12 Etudes • Villa-Lobos • Andrzej Wilkus 

You sound great thank you

musicality, unfortunately, has been a casualty of the education/performance pipeline. A lot of people aren't interested in seeing music, they want to see an exciting performance. Which generally means faster and louder playing. It has happened across all classical music.

Along with a couple of bong hits and you're on your way to Nirvana...

I think he followed the manuscript.

It’s the original manuscript version that he was playing, I believe etude no 1 sounds better without the repetitions. David Leisner does it that way as well. You can find a download of the manuscript online.

Quoted from Abel Carlevaro about Study No. 1, introduction to his book "The guitar works of Heitor Villa-Lobos-12 Studies (1929)": "The composer himself insisted that the execution of this study should never be unruly, affirming that its beauty lies in the clarity of each note and in the different sonorities presented in each bar with its repetition. In his opinion each arpeggio should be played forte the first time through (becoming piano on the fourth beat of the bar) and with an echo effect on the arpeggio's repetition."

I agree. Villa has constructed these studies to allow the development of some technical issues... the repetition is "oberhaupt" important in this case. Very good observation. About the nº 11, well, prevails what Max Eschig has published... and also in this case I prefer the regular... with all respect with the player and, "obenand", the Composer... By the way, the 11 is my favorite, just because Villa dedicated it (also) to the brazilian Indians, like the Prelude 4... both are very nice to hear and play.

@@gildasiooliveira7921 I must say but not for 'purist' reasons, that I prefer etude no 1 to listen to when done well in original form. The alternative version (with repeats in nearly every bar) although sounding impressive when being played well with intensity, doesn't sound as musical as the original imo. I especially like David Leisner's take on it and this one as well. The repeats tend to strain on the left hands as well especially if you can't play it fast, for that reason I go the the original more for practice. Have only really looked at etude 1 though in manuscript form, can't speak for the rest.

But, there is music, that is more important than speed

I absolutely agree -- the Eliot Fisk version here on RU-vid is WAY too fast! I've been working on No 1 for years and find it sounds much better at a slower pace.

No one is a prophet in his own country

Existem vários violonistas brasileiros que gravaram os estudos do Vila... Fabio Zanon,Paulo Porto Alegre, Maria Lívia São Marcos e muitos outros..

geralmente instrumentos como violão,clarinete e viola não recebem tanta visibilidade na comunidade de musica clássica como os mais conhecidos como piano e violino,ainda mais no Brasil que musica clássica não é tão mainstream

Nos perdemos no momento que os politicos adotaram o critério de ter uma população idiota e vulnerável onde tudo se perdeu incluindo a cultura.

Villa lobos really appreciated Bach. It is also he composed the *bach*ianas(bachianas) brasileiras. You should hear that!

Thank you for precious opinion. Have a nice day..

Well they are Etudes

There are dozens of performers who take this at a leisurely tempo, starting with Narciso Yepes, who actually plays is almost twice slower. Escobar, Pedrassoli, Fernandez, Santos they all play it at a sensible tempo. It is andantino in 2/2, so one could not be blamed for playing it slightly faster. The point there is that it is reminiscent of some children folksongs, which are not too slow, not too fast.

@@fzanon The time signature in the 1953 Max Eschig edition is "2" -understood to mean 2 beats per measure, but with no indication of which note gets the beat. If the beat was a half-note, as in 2/2, then one could be justified in playing it at a fairly quick tempo. But without the clear indication of the half-note being the beat, it must *_not_* be played as if it were. Besides, the score is marked "Andantino" which is sometimes defined as slightly slower than andante, in which case its BPM is between 64-72. If there are "dozens of performers who take this (Etude #5 )at a leisurely tempo," there are many more dozens who don't. The leisurely tempo takers are vastly outnumbered, and therein rests my complaint.

@@apointofinterest8574 ​ @apointofinterest85 Thank you for your reply. Although I agree with you and have played it at a relaxed tempo, my point is that I am cautious at this kind of prescriptive reading of the score that leads one to affirm a piece must or should be played in such and such way. The reasons are many, but in short is that one must have a common ground between composer, performer and listener regarding notation and context that is not always easy to thread. That leads me to be less judgemental with discrepant interpretations. Andrzej is clearly not playing the 1953 edition, but fortunately there are no discrepancies between the different sources as to the time signature and the andantino tempo mark. Beyond that, what the composer means by andantino or any other tempo mark is always a bit elusive. What one can do is to investigate Villa-Lobos' theoretical ground, or his other works and see where we stand. If you look at another cycle from the 1920's, the Cirandas for piano, we'll see he indistinctly uses both 2/2 or 2 as time signature (for instance ciranda nº 6 is 2/2, but nº 15 is 2). At that time, Villa-Lobos would write many of his tempo markings in Portuguese, but Ciranda nº 2 is marked andantino quasi andante crotchet = 88 which is not so useful for us, as the time signature is 3/4. A piece like Brinquedo de Roda has andantino 2/4 quaver = 104. So, there is not much of a pattern except they are all leisurely pieces. But there is a cultural context one could take into account. Etude nº 5 has a lot to do with our Brazilian children round dances, like ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vg-W9GBeJs0.html. Of course folk traditions evolve over time, but one can have that on the back of one's mind and look at the etude as a kind of round dance seen through a ghost-like veil, where the ostinato suggests the dizziness of going round and round. I can accept it at a slower tempo or at a slightly brisker tempo, depending on how it is played. Best greetings!

​@@fzanon Thanks for your thoughtful insights. I'm assuming you're the _echt_ Fabio Zanon, whose superb 1997 MusicMasters recording of Villa-Lobos' complete solo guitar music has long been part of my CD collection. Your timing for Etude #5 seems to be ~100-108 BPM (crotchet as the beat). which is closer to "leisurely" than most players. But all historical precedents and scholarly justifications aside, I have to say, for me this piece just sounds much better at ~80-90 BPM. Taken much faster than that, it tends to feel like the player is in a hurry to get to the end, and on to the next presumably _more important_ Etude.

@@apointofinterest8574 Yes, that's me. I agree with your insights and I don't like it when it sounds rushed. Curiously, at the time of release my recording of #5 was criticized for being too much on the slow side... One cannot please everyone. Thank you for the discussion.

Listen to nr 10.

I should have waited till the end ;(