VILLA-LOBOS, Heitor – All Classical Research

Born in Rio de Janeiro, March 5, 1887
Died in Rio de Janeiro, Nov 17, 1959¹

Villa-Lobos had a highly successful international career as a composer and was incredibly prolific in his 6+ decades of writing music.
He received his initial musical training from his father, who was adamant about exposing Villa-Lobos to a wide variety of classical music during his upbringing; however, it was Brazil’s popular idioms that intrigued Villa-Lobos the most during his youth. These idioms would heavily influence the formation of Villa-Lobos’s compositional voice going forward.
As a composer, Villa-Lobos was essentially self-taught and endlessly curious about the everchanging musical landscape at the turn of the century and beyond. Consequently, his music embodies a wide variety of experiments in style and language.²