Guitar Concerto (Villa-Lobos)

The orchestra consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trombone, and strings.

The work is in four movements:

The first movement is built from two strongly contrasting motifs, the first one energetic and repetitive, the second lyrical, based on the style of certain folk tunes from the northeast of Brazil.^[3] A recapitulation of the initial material, transposed a minor third upward, is followed by a development section and stretto, diminishing and accelerating to the end of the movement.^[4]

The second movement is in ternary form with alterations to the returning opening part (ABA'), ending with an extended coda. Each of the main sections is cast in either rounded binary or ternary form. The key of the movement is E minor, with the central portion beginning also on E (but alternating between E minor, E Dorian, and E Phrygian) and modulating to B minor at the end. One of the modifications to the return of the A material is a modulation at the end to A minor. The coda makes a dramatic shift by beginning in the distant key of A♭ major but returns to E minor at the end.^[5]

The cadenza is in four unmetered sections with different tempo markings (Quasi allegro – Andante – Quasi allegro – Poco moderato) and is so substantial in length that it functions as a separate movement.^[6]

The last movement is musically weaker than the first three, being based "almost exclusively on certain techniques of music-making without and characteristic musico-structural substance".^[3] Toward the end of the movement various modulations emerge in the final episode, in ⁴
₄ meter, featuring technically brilliant passages for the soloist.^[4] Despite the solid presence of E minor in all of the preceding movements, the finale is in A minor. Combined with a rather inconclusive melodic closure, the ending effect is unconvincing.^[7]

• Engstrom, Gregory. 2000. "An Analysis of the Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos". Part II of Ph.D. diss. Kent State University.
• Tarasti, Eero. 1995. Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Life and Works, 1887–1959, translated from the Finnish by the author. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0-7864-0013-7.
• Villa-Lobos, Heitor. 1972. "Concerto para violão e orquestra". In Villa-Lobos, sua obra, second edition, 212. Rio de Janeiro: MEC/DAC/Museu Villa-Lobos.
• Villa-Lobos, sua obra. 2009. Version 1.0. MinC / IBRAM, and the Museu Villa-Lobos. Based on the third edition, 1989.

• Santos, Turíbio. 1985. Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Guitar, translated by Victoria Forde and Graham Wade. Gurtnacloona, Bantry, Co. Cork: Wise Owl Music. ISBN 9780947600020.