Villa-Lobos and Modernism : The Apotheosis of Cannibal Music

Villa-Lobos and Modernism: The Apotheosis of Cannibal Music provides a new assessment of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos in terms of his contributions to the Modernist Movement of the twentieth century. In this profound study, Ricardo Averbach elevates Cultural Cannibalism as a major manifestation of the Modernist aesthetics and Villa-Lobos as its top exponent in the music field. Villa-Lobos’s anthropophagic appetite for multiple opposing aesthetics enlightens through the juxtaposition of contradictory elements, leaving a legacy of unmatched originality, a glittering kaleidoscope of sounds that draw from the radical power of Josephine Baker to the outrageous extravagance of Carmen Miranda, from Dada to Einstein’s counterintuitive scientific findings, from folklorism to atonality. The constructed analyses use the works of Stravinsky as a familiar and popular touchstone for accessing Villa-Lobos as the leading exponent of an aesthetic movement that has been neglected due to a traditional Eurocentric view of Modernism. Averbach opens up new possibilities for the study of twentieth-century music, in general, while unveiling how much our present aesthetics owes to the Modernist ideas introduced by the Brazilian composer. Contents Acknowledgments Preface CHAPTER ONE. The Anthropophagic Aesthetic CHAPTER TWO. Villa-Lobos, The “Cannibal Who Wore Tails” CHAPTER THREE. The Sad Clowns of Carnival: Polichinelo and Petrushka CHAPTER FOUR. Taking Flight with Two Ballet Birds: Uirapuru and Firebird CHAPTER FIVE. Dissecting Uirapuru CHAPTER SIX. Breaking Treaties: Amazonas and Le Sacre du Printemps CHAPTER SEVEN. Diving into the Amazonas CHAPTER EIGHT. Toward a New Assessment of Villa-Lobos CHAPTER NINE. Villa-Lobos, The Surrealist APPENDIX ONE. The Anthropophagous Manifesto: An Annotated Translation APPENDIX TWO. Glossary of Musical Terminology Bibliography Index About the Author "Ricardo Averbach places Heitor Villa-Lobos as the top exponent of Cultural Cannibalism in music, an aesthetic movement that has been neglected due to traditional Eurocentric views of Modernism. Villa-Lobos and Modernism shows how much our present aesthetics owes to the Modernist ideas introduced by the Brazilian composer"-- Provided by publisher