Villa-Lobos, Heitor - Douze Etudes

AA2370

Douze Etudes (12 Studies) Critical Edition

by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Published for the first time by Éditions Max Eschig in 1953, with a preface by Andrés Segovia to whom the work was dedicated, the composing of the Douze Études by Heitor Villa-Lobos had actually commenced in Paris many years previously, probably in 1924, and finished in October 1928. When it appeared, the collection was immediately hailed as one of the masterpieces of its author and of guitar repertoire of the 20th century. Even though they are often performed separately, these Études were conceived as a unitary body of work, each Étude being closely linked to that preceding and that following, through tonal logic. The Douze Études display all of the wealth of polyhedric cultural suggestion of Villa-Lobos, that extends from the music of Bach to the romantic lyricism of Chopin, finally touching on the traditional music of Brazil, present either in its urban form or through its African and Amazonian influences in the last studies.

This critical edition by Frederic Zigante has grown out of a painstaking study of all of the manuscript sources, enabling a new and precise reconstruction of the events surrounding the genesis of this collection. Finally, the volume presents certain variants that can be found in the Appendix (including the 1928 edition of Etude no.10) and a detailed critical commentary.

Published by Max Eschig