Villa Lobos:"Rudepoema "

You will not believe the ending of this composition!!!



Villa-Lobos composed Rudepoema (Savagepoem) in 1921-26, dedicating it to Arthur Rubinstein, who performed the piece often. (The composer made an orchestral version in 1932 and subsequently conducted it with orchestras in Europe, Brazil, and the United States.) Imaginatively organized, broad in scope, rhythmically and harmonically original, Rudepoema is a major contribution to the piano literature of the twentieth century.

Rubinstein's role in the conception of Rudepoema is suggested by the dedication Villa-Lobos wrote:

"My sincere friend, I do not know if I have been able to put all of your spirit into the Rudepoema, but I am honestly able to say that, as far as I can tell, I have caught your true temperament on paper as I might have done with an intimate snapshot. Hence, if I have succeeded, it will be you in fact who will have been the real composer of this work."

According to the Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone (1897-1986), Villa-Lobos used to call Rubinstein "Rubi". When the pianist objected, Villa-Lobos changed the name to "Rudi". If so, then perhaps the title of this piece means "Rubinstein's Poem." Villa-Lobos himself referred only to the savage character of the piece: "rude, brutal and barbaric, although full of the music of free sounds, like the exuberance of storms in the virgin forests of Brazil."

As a young composer and cellist, Villa-Lobos studied the music of Strauss, Wagner, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky and other European composers. On returning to Brazil from Paris in 1924, however, he immersed himself in the Amerindian music of that country. Rudepoema reflects his determination to incorporate the folklore of his own country into concert music: the vague, asymmetrical, mesmerizing melodic cells of Ameridian song; exciting African polythythms and metric displacements; and such urban Brazilian dances as tango, maxixe, samba, lundu and esquinado.

Rudepoema is a long quasi-sonata form movement containing a double exposition, episodes with melodic development, recapitulation, a slow section and a coda. The bass motive which begins the piece appears throughout in various disguises. A bridge passage ending with three very long notes, introduces the striking, hypnotic slow section, suggestive of the jungle. The work ends with a vibrant virtuoso coda, which begins with a variant of the main bass theme and ends with crossed hands descending the entire length of the keyboard and closing with four fist strokes