Symphony No. 3 is a composition by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1919. A performance lasts about 35 minutes.
History
In 1919, Villa-Lobos was commissioned to write a symphony to celebrate the Treaty of Versailles. In response, he composed his Third Symphony in Rio de Janeiro, beginning work in early May and finishing the score less than six weeks later, on 12 June 1919. The work is subtitled A Guerra and the manuscript also designates it the "1a Sinfonia Simbólica". It is the first of a trilogy of programmatic symphonies based on arguments by, the others being subtitled A Vitória and A Paz, as well as being the third in a cycle of five symphonies written in the style of Vincent d'Indy. The first two movements were presented on 31 July 1919 in the Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, by the Orchestra do Theatro Municipal conducted by the composer, as part of a concert dedicated to the President of Brazil, Epitácio Pessoa. The complete symphony was first performed in the same venue and by the same forces in September 1920, in a concert given in honour of Albert I and Elisabeth of Bavaria, the King and Queen of Belgium. However, it appears that at this time the symphony had only three movements. The slow movement, Lento e marcial, "certainly did not exist before 1946", and was probably added shortly before the work was publishedin 1955.
Instrumentation
There are two manuscript scores of the symphony, one lacking the third movement and with a somewhat larger instrumentation than the later manuscript version. It is scored for an orchestra consisting of: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, 4 timpani, tam-tam, cymbals, matracas, 2 bass drums, 2 side drums,, celesta, 2 harps, piano, and strings, a small brass band consisting of piccolo bugle in E, 2 bugles in B, 4 cornets, 4 trombones, 2 alto saxhorns, 2 bass saxhorns, 2 contrabass saxhorns in B, and 2 contrabass saxhorns in E, and, in the last movement, an optional mixed chorus. The earlier, three-movement version also specified the numbers of stringed instruments: 26 first violins, 24 second violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, and twelve double basses, bringing the total number of orchestral players to 164, surpassing the gigantic orchestras called for by Richard Strauss in Elektra and Salome.
Analysis
The symphony in its final form has four movements:
Allegro quasi giusto: "A vida e o labor"
Como um scherzo: "Intrigas e cochichos"
Lento e marcial: "Sofrimento"
Allegro impetuoso: "A batalha"
Unlike Villa-Lobos's two preceding symphonies and the following one, the Third Symphony does not use cyclic techniques internally, though there is a neighbour-note motive found in all four movements. More unusually, several themes from this symphony recur in the Fourth Symphony, creating cyclic relationships between these two independent works. Although Villa-Lobos took great care in the construction of the first movement, its form is by no means clear cut. If it is viewed as a traditional sonata-allegro, then there is very little development in the middle section. In the recapitulation, Villa-Lobos seeks to create contrasting colouration from the way the thematic material was originally presented in the exposition. For example, in the opening bars, the first theme is given to the woodwinds, and the strings accompany with a semiquaver figure; in the recapitulation, the second violins and violas have the theme, accompanied by the semiquaver figure in clarinet and bassoon. The movement can also be seen as a sort of modified rondo form, in which the D section is essentially episodic. However, the two occurrences of the refrain are in the dominant and supertonic keys of G and D, and the overall tonic key, C, is reached only in the concluding coda. The main theme of the second movement was inspired by the scherzo of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony.
