A Sertaneja de Brazílio Itiberê: uma análise formal e interpretativa

Abstract

This work provides historical, analytical and performance aspects about A Sertaneja (The Countryside Lady), a piano work written by the Brazilian composer Brazilio ItiberE in 1869. This is one of the first works that marked the beginning of music nationalism in Brazil. At the end of the nineteenth-century, when it was written, virtuosity and the search for national music expressions were common traits. Although the composition of A Sertaneja coincides with a more religious and less virtuositycentered Franz Liszt, this Hungarian composer was a fundamental figure in the amateur musical career of the diplomat Brazilio ItiberE, who became his personal friend. Still reminiscent of the pianist-composers style who aimed at innovations in the sound conception of their instrument, A Sertaneja exhibits passages that are similar to passages in the piano works by Liszt and, to a lesser extent, to the lyricism of Frederic Chopin. On the other hand, the central thematic material of the work's archlike (ABA) form was derived from Balaio Meu Bern Balaio, a theme of a typical folklore dance in the composer's hometown Paranagua, in the State of Parana, Brazil.