Camargo Guarnieri

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 – January 13, 1993) was a Brazilian composer.

Camargo Guarnieri

Name

Guarnieri was born in Tietê, São Paulo, and registered at birth as Mozart Guarnieri, but when he began a musical career, he decided his first name was too pretentious and subject to puns. Thus he adopted his mother's maiden name Camargo as a middle name, and thenceforth signed himself M. Camargo Guarnieri. In 1948, he legally changed his name to Mozart Camargo Guarnieri, but continued to sign only the initial of his first name. One of his brothers was named Rossine (a Portuguese misspelling of Rossini) Guarnieri, another one Verdi Guarnieri.

Life

He studied piano with Ernani Braga and Antonio de Sá Pereira and composition with Lamberto Baldi at the Conservatório Dramático e Musical de São Paulo. In 1938, a fellowship from the Council of Artistic Orientation allowed him to travel to Paris, where he studied composition and aesthetics with Charles Koechlin and conducting with François Ruhlmann (Béhague 2001). Some of his compositions received important prizes in the United States in the 1940s, giving Guarnieri the opportunity of conducting them in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. A distinguished figure of the Brazilian national school, he served in several capacities; conductor of the São Paulo Orchestra, member of the Academia Brasileira de Música, and Director of the São Paulo Conservatório, where he taught composition and orchestral conducting. In 1936 he was the first conductor of the Coral Paulistano choir. His œuvre comprises symphonies, concertos, cantatas, two operas, chamber music, many piano pieces, and over fifty songs. Some consider him to be the most important Brazilian composer after Heitor Villa-Lobos. Shortly before his death in São Paulo in 1993, he was awarded the Gabriela Mistral Prize by the Organization of American States as the greatest contemporary composer of the Americas.

Works

Operas

Orchestral
  • Symphonies
    • Symphony No. 1 (1944)
    • Symphony No. 2 "Uirapuru" (1945)
    • Symphony No. 3 (1952)
    • Symphony No. 4 "Brasília" (1963)
    • Symphony No. 5 (1977)
    • Symphony No. 6 (1981)
  • Overtures
    • Abertura Concertante (1942)
    • Abertura Festiva (1971)
  • Suites
    • Suite infantil (1929)
    • Tres Dansas para Orquestra (1941). The first dance is "Dansa Brasileira" (originally composed for piano in 1928), which is his best-known and most-recorded piece outside South America.
    • Suite IV Centenario (1954)
    • Suite Vila Rica (1957), taken from the music for the film "Rebelião em Vila Rica"
  • Homenagem a Villa-Lobos (1966) for Winds, Piano and Percussion
  • Concerto for Orchestra and Percussion (1972)

Concertante
  • Piano
    • Piano Concerto No. 1 (1931)
    • Piano Concerto No. 2 (1946)
    • Chôro for piano and orchestra (1956)
    • Piano Concerto No. 3 (1964)
    • Seresta for Piano and Orchestra (1965)
    • Piano Concerto No. 4 (1968)
    • Piano Concerto No. 5 (1970)
    • Piano Concerto No. 6 (1987)
    • Variations (Variações sobre um tema nordestino) for Piano and Orchestra (1953)
  • Violin
    • Violin Concerto No. 1 (1940)
    • Chôro for violin and orchestra (1951)
    • Violin Concerto No. 2 (1952)
  • Viola
    • Chôro for viola and orchestra (1975)
  • Cello
    • Chôro for cello and orchestra (1961)
  • Flute
    • Chôro for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1972)
  • Bassoon
    • Chôro for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra (1991)

Chamber/instrumental
  • String quartets
    • String Quartet No. 1 (1932)
    • String Quartet No. 2 (1944)
    • String Quartet No. 3 (1962)
  • Cello sonatas
    • Cello Sonata No. 1 (1931)
    • Cello Sonata No. 2 (1955)
    • Cello Sonata No. 3 (1977)
  • Piano works (Anon. n.d.a)
    • Dança brasileira (1928)
    • Dança selvagem (1931)
    • Dança negra (1946)
    • Ponteios, Book 1 (1931–1935)
    • Ponteios, Book 2 (1947–1949)
    • Ponteios, Book 3 (1954–1955)
    • Ponteios, Book 4 (1956–1957)
    • Ponteios, Book 5 (1958–1959)
    • Suite Mirim (1953)
  • Violin sonatas (Anon. n.d.b)
    • Violin Sonata No. 1 (? apparently lost in a taxi)
    • Violin Sonata No. 2 (1933)
    • Violin Sonata No. 3 (1950)
    • Violin Sonata No. 4 (1956)
    • Violin Sonata No. 5 (1959)
    • Violin Sonata No. 6 (1965)
    • Violin Sonata No. 7 (1977–1978)
  • Canção Sertaneja for Violin and Piano (1955)
  • Viola Sonata (1950)
  • Sonatina for Flute and Piano (1947)
  • Flor de Tremembe, for Fifteen Instruments and Percussion (1960)

Piano
  • Dança Brasileira (1928)
  • Dança Selvagem (1931)
  • Ponteios, Book I (1931-35)
  • Dança Negra (1946)
  • Ponteios, Book II (1947-49)
  • Estudo No. 1 (1949)
  • Estudo No. 2 (1949)
  • Estudo No. 3 (1949)
  • Estudo No. 4 (1954)
  • Estudo No. 5 (1950)
  • Suite Mirim (1953)
  • Ponteios, Book III (1954-55)
  • Ponteios, Book IV (1956-57)
  • Ponteios, Book V (1958-59)
  • Sonatina No. 4 for Piano (1958)
  • Estudo No. 6 (1962)
  • Estudo No. 7 (1962)
  • Estudo No. 8 (1962)
  • Estudo No. 9 (1962)
  • Estudo No. 10 (1962)
  • Estudo No. 11 (1968)
  • Estudo No. 12 (1968)
  • Estudo No. 13 (1969)
  • Estudo No. 14 (1969)
  • Estudo No. 15 (1970)
  • Piano Sonata (1972)
  • Estudo No. 16 (1984)
  • Estudo No. 17 (1985)
  • Estudo No. 18 (1981)
  • Estudo No. 19 (1988)
  • Estudo No. 20 (1982)

Vocal
  • Cinco Poemas de Alice (1954) for Soprano and Piano

See also

References

Further reading
  • Silva, Flávio. Camargo Guarnieri: o tempo e a música. Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Cultura, FUNARTE; São Paulo, SP: Imprensa Official SP, 2001 ISBN 85-7507-009-6.
  • Verhaalen, Marion. Camargo Guarnieri, Brazilian Composer: A Study of his Creative Life and Works, with a preface by José Maria Neves. With CD recording. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-253-34475-1.
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