and even today, when chamber music performance has migrated from

2603-424: A strong connection with the community. Composers were in high favor with orchestral works and solo virtuosi works, which made up the largest part of the public concert repertoire. Early French composers including Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck . Apart from the "central" Austro-Germanic countries, there was an occurrence of the subculture of chamber music in other regions such as Britain. There chamber music

2740-454: A strong impression. In the 1920s, Villa-Lobos also met the Spanish classical guitarist Andrés Segovia , who commissioned a guitar study: the composer responded by writing a set of twelve such pieces, each based on a tiny detail or figure played by Brazilian itinerant street musicians ( chorões ), transformed into an étude that is not merely didactic . The music of chorões also provided

2877-404: A time Villa-Lobos became a cellist in a Rio opera company, and his early compositions include attempts at Grand Opera. Encouraged by Arthur Napoleão , a pianist and music publisher, he decided to compose seriously. On November 12, 1913, Villa-Lobos married the pianist Lucília Guimarães, ended his travels, and began his career as a serious musician. Up until his marriage, he had not learned to play

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3014-480: A type of music to be played as much as performed. Amateur quartet societies sprang up throughout Europe, and no middling-sized city in Germany or France was without one. These societies sponsored house concerts , compiled music libraries, and encouraged the playing of quartets and other ensembles. In European countries, in particular Germany and France, like minded musicians were brought together and started to develop

3151-659: A wealthy Jewish family in Hamburg, Mendelssohn proved himself a child prodigy. By the age of 16, he had written his first major chamber work, the String Octet, Op. 20 . Already in this work, Mendelssohn showed some of the unique style that was to characterize his later works; notably, the gossamer light texture of his scherzo movements, exemplified also by the Canzonetta movement of the String Quartet, Op. 12 , and

3288-434: A work that he felt was worthy of the "giant marching behind". Beethoven made his formal debut as a composer with three Piano Trios, Op. 1 . Even these early works, written when Beethoven was only 22, while adhering to a strictly classical mold, showed signs of the new paths that Beethoven was to forge in the coming years. When he showed the manuscript of the trios to Haydn, his teacher, prior to publication, Haydn approved of

3425-467: Is O   trenzinho do caipira , "The little train of the Caipira"). They also show the composer's love for the tonal qualities of the cello, both No.   1 and No.   5 being scored for no other instruments. In these works the often harsh dissonances of his earlier music are less evident: or, as Simon Wright puts it, they are "sweetened". The transformation of Chôros into Bachianas Brasileiras

3562-432: Is a long, lyrical solo for cello in the second movement, giving the cello a new type of voice in the quartet conversation. And the last movement of Op. 18, No. 6, "La Malincolia", creates a new type of formal structure, interleaving a slow, melancholic section with a manic dance. Beethoven was to use this form in later quartets, and Brahms and others adopted it as well. Beethoven: Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3 , played by

3699-429: Is a multi-layered work, often requiring notation on several staves, and is both experimental and demanding. Wright calls it "the most impressive result" of this formal development. The Ciranda , or Cirandinha is a stylised treatment of simple Brazilian folk melodies in a wide variety of moods. A ciranda is a child's singing game, but Villa-Lobos's treatment in the works he gave this title are sophisticated. Another form

3836-554: Is demonstrated clearly by the comparison of No.   6 for flute and bassoon with the earlier Chôros No. 2 for flute and clarinet. The dissonances of the later piece are more controlled, the forward direction of the music easier to discern. Bachianas Brasileiras No.   9 takes the concept so far as to be an abstract Prelude and Fugue , a complete distillation of the composer's national influences. Villa-Lobos eventually recorded all nine of these works for EMI in Paris, mostly with

3973-467: Is radically influenced by the tribal music of the Caripunas Indians of Mato Grosso . With his tone poems Amazonas (1917, first performed in Paris in 1929) and Uirapurú (1917, first performed 1935) he created works dominated by indigenous Brazilian influences. The works use Brazilian folk tales and characters, imitations of the sounds of the jungle and its fauna, imitations of the sound of

4110-947: The Polovtsian Dances (from Prince Igor ), Les Sylphides , and Cléopâtre . The season also included Le Festin , a pastiche set by several choreographers (including Fokine) to music by several Russian composers. The principal productions are shown in the table below. Léon Bakst (costumes) Alexandre Benois (costumes) Ivan Bilibin (costumes) Edvard Grieg ( Småtroll, op.71/3, from Lyric Pieces , Book X ) (orch. Igor Stravinsky for "Variation") Michel Fokine Léon Bakst (costumes) Léon Bakst (costumes) Alexander Golovin (sets and costumes) Natalia Goncharova (costumes) Gabrielle Chanel (costumes) Pablo Picasso (sets) Joan Miró (sets and costumes) Coco Chanel (costumes) Juan Gris (costumes) When Sergei Diaghilev died of diabetes in Venice on 19 August 1929,

4247-610: The corps de ballet . Bronislava Nijinska was the younger sister of Vaslav Nijinsky . She trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, joining the Imperial Ballet company in 1908. From 1909, she (like her brother) was a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1915, Nijinska and her husband fled to Kiev to escape World War I. There, she founded the École de movement, where she trained Ukrainian artists in modern dance. Her most prominent pupil

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4384-646: The Baroque – two treble instruments and a bass instrument , often with a keyboard or other chording instrument ( harpsichord , organ , harp or lute , for example) filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the chordal instrument would play the basso continuo part. During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined. Often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach , for example, can be played on

