Heitor Villa-Lobos: O canto do cisne negro, W122 (1917/1948)

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00:00 - I. Song of the black swan: Adagio non troppo
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Cello: Steven Isserlis
Piano: Thomas Ades
Year of Recording: 1998
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"Heitor Villa-Lobos received his formal musical education in an aesthetically divided Rio de Janeiro. Leopoldo Miguez, when he took over the direction of the Instituto Nacional de Música in 1890, promoted a modern musical aesthetic in opposition to the conservatism of the Italian operatic tradition of bel canto . For Miguez, modern would be the music of Richard Wagner and the compositional principles of Camille Saint-Saëns. Alberto Nepomuceno, his successor, intensifies the aesthetic disputes even more by importing Debussy's revolutionary music.

Very little is known about Villa-Lobos' activities between 1905 and 1912, his formative period. It is proved, however, that, upon returning to Rio de Janeiro, coming from Manaus, Villa-Lobos started to work in concert societies, cinemas and cafes, and became involved with groups of chorões in the city. From 1915 onwards he devoted himself more often to composition. His first two symphonies, the symphonic poem The shipwreck of the Kleonics and the opera Izaht , align with the French post-Romantic trend. According to Villa-Lobos himself, the two symphonies were composed according to Vincent D'Indy's Musical Composition Course . The symphonic poem The Shipwreck of Kleonics, in turn, reveals a deep affinity with the music of Saint-Saëns. Its final passage, transcribed for cello and piano as The Song of the Black Swan , is an obvious allusion to the Swan of Saint-Saëns. Both works have the same structure: a cello solo accompanied by arpeggios.

There are few certainties about the text that inspired the symphonic poem. In the catalog of works by Villa-Lobos, it appears that a ballet was taken from the book Loulou Fantoche: Fantasias de Carnaval , by Léo Teixeira Leite Filho. It is known by the critic Medeiros e Albuquerque that Loulou Fantoche brings the “story of a cocaine-maniac girl who, tired of putting up with her lover’s jealousy, takes advantage of a Carnival night, goes out, and has an affair with another man”. In the scene that refers to the shipwreck of Kleónicos, the girl, like a pagan dancer, dances to the sound of an imaginary orchestra, thus experiencing the story of the shipwreck. Villa-Lobos' music perfectly accompanies the narrative, especially in the three moments in which he uses the melody of the black swan.

The Kleonic sailor insists on sailing the turbulent and stormy autumn seas between Kelessyria and Tassos. When a black swan crosses the sky and the waves churn, it heralds a fateful fate. Desperate, the sailors start calling in chorus for their women. At sunset the swan flies over the ship once more, which breaks in two, drowning the entire crew. Kleonics, at sea, clings to an oar. The swan then swoops down on the sailor, and in the fight the bird is injured. The sailor drowns while the bird stirs, writhes and sings “in the great longing of one who is going to sing, for the last time, the most beautiful of songs”. The sea echoes the bird's sobs and so does the dancer, who, in convulsions, faints like a dead bird." (Igor Reynor)
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