Villa-Lobos: um antimodernista na Semana de 22

Abstract

As regards music, the “modernist” Art Week of 1922 had eyes for only one Brazilian composer, Villa-Lobos. However, it did not provide access to his anti-modernist works. If we take into account the fact that nationalisms were inherent in the early modernisms of the 20th century, we can grasp the extent of the outreach and the role of the anti-modernists, who were able to refl ect critically on the present as they made a pact with the past. In reality, both modernists and anti-modernists shared the same stage where the striking events in early 20th century took place. Branding them with out-of-date titles such as “past dwellers” and “vanguardists” adds little to their works. We need, then, to rethink music in its aesthetic dimension so as to see that among Villa Lobos personas the anti-modernist one sounds as a strange novelty.