4521-406: The Baroque era , the harpsichord was one of the main instruments used in chamber music. The harpsichord used quills to pluck strings, and it had a delicate sound. Due to the design of the harpsichord, the attack or weight with which the performer played the keyboard did not change the volume or tone. Between about 1750 and the late 1700s, the harpsichord gradually fell out of use. By the late 1700s,

4658-505: The Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1955), and the opera Yerma (1955–56) based on the play by Federico García Lorca . His prolific output of this period prompted criticisms of note-spinning and banality: critical reactions to his Piano Concerto No. 5 included the comments "bankrupt" and "piano tuners' orgy", "raked the very depths of banality", "nothing ... but soupy textures or a bedraggled romantic idea", and "truly

4795-504: The Cinq préludes , which also demonstrate a further formalisation of his composition style. After the fall of the Vargas government, Villa-Lobos returned full-time to composition, resuming a prolific rate of completing works. His concertos—particularly those for the classical guitar, the harp, and the harmonica—are examples of his earlier poema form. The Harp Concerto is a large work, and shows

4932-469: The Große Fuge , of the late quartets, as, "...this absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever." The string quartets 1–6, Op. 18 , were written in the classical style, in the same year that Haydn wrote his Op. 76 string quartets . Even here, Beethoven stretched the formal structures pioneered by Haydn and Mozart. In the quartet Op. 18, No. 1, in F major, for example, there

5069-528: The Iberian Peninsula is demonstrated in Canção Ibéria of 1914 and in orchestral transcriptions of some of Enrique Granados ' piano Goyescas (1918, now lost). Other themes that were to recur in his later work include the anguish and despair of the piece Desesperança – Sonata Phantastica e Capricciosa no. 1 (1915), a violin sonata including "histrionic and violently contrasting emotions",

5206-634: The Joachim Quartet , led by Joseph Joachim , debuted many of the new string quartets by Brahms and other composers. Another famous quartet player was Vilemina Norman Neruda , also known as Lady Hallé. Indeed, during the last third of the century, women performers began taking their place on the concert stage: an all-women string quartet led by Emily Shinner , and the Lucas quartet, also all women, were two notable examples. Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes ( French: [balɛ ʁys] )

5343-672: The Modigliani Quartet Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 1, "Ghost" , played by the Claremont Trio In the years 1805 to 1806, Beethoven composed the three Op. 59 quartets on a commission from Count Razumovsky, who played second violin in their first performance. These quartets, from Beethoven's middle period, were pioneers in the romantic style. Besides introducing many structural and stylistic innovations, these quartets were much more difficult technically to perform – so much so that they were, and remain, beyond

5480-700: The Petrograd Conservatory , graduating in 1923. During this time, he worked with the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theater . In 1924, Balanchine (and his first wife, ballerina Tamara Geva ) fled to Paris while on tour of Germany with the Soviet State Dancers. He was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to join the Ballets Russes as a choreographer. Diaghilev invited the collaboration of contemporary fine artists in

5617-754: The School of American Ballet , and later the New York City Ballet , many outstanding former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers went to New York to teach in his school. When they toured the United States, Cyd Charisse , the film actress and dancer, was taken into the cast. The Original Ballet Russe toured mostly in Europe. Its alumni were influential in teaching classical Russian ballet technique in European schools. The successor companies were

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5754-716: The Tauride Palace . Frustrated by the extreme conservatism of the Russian art world, Diaghilev organized the groundbreaking Exhibition of Russian Art at the Petit Palais in Paris in 1906, the first major showing of Russian art in the West. Its enormous success created a Parisian fascination with all things Russian. Diaghilev organized a 1907 season of Russian music at the Paris Opéra . In 1908, Diaghilev returned to

5891-495: The contrabass . Beethoven: Septet, Op. 20 , first movement, played by the Ensemble Mediterrain In his 17 string quartets, composed over the course of 37 of his 56 years, Beethoven goes from classical composer par excellence to creator of musical Romanticism, and finally, with his late string quartets, he transcends classicism and romanticism to create a genre that defies categorization. Stravinsky referred to

6028-446: The pianoforte became more popular as an instrument for performance. Even though the pianoforte was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori at the beginning of the 1700s, it did not become widely used until the end of that century, when technical improvements in its construction made it a more effective instrument. Unlike the harpsichord, the pianoforte could play soft or loud dynamics and sharp sforzando attacks depending on how hard or soft

6165-669: The 18th century, tastes began to change: many composers preferred a new, lighter Galant style, with "thinner texture, ... and clearly defined melody and bass" to the complexities of counterpoint. Now a new custom arose that gave birth to a new form of chamber music: the serenade . Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends and their lovers. Patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades, nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations (from gasse=street). The young Joseph Haydn

6302-523: The 20th century, in part because it promoted ground-breaking artistic collaborations among young choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, all at the forefront of their several fields. Diaghilev commissioned works from composers such as Igor Stravinsky , Claude Debussy , Sergei Prokofiev , Erik Satie , and Maurice Ravel , artists such as Vasily Kandinsky , Alexandre Benois , Pablo Picasso , and Henri Matisse , and costume designers Léon Bakst and Coco Chanel . The company's productions created

6439-682: The Ballets Russes was left with substantial debts. As the Great Depression began, its property was claimed by its creditors and the company of dancers dispersed. In 1931, Colonel Wassily de Basil (a Russian émigré entrepreneur from Paris) and René Blum (ballet director at the Monte Carlo Opera ) founded the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo , giving its first performances there in 1932. Diaghilev alumni Léonide Massine and George Balanchine worked as choreographers with

