String Quartet No. 6

String Quartet No. 6 ("Brazilian") is one of seventeen works in the genre by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was written in 1938, in between his early and late periods. Villa-Lobos considered naming it "Quartet Popular No. 2" as opposed to "Brazilian," and while the work is indeed one of his more nationalist pieces, it also bears direct connections to the Viennese tradition of string quartet composition. A performance lasts approximately 24 minutes. History Villa-Lobos composed his Sixth Quartet in 1938 in Rio de Janeiro, and it was first performed in the same city by the Quarteto Haydn on 30 November 1943, on the same programme as the premiere of the Seventh Quartet. The published score bears no dedication, but the manuscript is dedicated to the violist Orlando Frederico, who many years earlier had participated in the premieres of both the Second and Third Quartets. The composition of this quartet came relatively soon after time spent living in Paris (1923-1930). It is with this quartet that the references to the quartets of Haydn, which continue throughout the composer's later quartets, become clear for the first time. While in Paris, Villa-Lobos was immersed in the Parisian and broader European musical traditions of the day. However, while there are Haydnesque and also Beethovenian influences that appear in this quartet, it is an oversimplification to conclude that his time living in Paris and closer connection with the music of these composers brought changes to his compositional style. Villa-Lobos himself remained adamant that his works were entirely his own; he believed firmly in the superiority of his work and took pride in his independence from the European tradition. Indeed, the Sixth Quartet is regarded as the most nationalistic of all Villa-Lobos's string quartets. This work - along with the Fifth Quartet - is marked by a deliberate move toward a more "popular" style, incorporating elements of Brazilian popular music. Villa-Lobos originally planned to designate this work as the second "popular quartet" (the Fifth Quartet is subtitled "Quarteto popular no. 1"), but in the end abandoned the idea of such a series. Analysis This composition, like all of Villa-Lobos's quartets except the first, consists of four movements: Poco animato Allegretto Andante, quasi adagio Allegro vivace