According to Gilbert Chase (the musicologist who has written on Spanish music and the music of the Americas), this monograph is the first complete study of the life and work of Heitor Villa-Lobos to appear in English. However, when one considers the enigmatic career of this composer-musician-conductor-educator whose works are said to number over 1,500 and whose public career lasted approximately 50 years and took him to several continents, one wonders how complete this 62 page treatise actually is.
Dr. Vasco Mariz, the author, having been a personal friend of Villa-Lobos, is in a favored position, and certain phases of Villa-Lobos’ life, such as his associations with other notable musicians while in Paris and the character study of Villa-Lobos in Chapter IV, depend on Mariz’s direct testimony. These and other details related firsthand by the author raise this monograph to the rank of an original source document in Latin American musicology.
The first three chapters are a biographical sketch succinctly covering the well-established facts of Villa-Lobos’ life. Chapter IV is a character study based in part upon author Mariz’s personal experience. The remaining chapters treat the works of the composer. There is a short bibliography listing five of the principal biographical works about Villa-Lobos which are in the Portuguese language. Incidentally, this monograph is a condensed version of a previously published work in Portuguese.
This monograph is valuable because most, if not all, of the truly pertinent data concerning Villa-Lobos is given in a most economical manner.
When and if the definitive biography of Villa-Lobos is written, perhaps it will have to be largely a compendium of existing published and unpublished works in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. What irony if it should be written in English by an American musicologist! There is, however, a good possibility that this may occur because of the increase in interest in Latin America on the part of American scholars.