6576-565: The Ballets Russes were Parade , El sombrero de tres picos , and Pulcinella . In all three of these works, he collaborated with Pablo Picasso , who designed the sets and costumes. Massine extended Fokine's choreographic innovations, especially those relating to narrative and character. His ballets incorporated both folk dance and demi-charactère dance, a style using classical technique to perform character dance . Massine created contrasts in his choreography, such as synchronized yet individual movement, or small-group dance patterns within

6713-495: The Ballets Russes. These included the Polovtsian Dances (from Prince Igor ), Le Pavillon d'Armide (a revival of his 1907 production for the Imperial Russian Ballet), Les Sylphides (a reworking of his earlier Chopiniana ), The Firebird , Le Spectre de la Rose , Petrushka , and Daphnis and Chloé . After a longstanding tumultuous relationship with Diaghilev, Fokine left the Ballets Russes at

6850-553: The Brazilian premieres of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor as well as Brazilian compositions. His position at SEMA led him to compose mainly patriotic and propagandist works. His series of Bachianas Brasileiras were a notable exception. In 1936, at the age of forty-nine, Villa-Lobos left his wife, and became romantically involved with Arminda Neves d'Almeida, who remained his companion until death. Arminda eventually took on

6987-497: The Faun, the ballet's frankly erotic nature caused a sensation. The following year, Nijinsky choreographed a new work by Debussy composed expressly for the Ballets Russes, Jeux . Indifferently received by the public, Jeux was eclipsed two weeks later by the premiere of Igor Stravinsky 's The Rite of Spring ( Le Sacre du printemps ), also choreographed by Nijinsky. Nijinsky eventually retired from dance and choreography, after he

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7124-544: The Fredonia Quartet Program, July 2008 Schubert's music, as his life, exemplified the contrasts and contradictions of his time. On the one hand, he was the darling of Viennese society: he starred in soirées that became known as Schubertiaden , where he played his light, mannered compositions that expressed the gemütlichkeit of Vienna of the 1820s. On the other hand, his own short life was shrouded in tragedy, wracked by poverty and ill health. Chamber music

7261-578: The Op. 59 quartets, Beethoven wrote two more quartets during his middle period – Op. 74 , the "Harp" quartet, named for the unusual harp-like effect Beethoven creates with pizzicato passages in the first movement, and Op. 95 , the "Serioso". The Serioso is a transitional work that ushers in Beethoven's late period – a period of compositions of great introspection. "The particular kind of inwardness of Beethoven's last style period", writes Joseph Kerman, gives one

7398-484: The Paris Opéra with six performances of Modest Mussorgsky 's opera Boris Godunov , starring basso Fyodor Chaliapin . This was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 's 1908 version (with additional cuts and re-arrangement of the scenes). The performances were a sensation, though the costs of producing grand opera were crippling. In 1909, Diaghilev presented his first Paris "Saison Russe" devoted exclusively to ballet (although

7535-487: The United States as well as travelling to Great Britain, and Israel. He received a huge number of commissions, and fulfilled many of them despite failing health. He composed concertos for piano, cello (the second one in 1953), classical guitar (in 1951 for Segovia, who refused to play it until the composer provided a cadenza in 1956), harp (for Nicanor Zabaleta in 1953) and harmonica (for John Sebastian, Sr. in 1955–56). Other commissions included his Symphony No. 11 (for

7672-764: The actual film, turning instead to Bronisław Kaper for the rest of the music. From the score, Villa-Lobos compiled a work for soprano soloist, male chorus, and orchestra, which he titled Forest of the Amazon and recorded it in 1959 in stereo with Brazilian soprano Bidu Sayão , an unidentified male chorus, and the Symphony of the Air for United Artists Records . The recording was issued both on LP and reel-to-reel tape (United Artist UAC 8007, stereo 7 1/2 IPS). In June 1959, Villa-Lobos alienated many of his fellow musicians by expressing disillusionment, saying in an interview that Brazil

7809-405: The artistic world of the period, with vituperative exchanges between the two camps, concert boycotts, and petitions. Although amateur playing thrived throughout the 19th century, this was also a period of increasing professionalization of chamber music performance. Professional quartets began to dominate the chamber music concert stage. The Hellmesberger Quartet , led by Joseph Hellmesberger , and

7946-399: The ballet Dança da terra , which the authorities deemed unsuitable until it was revised. The 1943 celebrations did include Villa-Lobos's hymn Invocação em defesa da pátria shortly after Brazil's declaring war on Germany and its allies. Villa-Lobos's status damaged his reputation among certain schools of musicians, among them disciples of new European trends such as serialism ‍—‌which

8083-595: The birds of L'oiseau blessé d'une flèche (1913), the mother–child relationship (not usually a happy one in Villa-Lobos's music) in Les mères of 1914, and the flowers of Suíte floral for piano of 1916–18 which reappeared in Distribuição de flores for flute and classical guitar of 1937. Reconciling European tradition and Brazilian influences was also an element that bore fruit more formally later. His earliest published work Pequena suíte for cello and piano of 1913 shows

8220-438: The chamber music instruments. Many of Schumann's chamber works, including all three of his string quartets and his piano quartet have contrapuntal sections interwoven seamlessly into the overall compositional texture. The composers of the first half of the 19th century were acutely aware of the conversational paradigm established by Haydn and Mozart. Schumann wrote that in a true quartet "everyone has something to say ...

