Ih recent years, hi-fi fans have delighted in the realistic
recordings of big steam locomotives and other railroadsounds. For some, it is more thrilling to have a fast freight
roaring through the living room than to hear the music of
Beethoven or Tchaikovsky. Here, though, is a recording tailor-
made for both the audiophile and the music lover. With
Everest’s startlingly lifelike sound, coupled with the vivid
imagination of Villa-Lobos, you can hear a musical train come
to life on your phonograph.
“In music circles the name of Heitor Villa-Lobos is almost
synonymous with Brazil,” wrote Louis Biancolli in the pro-
gram book of the New York Philharmonic. “Indo-Brazilian
lore and the country’s colorful history find concrete expres-
sion in his art through a rhythmic and melodic medium of
marked national character. What Jean Sibelius is to Finland,
Carlos Chavez to Mexico, Georges Enesco to Roumania,
Heitor Villa-Lobos is to his native Brazil, and perhaps more.”
Villa-Lobos has written nine suites for varying combina-
tions of instruments, to which he has given the generic title
Bachianas Brasileiras. Concerning this unusual but immensely
intriguing music, the composer has written: “This is a special
kind of musical composition based on an intimate knowledge
of the great works of J. S. Bach, and the harmonic, contra-
puntal and melodic atmosphere of the folklore of the north-
eastern region of Brazil. The composer considers Bach a
universal and rich folkloristic source, deeply rooted in the
folk-music of every country in the world. Thus Bach is a
mediator among all races.”
Sir Eugene Goossens, conductor of the present recording of
The Little Train of the Caipira, has this to say about the
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2, from which it is drawn: “Un-
doubtedly both the form and the spirit of this work are
inspired by the great German master, and its four movements
— Preludio, Aria, Danza, and Toccata—are conscientious
imitations of the Bachian forms. But there the resemblance
pretty much ends, for the Villa-Lobos music is based not on
the melodic and rhythmic formulae of Bach as we know them,
but on primitive Brazilian melodies. Harmonically and in-
strumentally the work is quite uninhibited, and the list of
percussion instruments is patently formidable. Incidentally,
four of these instruments are authentically Brazilian, and
they add considerable descriptive color to the puffings and
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: R 59-1453
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: R 59-1454
This album is available in Monaural 6041 and Stereo 3041
STHREO >
VILLA-LOBOS
THE LITTLE TRAIN OF THE CAIPIRA
3041
from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2
GINASTERA:
ESTANCIA - PANAMBI
(Ballet Suites)
Sir EUGENE GOOSSENS
conducting The London Symphony Orchestra
gaspings of the Caipira express (?) in the last movement.”
The Little Train of the Caipira was inspired by a ride that
Villa-Lobos took in 1931 on just such a train that was trans-
porting berry-pickers and farm laborers between villages in
the Brazilian province of Sao Paolo. (“Caipira” means “yokel”
” a word from the
or “rustic,” and is derived from “curupira,”
language of the Tupi Indians in Brazil.) As the train chugged,
bumped, squeaked and wheezed along, its sounds and rhythms
suggested some musical ideas to the composer, a man who
has written some of his best works in the midst of the most
distracting environment. Within an hour he had completed
the toccata, which he scored originally for ’cello and piano;
and that very night he and his wife tried it over. (It might
be noted, parenthetically, that it was the rhythmic noises of
a train between New York and Boston that gave George
Gershwin the basic inspiration for his Rhapsody in Blue.)
In 1938, at the suggestion of Villa-Lobos’ close friend, the
Brazilian conductor Burle Marx, the composer arranged the
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 for chamber orchestra. It is in
this form that it has gained its widest popularity.
The orchestra called for in The Little Train of the Caipira
comprises a flute (interchangeable with piccolo), oboe, clari-
net, tenor saxophone (interchangeable with baritone saxo-
phone), two horns, trombone, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals,
triangle, tambourine, reco-reco (a notched wooden cylinder),
chucalho (a rattle with gourd seeds), ganza (a metal tube
filled with gravel), matraca (a ratchet), celesta, piano and
strings.
Of the toccata, Goossens has written that it “is sufficiently
vivid to enable me to dispense with much verbal description.
The little train puffs and chugs along, and save for a solitary
emergency stop (with great squealing of brakes) towards the
middle of the journey, proceeds to its distant destination
which it reaches safely in a process of gradual deceleration
and much exhaust steam. A mighty and startling chord marks
the end.”
Ginastera: Estancia — Ballet Suite
Alberto Ginastera, one of Argentina’s most successful teachers
and composers, was born in Buenos Aires in 1916 and studied
there at the National Conservatory of Music, where he is now
professor of composition. He is also director of the Conserva-
tory of Music and Scenic Arts of the Province of Buenos Aires
at La Plata. He has written music in many forms, some of it
commissioned by North Americans, whom he met while work-
ing in the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946.
Estancia is a one-act ballet in five scenes. It was commis-
sioned in 1941 by Lincoln Kirstein for his American Ballet
Caravan, then touring South America, and was to have had
choreography by George Balanchine. But the troupe dis-
banded in 1942, and Estancia was not presented in ballet form
until August 19, 1952, when it was mounted at the Teatro
Colén in Buenos Aires, with choreography by Michel Borov-
ski and with Juan Emilio Martini conducting. Meanwhile,
however, Ginastera extracted a four-movement suite from the
ballet, which was premiered by the Teatro Colén Orchestra,
under Ferruccio Calusio, on May 12, 1943.
Estancia is the Argentine word for “ranch.” In his music
for this, his second ballet, Ginastera endeavored to reflect
all aspects of Argentine ranch life.
Briefly, the story of the ballet concerns a city boy who has
difficulty winning a ranch girl. She considers him a weakling,
unable to compete with the athletic gauchos (cowboys) on
the ranch. Ultimately, the city boy wins his suit by demon-
strating most effectively that he can beat the gauchos at their
own game.
The movements of the ballet suite, drawn from four of
the five scenes, are: 1. The Land Workers; 2. Wheat Dance;
3. The Cattlemen; 4. Final Dance, “Malambo.” The malambo
is a lively, exciting and often very long dance tournament
between two gauchos. As might be expected, this is the most
animated section of the suite.
Notes by PAUL AFFELDER
Ginastera: Panambi — Ballet Suite
Panambi brought Ginastera’s name to the attention of a world-
wide audience when the late Erich Kleiber conducted its
American premiere with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on
February 24, 1946.
Ginastera was just 20 when he composed the ballet,
Panambi, the story of which is based on a South American
Indian legend. Juan José Castro conducted the world pre-
miere of the five movement orchestral suite recorded here on
November 27, 1937 in Buenos Aires. The entire ballet was
presented at the Teatro Colén on July 12, 1940.
The five movements of the Panambi ballet suite vary in
style from modern impressionism to sophisticated primitiv-
ism — the titles being, 1. Moonlight on the Parana; 2. Invoca-
tion of the Powerful Spirits; 3. Lament of the Maidens; 4.
Rondo of the Maidens; 5. Dance of the Warriors. The primi-
tivistic element is most spectacularly evident in the second
movement which is scored for percussion and brass only, and
in the Dance of the Warriors which works up to a tremendous
Notes by DAVID HALL
final climax.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