Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 for piano solo (later also orchestrated), composed 1930-1941. The Bachianas Brasileiras series is Villa-Lobos's most celebrated concept: nine works that marry the structural and contrapuntal methods of J.S. Bach with the folk, popular, and Amerindian musical traditions of Brazil. No. 4 is the only one originally conceived for solo piano. Its four movements each carry a double title — one Bachian (Preludio, Coral, Aria, Danca), one Brazilian (Introducao, Canto do Sertao, Cantiga, Miudinho) — explicitly marking the fusion of traditions that is the series's defining principle.