8357-633: The classical guitar repertory. Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro . His father, Raúl, was a civil servant, an educated man of Spanish extraction, a librarian, and an amateur astronomer and musician. In Villa-Lobos's early childhood, Brazil underwent a period of social revolution and modernisation, abolishing slavery in 1888 and overthrowing the Empire of Brazil in 1889. The changes in Brazil were reflected in its musical life: previously European music had been

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8494-453: The company and Tamara Toumanova was a principal dancer. Artistic differences led to a split between Blum and de Basil, after which de Basil renamed his company initially "Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil". Blum retained the name "Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo", while de Basil created a new company. In 1938, he called it "The Covent Garden Russian Ballet" and then renamed it the " Original Ballet Russe " in 1939. Col de Basil's company

8631-463: The company did not use the name "Ballets Russes" until the following year). Most of this original company were resident performers at the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg , hired by Diaghilev to perform in Paris during the Imperial Ballet's summer holidays. The first season's repertory featured a variety of works chiefly choreographed by Michel Fokine , including Le Pavillon d'Armide ,

8768-399: The company, including Ekaterina Galanta and Valentina Kachouba . Prima ballerina Xenia Makletzova was dismissed from the company in 1916 and sued by Diaghilev; she countersued for breach of contract, and won $ 4500 in a Massachusetts court. The Ballets Russes was even more remarkable for raising the status of the male dancer, largely ignored by choreographers and ballet audiences since

8905-601: The company: Les biches , Les Fâcheux , and Le train bleu . Born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, George Balanchine was trained at the Imperial School of Ballet. His education there was interrupted by the Russian Revolution of 1917 . Balanchine graduated in 1921, after the school reopened. He subsequently studied music theory, composition, and advanced piano at

9042-524: The development of cyclic structure. In his Piano Quintet in E ;flat, Op. 44 , Schumann wrote a double fugue in the finale, using the theme of the first movement and the theme of the last movement. Both Schumann and Mendelssohn, following the example set by Beethoven, revived the fugue, which had fallen out of favor since the Baroque period. However, rather than writing strict, full-length fugues , they used counterpoint as another mode of conversation between

9179-531: The dominant influence, and the courses at the Conservatório de Música were grounded in traditional counterpoint and harmony . Villa-Lobos underwent very little of this formal training. After a few abortive harmony lessons, he learnt music by illicit observation from the top of the stairs of the regular musical evenings at his house arranged by his father. He learned to play cello, clarinet, and classical guitar. When his father died suddenly in 1899 he earned

9316-511: The early 19th century. Among the male dancers were Michel Fokine , Serge Lifar , Léonide Massine , Anton Dolin , George Balanchine , Valentin Zeglovsky , Theodore Kosloff , Adolph Bolm , and the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky , considered the most popular and talented dancer in the company's history. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 , in later years, younger dancers were taken from those trained in Paris by former Imperial dancers, within

9453-529: The early part of the 20th century, it was sometimes referred to as "The Russian Ballet" or "Diaghilev's Russian Ballet." To add to the confusion, some publicity material spelled the name in the singular. The names Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo and the Original Ballet Russe (using the singular) refer to companies that formed after Diaghilev's death in 1929. Sergei Diaghilev , the company's impresario (or " artistic director " in modern terms),

9590-403: The early twentieth century, not least the development of Art Deco . The French plural form of the name, Ballets Russes , specifically refers to the company founded by Sergei Diaghilev and active during his lifetime. (In some publicity the company was advertised as Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghileff. ) In English, the company is now commonly referred to as "the Ballets Russes", although in

9727-440: The elder composer to say to Mozart's father, "I tell you before God as an honest man that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by reputation. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition." Many other composers wrote chamber compositions during this period that were popular at the time and are still played today. Luigi Boccherini , Italian composer and cellist, wrote nearly

9864-649: The emerging romantic style. In his 31 years, Schubert devoted much of his life to chamber music , composing 15 string quartets, two piano trios, string trios, a piano quintet commonly known as the Trout Quintet , an octet for strings and winds , and his famous quintet for two violins, viola, and two cellos. Franz Schubert , Trout Quintet , D. 667, performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Schubert on YouTube : String Quintet in C, D. 956, first movement, recorded at

10001-619: The end of the 1912 season. Vaslav Nijinsky had attended the Imperial Ballet School , St. Petersburg since the age of eight. He graduated in 1907 and joined the Imperial Ballet where he immediately began to take starring roles. Diaghilev invited him to join the Ballets Russes for its first Paris season. In 1912, Diaghilev gave Nijinsky his first opportunity as a choreographer, for his production of L'Après-midi d'un faune to Claude Debussy 's symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune . Featuring Nijinsky himself as

10138-575: The ethereal, dreamlike effect of open intervals between the high E string and the open A string in the second movement of quartet Op. 132; the use of sul ponticello (playing on the bridge of the violin) for a brittle, scratchy sound in the Presto movement of Op. 131; the use of the Lydian mode , rarely heard in Western music for 200 years, in Op. 132; a cello melody played high above all the other strings in

10275-416: The feeling that "the music is sounding only for the composer and for one other auditor, an awestruck eavesdropper: you." In the late quartets, the quartet conversation is often disjointed, proceeding like a stream of consciousness. Melodies are broken off, or passed in the middle of the melodic line from instrument to instrument. Beethoven uses new effects, never before essayed in the string quartet literature:

10412-481: The final, vigorous Presto movement, he returns to the opening adagio to conclude the piece. This string quartet is also Mendelssohn's homage to Beethoven; the work is studded with quotes from Beethoven's middle and late quartets. During his adult life, Mendelssohn wrote two piano trios, seven works for string quartet, two string quintets, the octet, a sextet for piano and strings, and numerous sonatas for piano with violin, cello, and clarinet. Robert Schumann continued

