The Bachianas Brasileiras (Portuguese pronunciation: [bakiˈɐ̃nɐz bɾaziˈlejɾɐs]) are a series of nine suites by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945. They represent not so much a fusion of Brazilian folk and popular music on the one hand, and the style of Johann Sebastian Bach on the other, as an attempt freely to adapt a number of Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures to Brazilian music (Béhague 1994, 106; Béhague 2001). Most of the movements in each suite have two titles: one "Bachian" (Preludio, Fuga, etc.), the other Brazilian (Embolada, O canto da nossa terra, etc.).
Date of composition | 1941 (from 1931 to 1941) |
Premiered | 1939, November 27th |
First published | 1941 |
Catalogue | W 264 |
Approx. duration | 24 minutes |
Instruments | Piano |
Autotranslations beta |
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras n°4, W 264 Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras n. 4, W 264 Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras Nr. 4, W 264 |