The Suite Popular Brasileiro was very telling of Billa-Lobos unique historical background and influences. This music clings closely to the devices Villa-Lobos learned at conservatory and mixes well with his unique compositional language. The influence of the French salon music is evident I this music as well as his Brazilian background. These two musical resources are deeply rooted together in said piece . The historical development that brought about the influence of the French to Brazil is important to note when analyzing the unique musical style that was indigenous to Brazil.
In the middle of the Napoleonic war, the Portuguese fled Lisbon and settled in Rio in 1808. Due to the influx of people, Villa-Lobos soon to be home of Rio effectively became the Portuguese capital. In an attempt to modernize the area in which he reigned, Emperor Don Pedro allocated the intellectual elite to take residence in Brazil to help bring Brazil up to the international standard for intellectualism. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1816 Dom Pedro II just so happened to allocate many of the French intellectual …show more content…
Cello III comes in on the down beat of the first measure and plays a descending line. This creates a unique harmonic space and begins the flavor of Baroque meets Brazilian street music right off the bat. The Soprano then enters some time later after some harmonic development is made on an open AH vowel. She sustains on a middle C and is joined on by the 1st cello. Burkholder states that the long lyrical lines are meant to sound very improvised and truly reflect Brazilian folk music. The vocal lines beginnings sound to me to be very Baroque in nature and then make a nod toward Brazilian improvisation paired perfectly with Baroque embellishments at the tail end of phrases when the vocal line descends in