10549-463: The finale of Op. 132. Yet for all this disjointedness, each quartet is tightly designed, with an overarching structure that ties the work together. Beethoven wrote eight piano trios, five string trios, two string quintets, and numerous pieces for wind ensemble. He also wrote ten sonatas for violin and piano and five sonatas for cello and piano. As Beethoven, in his last quartets, went off in his own direction, Franz Schubert carried on and established

10686-626: The first performance of the piano suite A Prole do Bebê (The Baby's Family), composed in 1918. There had recently been an attempted military coup on Copacabana Beach , and places of entertainment had been closed for days; the public possibly wanted something less intellectually demanding, and the piece was booed. Villa-Lobos was philosophical about it, and Rubinstein later reminisced that the composer said, "I am still too good for them." The piece has been called "the first enduring work of Brazilian modernism". Rubinstein suggested that Villa-Lobos tour abroad, and in 1923 he set out for Paris. His avowed aim

10823-502: The first two, but warned against publishing the third trio, in C minor, as too radical, warning it would not "...be understood and favorably received by the public." Haydn was wrong—the third trio was the most popular of the set, and Haydn's criticisms caused a falling-out between him and the sensitive Beethoven. The trio is, indeed, a departure from the mold that Haydn and Mozart had formed. Beethoven makes dramatic deviations of tempo within phrases and within movements. He greatly increases

10960-540: The form of quartets and sonatas. He developed new forms to free his imagination from the constraints of conventional musical development such as that required in sonata form. The multi-sectional poema form may be seen in the Suite for Voice and Violin , which is somewhat like a triptych, and the Poema da criança e sua mamã for voice, flute, clarinet, and cello (1923). The extended Rudepoêma for piano, written for Rubinstein,

11097-651: The forms and nationalism of the Chôros , and add the composer's love of Bach. He incorporated neoclassicism in his nationalistic style. Villa-Lobos's use of archaisms was not new (an early example is his Pequena suíte for cello and piano of 1913). The pieces evolved over the period rather than being conceived as a whole, some of them being revised or added to. They contain some of his most popular music, such as No.   5 for soprano and eight cellos (1938–1945), and No.   2 for orchestra of 1930 (the Tocata movement of which

11234-445: The home to the concert hall, many musicians, amateur and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music (specifically, string quartet music) as "four rational people conversing". This conversational paradigm – which refers to

11371-515: The independence of the strings, especially the cello, allowing it to range above the piano and occasionally even the violin. If his Op. 1 trios introduced Beethoven's works to the public, his Septet, Op. 20 , established him as one of Europe's most popular composers. The septet, scored for violin, viola, cello, contrabass, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, was a huge hit. It was played in concerts again and again. It appeared in transcriptions for many combinations – one of which, for clarinet, cello and piano,

11508-463: The initial inspiration for his Chôros , a series of compositions written between 1920 and 1929. The first European performance of Chôros No. 10 , in Paris, caused a storm: L.   Chevaillier wrote of it in Le Monde musical , "[it is] an art ... to which we must now give a new name." In 1930, Villa-Lobos, who was in Brazil to conduct, planned to return to Paris. One of the consequences of

11645-479: The kind of music that should never get written, still less performed". His music for the film Green Mansions starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins , commissioned by MGM in 1958, earned Villa-Lobos US$ 25,000 , and he conducted the soundtrack recording himself. The film was in production for many years. Originally to be directed by Vincente Minnelli , it was taken over by Hepburn's husband Mel Ferrer . MGM decided to use only part of Villa-Lobos's music in

11782-461: The large community of Russian exiles. Recruits were even accepted from America and included a young Ruth Page who joined the troupe in Monte Carlo during 1925. The company featured and premiered now-famous (and sometimes notorious) works by the great choreographers Marius Petipa and Michel Fokine , as well as new works by Vaslav Nijinsky , Bronislava Nijinska , Léonide Massine , and

11919-658: The middle of the 19th century, with the rise of the feminist movement, women also started to receive acceptability to be participated in chamber music. Thousands of quartets were published by hundreds of composers; between 1770 and 1800, more than 2000 quartets were published, and the pace did not decline in the next century. Throughout the 19th century, composers published string quartets now long neglected: George Onslow wrote 36 quartets and 35 quintets; Gaetano Donizetti wrote dozens of quartets, Antonio Bazzini , Anton Reicha , Carl Reissiger , Joseph Suk and others wrote to fill an insatiable demand for quartets. In addition, there

12056-409: The musical influences of Brazil's indigenous cultures, themselves based on Portuguese and African, as well as American Indian elements. His earliest compositions were the result of improvisations on the classical guitar from this period. Villa-Lobos played with many local Brazilian street-music bands; he was also influenced by the cinema and Ernesto Nazareth's improvised tangos and polkas . For

12193-540: The musicians of the French National Orchestra; these were originally issued on LPs and later reissued on CDs. He also recorded the first section of Bachianas Brasileiras No.   5 with Bidu Sayão and a group of cellists for Columbia . During his period at SEMA, Villa-Lobos composed five string quartets, nos. 5   to   9 , which explored avenues opened by his public music that dominated his output. He also wrote more music for Segovia,

12330-576: The name Villa-Lobos, though Villa-Lobos never divorced his first wife. After Villa-Lobos' death, Arminda became the Director of the Museu Villa-Lobos in 1960, until her death in 1985. Arminda was herself a musician and a significant influence on Villa-Lobos. He also dedicated a good number of works to her, including the Ciclo brasileiro and many of the Chôros . Villa-Lobos's writings during

