Villa-Lobos' 'Rudepoema' Audio + Sheet Music 1/2

pf: Marc-Andre Hamelin

Rudepoêma is Villa-Lobos' most extended work for solo piano, begun while he was working in Brazilian movie houses, but finished after he had gone to study composition in Paris. He intended it to be a musical portrait of Artur Rubinstein, whom he had met in the late 1910s. Rubinstein is said to have been taken aback when he learned this, as the piece is often described as primitive, and most of it is marked with the performance direction Tres sauvage. However, it is a high-energy, virtuosic work well suited to Rubinstein's skills, and he did perform it often. The nearly 20-minute work shows the influence of the composers Villa-Lobos studied and met while in Paris, being particularly reminiscent of Milhaud's and Stravinsky's styles. Besides the virtuosic technical demands made on the performer, Rudepoêma includes polytonalities and polyrhythms in its complexities and much less of the Brazilian folk music characteristics that are found in most of Villa-Lobos' compositions, although there are glimpses of Brazilian dance rhythms and Amerindian melodic figures. The sectional, quasi-sonata form composition begins with a double exposition. The first subject is a four-note motive, simply played with a tango-like sway, but which quickly explodes into thicker textures and a more wild nature. This is followed by a six-note idea and one built of rapidly repeated notes that combine to form the second subject, in a slightly calmer demeanor. The so-called development section makes up the majority of the composition, wherein the two subjects are transfigured and transmuted in various tempos, keys, and rhythms, using such devices as ostinato, pedal points, and huge chords played with the fist in the process. The latter part of the development is more measured and deliberate, more hypnotic than the intense, vivid, rapidly changing scherzo-like first part. Something of a recapitulation is presented before a coda, in which the pianist is required to cross hands, scrambling down the whole keyboard and concluding with four fist-pounded chords.

Recording Date: Aug 27, 1999 - Oct 6, 1999

Recording Location: Henry Wood Hall, London

Category:

Music

Tags:

• rudepoema
• villa-lobos
• hamelin
• audio
• sheet
• music
• piano
• heitor
• impressionistic
• dance

[kastlesucks]

3:26 makes me want to DANCE.

[123eldest]

Nice pop-up sound at 2:34! ^^

[Joeyboiification]

Not the best recording ive heard, but still..... this piece is insane, in an brilliant, musical way.

[mlr2107]

i thought i had a facebook message at 2:34

[DanielM647]

Hi ch252525, I gues I belong to the Romantics. I grew up with Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and also ofcourse Ravel and Debussy. Villa-Lobos has very nice music, he was a wanderful composer, ofcourse he is not like those modern Russians.

Daniel Morales

[calado7cap]

im not talking about the importance of this piece alone, but about the importance of such a composer as Villa-Lobos was. Brazilians in general tend to have the "Síndrome do Vira-Lata", a complex of inferiority in which we tend to underestimate what comes from and represents our culture and to do the opposite towards the western culture in general. Life is not clear, formal or organized in Brazil, why should one expect our music to be like that}

[olivleonardo]

@calado7cap This piece is great, but don't exaggerate (and I am Brazilian).

[codonauta]

@Bach1Beethoven Indeed.

[schoenbaard]

Thanks for uploading this video! It's really nice to be able to read the sheet music while listening to it. Good idea, thanks!

[Gogolsuite]

Eu posso até ouvir os pássaros pelo 1:30.

[calado7cap]

Had Villa=Lobos been north-american or european he would for sure be considered a composer of the same level and importance of Stravinsky or Schoenberg. But the reality is that many books about XX century music simply say nothing about him. I believe it is a matter of time until his music be valued what it's really worth. It is perfectly understandable why does this happen, since his music reflects a socio-cultural environment totally apart from western culture.