Lacerda, Osvaldo (1927–)

Osvaldo Lacerda (b. 23 March 1927), Brazilian composer and teacher. Lacerda's formal music training started at age nine, when he began piano study in the city of São Paulo, where he was born. From 1945 to 1947 he studied harmony, and in 1952 he became a composition student of Camargo Guarnieri. In 1963 he became the first Brazilian to win a Simon Guggenheim grant for study in the United States. He studied with Vittorio Giannini in New York City, and with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. In 1965 he participated in the Inter-American Seminar of Composers at Indiana University and in the Third Inter-American Composers Seminar, held in Washington, D.C. In an era in which most Brazilian composers reject obvious national elements in their works, Osvaldo Lacerda remains an important spokesman for neonationalism with compositions such as nine Brasiliana suites for piano based on Brazilian themes and dances. He also excels in writing songs and choral works, such as Poema da necessidade, for four-part chorus, based on a poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marcos Antônio Marcondes, ed., Enciclopédia da música brasileira: Erudita, folclórica e popular (1977).

Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (1979).

David P. Appleby, The Music of Brazil (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Appleby, David. "Trends in Recent Brazilian Piano Music." Latin American Music Review (Spring 1981): 91-102.

Mariz, Vasco. Figuras da Música Brasileira Contemporanea. Brasília: Universidade de Brasília, 1970.

                                     David P. Appleby