12467-583: The nose-flute by the violinophone , and not least imitations of the uirapuru bird itself. His meeting with Arthur Rubinstein in 1918 prompted Villa-Lobos to compose piano music such as Simples coletânea of 1919—which was possibly influenced by Rubinstein's playing of Ravel and Scriabin on his South American tours—and Bailado infernal of 1920. The latter piece includes the tempi and expression markings "vertiginoso e frenético", "infernal" and "mais vivo ainda" (faster still). Carnaval das crianças of 1919–20 saw Villa-Lobos's mature style emerge; unconstrained by

12604-412: The origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera (chamber sonata) and the sonata da chiesa (church sonata). These were compositions for one to five or more instruments. The sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes; the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of

12741-459: The performer played the keys. The improved pianoforte was adopted by Mozart and other composers, who began composing chamber ensembles with the piano playing a leading role. The piano was to become more and more dominant through the 19th century, so much so that many composers, such as Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin , wrote almost exclusively for solo piano (or solo piano with orchestra ). Ludwig van Beethoven straddled this period of change as

12878-404: The period would consist of Haydn was by no means the only composer developing new modes of chamber music. Even before Haydn, many composers were already experimenting with new forms. Giovanni Battista Sammartini , Ignaz Holzbauer , and Franz Xaver Richter wrote precursors of the string quartet. Franz Ignaz von Beecke (1733-1803), with his Piano Quintet in A minor (1770) and 17 string quartets

13015-439: The period. The turn of the 19th century saw dramatic changes in society and in music technology which had far-reaching effects on the way chamber music was composed and played. Throughout the 18th century, the composer was normally an employee of an aristocrat, and the chamber music he or she composed was for the pleasure of aristocratic players and listeners. Haydn, for example, was an employee of Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy ,

13152-412: The pianist Arthur Rubinstein , who became a lifelong friend and champion; this meeting prompted Villa-Lobos to write more piano music. In about 1918 Villa-Lobos abandoned the use of opus numbers for his compositions as a constraint to his pioneering spirit. With the piano suite Carnaval das crianças (Children's carnival) of 1919–20, Villa-Lobos liberated his style altogether from European Romanticism:

13289-637: The piano, and of symphonic composition, was not merely a matter of preference; it was also a matter of ideology . In the 1860s, a schism grew among romantic musicians over the direction of music. Many composers tend to express their romantic persona through their works. By the time, these chamber works are not necessarily dedicated for any specific dedicatee. Famous chamber works such as Fanny Mendelssohn D minor Piano Trio, Ludwig van Beethoven's Trio in E-flat major, and Franz Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major are all highly personal. Liszt and Richard Wagner led

13426-432: The piano, so his wife taught him the rudiments of the instrument. His music began to be published in 1913. He introduced some of his compositions in a series of occasional chamber concerts (later also orchestral concerts) from 1915–1921, mainly in Rio de Janeiro's Salão Nobre do Jornal do Comércio . The music presented at these concerts shows his coming to terms with the conflicting elements in his experience, and overcoming

13563-510: The present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance , instruments were used primarily as accompaniment for singers. String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were also purely instrumental ensembles, often of stringed precursors of the violin family , called consorts . Some analysts consider

13700-491: The presidency of Getúlio Vargas (1930–1945) include propaganda for Brazilian nationhood ( brasilidade ), and teaching and theoretical works. His Guia Prático ran to 11   volumes, Solfejos (two volumes, 1942 and 1946) contained vocal exercises, and Canto Orfeônico (1940 and 1950) contained patriotic songs for schools and for civic occasions. His music for the film O Descobrimento do Brasil (The Discovery of Brazil) of 1936, which included versions of earlier compositions,

13837-474: The quintet for violin, two violas, cello, and horn, K. 407, quartets for flute and strings, and various wind instrument combinations. He wrote six string quintets for two violins, two violas and cello, which explore the rich tenor tones of the violas, adding a new dimension to the string quartet conversation. Mozart's string quartets are considered the pinnacle of the classical art. The six string quartets that he dedicated to Haydn , his friend and mentor, inspired

13974-436: The reach of many amateur string players. When first violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh complained of their difficulty, Beethoven retorted, "Do you think I care about your wretched violin when the spirit moves me?" Among the difficulties are complex syncopations and cross-rhythms; synchronized runs of sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth notes; and sudden modulations requiring special attention to intonation . In addition to

14111-475: The revolution of that year was that money could no longer be taken out of the country, and so he had no means of paying any rents abroad. Thus forced to stay in Brazil, he arranged concerts instead around São Paulo, and composed patriotic and educational music. In 1932, he became director of the Superintendência de Educação Musical e Artística (SEMA), and his duties included arranging concerts including

14248-527: The rise of new technology driven by the Industrial Revolution , printed music became cheaper and thus more accessible while domestic music making gained widespread popularity. Composers began to incorporate new elements and techniques into their works to appeal to this open market, since there was an increased consumer desire for chamber music. While improvements in instruments led to more public performances of chamber music, it remained very much

14385-431: The same year, he created Chopiniana to piano music by the composer Frédéric Chopin as orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov . This was an early example of creating choreography to an existing score rather than to music specifically written for the ballet, a departure from the normal practice at the time. Fokine established an international reputation with his works choreographed during the first four seasons (1909–1912) of

14522-480: The scherzo of the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 . Another characteristic that Mendelssohn pioneered is the cyclic form in overall structure. This means the reuse of thematic material from one movement to the next, to give the total piece coherence. In his second string quartet , he opens the piece with a peaceful adagio section in A major, that contrasts with the stormy first movement in A minor. After

