Bachianas Brasileiras

A series of nine works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1930-1945) that attempt to fuse the contrapuntal and structural language of J.S. Bach with the folk, popular, and Amerindian musical traditions of Brazil. Each work in the series carries a double title: one Bachian term (Prelude, Fugue, Aria, Tocata, Coral) and one Brazilian term (Embolada, Desafio, Modinha, Ponteio, Cantiga). No. 4 is the only work in the series originally conceived for solo piano. No. 5, for soprano and eight cellos, is the most famous. Villa-Lobos described the series as his attempt to see Bach as a 'universal source' rather than a specifically European heritage.

In the Bachianas, the Bachian elements (counterpoint, fugue, chorale texture) must be as carefully voiced as in Bach himself: they are not mere suggestion. The Brazilian elements — the flexible, improvised-feeling melody of the arias, the dance rhythms of the finales — should feel rooted and natural, not exotic. The double titles invite the performer to hold both traditions simultaneously.