“Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Choro” by Joshua Raucci
Heitor Villa-Lobos was an influential guitarist and composer for Brazilian music, as well as music in general, during the 20 th
century. He started playing music at the age of six, when he learned to play the cello. Instead of using an actual cello though, Villa-
Lobos played on a viola that his father had adapted for him. After only a year, Villa-
Lobos began improvising melodies from nursery rhymes that he had learned to play. He developed an interest in the poplar music of the time – namely the music of the chorões.
“Choro” at the time indicated a typical way of playing polka and waltz type pieces. It was also the name for the group that played the pieces, which consisted of flute, guitar, and cavaquinhos. Eventually, “choro” grew to be applied to the style of music itself.
Villa-Lobos began learning the guitar and soon became a proficient player, paving the way for his rapid acceptance into choro groups that recognized his talent. At 14 he was participating in choro groups and jam sessions and at 16 he began practicing and gigging with a group.
1
“Choro” most likely came from the term “choromeleiros,” used during the colonial period, which was the name for instrumental musical groups. Choromeleiro can be derived from the Greek word “choros melo,” translated as “sweet music.” Yet the choro as used in Brazil has a somewhat ambiguous meaning. Villa-Lobos is quoted as saying,
“You can ask of Chopin if he can explain what is, for example, a polonaise, what is a ballade. Is there a standard form for a Chopin ballade? No....Chopin formed in his fashion a music of [stylish flavorful] sounds, a music of his understanding....Something he thought of in a different way....What is a Choro?
The Choro is popular music. The Choro of Brazil, as you could perhaps say about the samba or something else, but truly the Choro, is always of the musicians that play it....” 2
Villa-Lobos began establishing himself through his orchestral and chamber compositions in the 1910s. In the 1920s, he wrote 14 works which are generally considered as one of his peaks compositionally. Villa-Lobos titled these compositions as
Choros , not as genuine choro but as a sort of glimpse into Brazilian life and the choro.
The style of improvisation so inherent in choro style is formally written in these pieces but still felt as improvisation. Villa-Lobos attributed the “spiritual sources” of his choros to the history, speech, customs, and background of the Brazilian people, although always stating his artistic creed as “ la liberté absolue .” 3
Villa-Lobos is well-known throughout the classical guitar community for his Suite
Popular Brasileira , which was written between 1908 and 1912 (with the exception of the last piece, Chorinho ). The Suite consists of Mazurka-choro, Schottisch-choro, Valsachoro, Gavota-choro, and Chorinho.
As evidenced by the titles, Villa-Lobos’ style of choro is here translated through solo guitar works, in lieu of the usual ensemble. The choro element can be heard throughout these pieces in a modified way: the first being mostly European, the second slightly more Brazilian, and the third sounding the most
Brazilian.
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In these works, Villa-Lobos combined a Brazilian popular idiom with the

tradition of Western erudite music. The pieces were primarily conceived during his
European journeys, which accounts for their European similarities. English musicologist
Simon Wright said of Villa-Lobos, “No European musical form could contain his vision...and so, in the choros a new mould was born, in which the improvisations and instrumental groupings of the choroes were merely a basis....”
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The choro tradition is well-preserved and even still flourishes in large part outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although intended originally for ensembles, the choro is preserved largely as a solo guitar form, especially through the pieces of Villa-Lobos.
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It is thanks to the compositions of Villa-Lobos that the choro style is kept alive, so younger generations of players can continue a worldwide appreciation for Brazilian music.
1 Meirinhos, Eduardo. “Primary Sources and Editions of Suite Popular Brasileira, Choros No. 1, and Five
Preludes, by Heitor Villa-Lobos: A Comparative Survey of Differences.” Diss. Florida State University,
2002. 21 Apr. 2008 http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-06262003-
170157/unrestricted/02EMtreatise.pdf
2 Garcia, Thomas. “The Choro, the Guitar and Villa-Lobos.” Luso-Brazilian Review Summer, Vol. 34 Issue
1, p. 57. 1997. 21 Apr. 2008 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=7&sid=40956e98-5f32-
439e-8d57-bdfc1bdafc44%40SRCSM1#bib6
3 Wright, Simon. “Villa-Lobos: Modernism in the Tropics.” The Musical Times , Vol. 128, No. 1729 pp.132-135. Mar 1987. 21 Apr. 2008 http://www.jstor.org/stable/view/964493