14659-526: The second theme, a lilting duet in the lower voices. The alternating Sturm und Drang and relaxation continue throughout the movement. These contending forces are expressed in some of Schubert's other works: in the quartet Death and the Maiden , the Rosamunde quartet and in the stormy, one-movement Quartettsatz, D. 703 . Unlike Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn had a life of peace and prosperity. Born into

14796-705: The subject of the 2005 documentary film Ballets Russes . The Ballets Russes was noted for the high standard of its dancers, most of whom had been classically trained at the great Imperial schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Their high technical standards contributed a great deal to the company's success in Paris, where dance technique had declined markedly since the 1830s. Principal female dancers included: Anna Pavlova , Tamara Karsavina , Olga Spessivtseva , Mathilde Kschessinska , Ida Rubinstein , Bronislava Nijinska , Lydia Lopokova , Sophie Pflanz , and Alicia Markova , among others; many earned international renown with

14933-768: The success of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Europe. In 1890, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg, to prepare for a career in the civil service like many Russian young men of his class. There he was introduced (through his cousin Dmitry Filosofov ) to a student clique of artists and intellectuals calling themselves The Nevsky Pickwickians whose most influential member was Alexandre Benois ; others included Léon Bakst , Walter Nouvel , and Konstantin Somov . From childhood, Diaghilev had been passionately interested in music. However, his ambition to become

15070-637: The suite, in eight movements with the finale written for piano duet, depicts eight characters or scenes from Rio's Lenten Carnival. In February 1922, a festival of modern art took place in São Paulo and Villa-Lobos contributed performances of his own works. The press were unsympathetic and the audience were not appreciative; their mockery was encouraged by Villa-Lobos's being forced by a foot infection to wear one carpet slipper. The festival ended with Villa-Lobos's Quarteto simbólico , composed as an impression of Brazilian urban life. In July 1922, Rubinstein gave

15207-424: The title of the work denotes it as ostensibly chamber music, but it is scored for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, celesta, harp, piano, a large percussion battery requiring at least two players, and a mixed chorus. In Paris, his musical vocabulary established, Villa-Lobos solved the problem of his works' form. It was perceived as an incongruity that his Brazilian impressionism should be expressed in

15344-579: The treble and bass lines of the piano score. But Mozart gives the strings an independent role, using them as a counter to the piano, and adding their individual voices to the chamber music conversation. Mozart introduced the newly invented clarinet into the chamber music arsenal, with the Kegelstatt Trio for viola, clarinet and piano, K. 498, and the Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet , K. 581. He also tried other innovative ensembles, including

15481-399: The trio sonata, there is often no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance. The harmonic role played by the keyboard or other chording instrument was subsidiary, and usually the keyboard part was not even written out; rather, the chordal structure of the piece was specified by numeric codes over the bass line, called figured bass . In the second half of

15618-540: The urban street music of the chorões , who were groups containing flute, clarinet and cavaquinho (a Brazilian guitar), and often also including ophicleide , trombones or percussion. Villa-Lobos occasionally joined such bands. Early works showing this influence were incorporated into the Suite populaire brésilienne of 1908–12 assembled by his publisher, and more mature works include the Sexteto místico ( c. 1955, replacing

15755-616: The use of "primitive" folk material. European influences did still inspire Villa-Lobos. In 1917 Sergei Diaghilev made an impact on tour in Brazil with his Ballets Russes . That year Villa-Lobos also met the French composer Darius Milhaud , who was in Rio as secretary to Paul Claudel at the French Legation. Milhaud brought the music of Claude Debussy , Erik Satie , and possibly Igor Stravinsky ; in return Villa-Lobos introduced Milhaud to Brazilian street music. In 1918, he also met

15892-543: The use of traditional formulae or any requirement for dramatic tension, the piece at times imitates a mouth organ , children's dances, a harlequinade , and ends with an impression of the carnival parade. This work was orchestrated in 1929 with new linking passages and a new title, Momoprecoce . Naïveté and innocence is also heard in the piano suites A Prole do Bebê (The Baby's Family) of 1918–21. Around this time he also fused urban Brazilian influences and impressions, for example in his Quarteto simbólico of 1921. He included

16029-468: The violin bow longer, with a thicker ribbon of hair under higher tension. This improved projection, and also made possible new bowing techniques. In 1820, Louis Spohr invented the chinrest, which gave violinists more freedom of movement in their left hands, for a more nimble technique. These changes contributed to the effectiveness of public performances in large halls, and expanded the repertoire of techniques available to chamber music composers. Throughout

16166-455: The way one instrument introduces a melody or motif and then other instruments subsequently "respond" with a similar motif – has been a thread woven through the history of chamber music composition from the end of the 18th century to the present. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions. From its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to

16303-500: The young George Balanchine at the start of his career. The choreography of Michel Fokine was of paramount importance in the initial success of the Ballets Russes. Fokine had graduated from the Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg in 1898, and eventually become First Soloist at the Mariinsky Theater . In 1907, Fokine choreographed his first work for the Imperial Russian Ballet, Le Pavillon d'Armide . In

16440-556: Was Serge Lifar (who later joined the Ballets Russes in 1923). Following the Russian Revolution, Nijinska fled again to Poland, and then, in 1921, re-joined the Ballets Russes in Paris. In 1923, Diaghilev assigned her the choreography of Stravinsky's Les Noces . The result combines elements of her brother's choreography for The Rite of Spring with more traditional aspects of ballet, such as dancing en pointe . The following year, she choreographed three new works for

