Villa-Lobos as Pedagogue: Music in the Service of the State

Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil's most famous composer, was also an ardent nationalist. On returning to his own country from Europe in 1930, he designed and organized a nationwide program of music education with a strong emphasis on Brazilian identity and solidarity. Its distinguishing element was the use of canto orfeônico, a technique of mass a capella singing in which the pitches are indicated by the conductor's hands. Despite the prevailing partiality to soccer, Villa-Lobos managed to stage several massive exhibitions and rallies stressing this style of singing, which in 1946 was made obligatory in all Brazilian schools. As head of the Superintendência de Educação Musical e Artística, Villa-Lobos supervised the education of a whole generation of Brazilian music teachers, stressing music as a shaper of national character. The survival of canto orfeônico through the many vicissitudes of Brazilian politics attests to the soundness of Villa-Lobos' original conception.