Heitor Villa-Lobos - Caixinha de música quebrada (audio + sheet music)

Villa-Lobos, who had been called by Brazilian President Getulio Vargas to conceive a musical plan for schools in Brazil, left behind a concert tour in Europe and went into an experimental tour designed by him to diffuse music throughout Brazil in an attempt of unifying the country through music. It was during one of these trips, travelling by train between small cities and villages of South east Brazil that Villa-Lobos wrote the miniature for piano entitled Caixinha de Mosica Quebrada. In English: “Broken Musical Box“, a very hybrid piece into his vast work, with its chromatic and dissonant harmonic elements that describe the imperfect mechanism of an imaginary old musical box and its nostalgic moods. Villa-Lobos dedicated the work to his friend, the pianist and composer Joao Souza Lima, who was part of the group that followed him throughout these rather adventurous journeys. Amazingly, he managed to compose the entire piece on a train bound for Sorocabana between two stations. (villalobos.i