16577-641: Was "dominated by mediocrity". In November he died in Rio; his state funeral was the final major civic event in that city before the capital transferred to Brasília . He is buried in the Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro. His earliest pieces originated in guitar improvisations, for example Panqueca (Pancake) of 1900. The concert series of 1915–21 included first performances of pieces demonstrating originality and virtuosic technique. Some of these pieces are early examples of elements of importance throughout his œuvre. His attachment to

16714-486: Was a lively market for string quartet arrangements of popular and folk tunes , piano works, symphonies, and opera arias . But opposing forces were at work. The middle of the 19th century saw the rise of superstar virtuosi, who drew attention away from chamber music toward solo performance. The piano, which could be mass-produced, became an instrument of preference, and many composers, like Chopin and Liszt, composed primarily if not exclusively for piano. The ascendance of

16851-467: Was also one of the pioneers of chamber music of the Classical period. Another renowned composer of chamber music of the period was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Mozart's seven piano trios and two piano quartets were the first to apply the conversational principle to chamber music with piano. Haydn's piano trios are essentially piano sonatas with the violin and cello playing mostly supporting roles, doubling

16988-493: Was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there. Originally conceived by impresario Sergei Diaghilev , the Ballets Russes is widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of

17125-399: Was arranged into orchestral suites , and includes a depiction of the first mass in Brazil in a setting for double choir. Villa-Lobos published A Música Nacionalista no Govêrno Getúlio Vargas c. 1941, in which he characterised the nation as a sacred entity whose symbols (including its flag, motto and national anthem) were inviolable . Villa-Lobos was the chair of a committee whose task

17262-402: Was chiefly responsible for its success. He was uniquely prepared for the role; born into a wealthy Russian family of vodka distillers (though they went bankrupt when he was 18), he was accustomed to moving in the upper-class circles that provided the company's patrons and benefactors. It's indispensable to mention the name of the sponsor Winnaretta Singer which generous financial subsides ensured

17399-401: Was commissioned to write several of these. Joseph Haydn is generally credited with creating the modern form of chamber music as we know it, although scholars today such as Roger Hickman argue "the idea that Haydn invented the string quartet and single-handedly advanced the genre is based on only a vague notion of the true history of the eighteenth-century genre." A typical string quartet of

17536-419: Was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919. Léonide Massine was born in Moscow, where he studied both acting and dancing at the Imperial School. On the verge of becoming an actor, Massine was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to join the Ballets Russes, as he was seeking a replacement for Vaslav Nijinsky. Diaghilev encouraged Massine's creativity and his entry into choreography. Massine's most famous creations for

17673-441: Was effectively off limits in Brazil until the 1960s. This crisis was, in part, due to some Brazilian composers finding it necessary to reconcile Villa-Lobos's own liberation of Brazilian music from European models in the 1920s with a style of music they felt to be more universal. Vargas fell from power in 1945. Villa-Lobos was able, after the end of the war, to travel abroad again; he returned to Paris, and also made regular visits to

17810-405: Was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bach-pieces) and his Chôros . His Etudes for classical guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia , while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to his spouse Arminda Neves d'Almeida, a.k.a. "Mindinha". Both are important works in

17947-431: Was often performed by upper- and middle-class men with less advanced musical skills in an unexpected setting such as informal ensembles in private residence with few audience members. In Britain, the most common form of chamber music compositions are the string quartets , sentimental songs and piano chamber works like the piano trio , in a way depicts the standard conception of the conventional "Victorian music making". In

18084-475: Was run by famed promoter Fortune Gallo for a year after losing their manager. After World War II began, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo left Europe and toured extensively in the United States and South America. As dancers retired and left the company, they often founded dance studios in the United States or South America or taught at other former company dancers' studios. With Balanchine's founding of

18221-407: Was the Chôros . Villa-Lobos composed more than a dozen works with this title for various instruments, mostly in the years 1924–1929. He described them as "a new form of musical composition", a transformation of the Brazilian music and sounds "by the personality of the composer". He also composed between 1930 and 1945 nine pieces he called Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian pieces). These take

18358-453: Was the ideal medium to express this conflict, "to reconcile his essentially lyric themes with his feeling for dramatic utterance within a form that provided the possibility of extreme color contrasts." The String Quintet in C, D.956 , is an example of how this conflict is expressed in music. After a slow introduction, the first theme of the first movement, fiery and dramatic, leads to a bridge of rising tension, peaking suddenly and breaking into

18495-524: Was to define a definitive version of the Brazilian national anthem . After 1937, during the Estado Novo period when Vargas seized power by decree, Villa-Lobos continued producing patriotic works directly accessible to mass audiences. Independence Day on September 7, 1939, involved 30,000 children singing the national anthem and items arranged by Villa-Lobos. For the 1943 celebrations he also composed

18632-403: Was to exhibit his exotic sound world rather than to study. Just before he left he completed his Nonet (for ten players and chorus) which was first performed after his arrival in the French capital. He stayed in Paris in 1923–24 and 1927–30, and there he met influential residents including Edgard Varèse , Pablo Picasso , Leopold Stokowski and Aaron Copland . Parisian concerts of his music made

18769-451: Was written by Beethoven himself – and was so popular that Beethoven feared it would eclipse his other works. So much so that by 1815, Carl Czerny wrote that Beethoven "could not endure his septet and grew angry because of the universal applause which it has received." The septet is written as a classical divertimento in six movements, including two minuets, and a set of variations. It is full of catchy tunes, with solos for everyone, including

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