Concerto Grosso for Woodwind Quartet and Wind Orchestra
Heitor Villa-Lobos (arr. Bruce Taub)
General Info
Year: 1959 / 1993
Duration: c. 18:45
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Edition Peters
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Rental
Movements
1. Allegro non troppo – 4:35
2. Allegretto scherzando – 4:15
3. Andante - molto allegro – 9:24
Instrumentation
Full Score
Solo Flute
Solo Clarinet
Solo Oboe
Solo Bassoon
C Piccolo
Flute I-II-III
Oboe I-II-III
English Horn
Bassoon I-II-III
Contrabassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III-IV
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet (optional)
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV-V-VI
Trombone I-II-III-IV-V-VI
Tuba
String Bass (optional)
Harp
Celeste
Timpani
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Heitor Villa-Lobos is the most significant Brazilian composer of the twentieth century. He was the first national composer to successfully fuse a contemporary European language with the native folk music styles of Brazil, creating a recognizable style that influenced many composers such as Darius Milhaud. Villa-Lobos’s early music education was provided by his father, who taught him to play the cello. Villa-Lobos was largely self-taught as a composer. Despite this potential limitation, he wrote with incredible facility and produced nearly 2,000 compositions. Many of his works have an almost improvisational feel.
Composed in Mexico, Concerto Grosso for Woodwind Quartet and Wind Orchestra is one of two original pieces Villa-Lobos wrote for wind band. The work was commissioned for Robert Boudreau and the American Wind Symphony, who specifically requested that the composer use the concerto grosso format with four soloists — flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Villa-Lobos was among the first composers Boudreau commissioned to write for the American Wind Symphony, and his collaboration with the composer came just in time. Shortly after the premiere of the Concerto Grosso in Pittsburgh, on July 5, 1959, the ailing Villa-Lobos returned to Rio de Janeiro and died only a few months later.
- Program Note from Kent Wind Ensemble concert program, 22 February 2018
Media
- Audio CD: U.S. Marine Band Michael J. Colburn, conductor - 2008
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Penn.) Wind Ensemble (George Vosburgh, conductor) - 13 November 2022
- United States Marine Band (Washington, D.C.) (Darren Y. Lin, conductor) - 20 February 2022
- Manhattan (N.Y.) Wind Ensemble (Sarah Quiroz, conductor; West Point Woodwind Quartet) – 15 March 2018
- Kent State University (Kent, Ohio) Wind Ensemble (Jesse Leyva, conductor) – 22 February 2018 (CBDNA 2018 North Central Conference, Kalamazoo, Mich.)
- Banda Filarmônica do Rio de Janeiro (Antonio Henrique Seixas, conductor) – 2011
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Aria from "Bachianas Brasilieras No 5" (1938/1945)
- Bachianas Brasileiras No 4 (arr. Patterson) (1965)
- Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 Suite (arr. Reed) (1965)
- Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 (arr. Krance) (1938-45/1971)
- Bachianas Brasileiras No. 7 (trans. Talley) (1942/2019)
- Brazil (1905)
- Choros No. 2
- Concerto Grosso for Woodwind Quartet and Wind Orchestra (1959/1993)
- El Trompo (1950)
- Fantasia Brasiliera (1926)
- Fantasy in Three Movements in a Form of a Chôros (1958)
- Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman (arr. Cailliet) (1930/1952)
- Nonetto
- Three Brazilian Folksongs (arr. Fenske) (2014)
- Uirapurú (arr. Hanna) (1948/2010)
Resources
- Villa-Lobos, H. (1993). Concerto Grosso For Woodwind Quartet and Wind Orchestra [score]. C.F. Peters: New York.