ARIA from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
Heitor Villa-Lobos composed the nine suites of the Bachianas between 1930 and 1945. They were written for a variety of voices and instruments, and were intended to embody Villa Lobos’ conception that fused Brazilian folk music with the classical style of Johann Sebastien Bach. The title of this essay becomes more intelligible when one focuses on the root of the words and ignores their inflected endings. The root words become ‘Bach’ and ‘Brasil’ (the title is Portuguese, thus the ‘s’ in Brazil.) Most of the suites were given two titles: one representing Brazilian folk music (Embolada, O canto de nossa terra, etc.), and one representing the classic style (Preludia, Fuga, etc.).
A few technical considerations also help to blend the disparate styles. Villa-Lobos uses counterpoint and melodic complexity typical of Bach's music, and joins these two elements with the highly poetic lyric quality of Brazilian song along with a dramatic style of production. The listener experiences the allurement of the Brazilian rain forests and savannas, and the vitality of the diverse Afro-Brazilian dances.The suites are also imbued with the color and dissonant expression of early 20th-century Brazilian modern brought to the fore by the refreshing originality of Villa-Lobos' compositional style.
From an early age Villa-Lobos studied and became proficient with cello, clarinet, and guitar. After the death of his father, he took to busking on the streets of Rio de Janeiro to support his family. Largely self-taught as both a musician and, subsequently, as a composer, he chose to leave the city and for many years roamed Brazil's so-called ‘dark interior.’ Though he claimed to have spent ten years combing the Amazon backcountry learning the rhythms and melodies of ‘folk’ music, it is often suggested that many of his tales were merely embellishments.
‘The dark interior’ often is used to mean not just the vast wilderness beyond the urban sprawl, but also to refer to the sizable slums that mark Rio, the favelas where the impoverished yet indefatigable citizens of the city live, work, and play. The Amazon provided the composer with the more exotic Brazilian components of his music; and the favelas gave him the rhythms and urban touches: the two essential parts necessary to infuse his music with Brazilianess.
The first performance of the Bachianas suites took place in Rio de Janeiro in September, 1932. Villa-Lobos conducted a small ensemble of eight cellos on the occasion, and the piece was dedicated to Pablo Casals, the noted Catalan cellist. The first performance of the aria (Cantilena) from Bachianas No. 5 took place in March 1939 given by Ruth Valadares Corrêa who also wrote the lyrics for the aria.
Though there are any number of arrangements of the Cantilena extent, three performances of the song stand out. The first, given in 2016, is that of soprano Barbara Hannigan singing with musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The woman is a professional from her toes to her teeth. Both a conductor of some note as well as an outstanding vocalist, her performance with the cellist from the Swedish orchestra is mesmerizing.
The first performance of the aria to be recorded was that by Bidu Sayão with Villa Lobos directing. If authenticity is the goal, then Sayão’s performance tops the list. She was a Brazilian soprano whose voice was most often described as ethereal; and managed to combine the two elements of folk and classicism more effectively than does the operatic delivery of Hannigan. With Villa Lobos again conducting, the recording took place in 1945.
Though Joan Baez had no formal vocal training before recording the Bachianas aria on her fifth album of 1964, ‘Joan Baez/5,’ her performance was generally thought to be inspired. Music critic Bruce Eder noted that ‘ … having exhausted most of the best traditional songs in her repertory on her four prior LPs, Baez had to broaden the range of her music, and she opened up some promising new territory in the process.’ One of those areas was classical music. Producer and co-founder of Vanguard Records, Maynard Soloman, suggested the Villa-Lobos' piece as a means to showcase the vocal range and versatility of Baez.
Solomon knew his singer. The two factors that played into her hands and brought success were (1) that she was a folk singer, arguably the most accomplished singer of her generation; and (2) she was fluent in Spanish, was raised in a household that advocated for Hispanics giving her an unequivocal grasp of Hispanic culture. Villa-Lobos, of course, was Portuguese, but it is no great leap to understand Brazilians from her grounding in Spanish-Mexican traditions. She sang the lyrics as they were written, in Portuguese.
The composition itself carries the classic style of Bach; the singer must add the elements of folk music. Baez, in her performance, accomplishes this more definitively than the other two sopranos. Most reviews cite her ‘perfectly pitched voice’ and her ‘natural, unprocessed, breathy vocal’ when describing this rendition. It is the ‘unprocessed,’ ‘natural’ vocalizations that captures the spirit of the aria so well. To compliment Baez, Maynard Solomon made the wise decision to back the singer with the traditional ensemble of eight cellos.
The instrumental sections and backdrop for the aria itself were written by Villa Lobos for eight cellos, a difficult combination. Many attempts have been made to incorporate piano or guitar in place of the cellos in order to simplify the piece. Few of these modifications have been successful. Villa-Lobos was an excellent musician on both cello and guitar, and did write some alternative music for those instruments, but none of these arrangements have proved particularly successful. Andres Segovia also transcribed the piece for classical guitar, but it seems too many key elements were omitted and the piece lacks the substance of the original.
The thirteen lines of the lyric occupies the middle section of the aria with wordless vocalise opening and closing the piece. The drive and complexity of the music requires demanding breath control by the singer. Villa-Lobos apparently thought of this section as a clarinet solo, and it was Bidu Sayão who convinced him to add the vocal by humming the entirety for him.The lyrics were subsequently written by Ruth Corrêa.
If fault might be found, the lyrics themselves would be the culprit. Given the operatic slant of the nine suites, the complaint is minor and subjective, and based primarily on the tradition of English and Gaelic ballads whose words and music must blend and compliment one another. An example in English is ‘TheParting Glass,’ a 17th century Scottish ballad whose pensive and dispirited lyrics are matched with a sorrowful melodic line. Corrêa’s lyrics, which describe a dreamy scene with the moon rising amidst a backdrop of rosy clouds, seems to me to lack the legs to stand with the power of Villa Lobos’ musical score. But I have found no other criticism of the aria. My objection, it seems, is as ethereal as the voice of Bidu Sayão.
