COMPOSER

Heitor Villa-Lobos

1887 - 1959

Photo of Heitor Villa-Lobos

Icon of person Heitor Villa-Lobos

Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 – November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2,000 works by his death in 1959. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Heitor Villa-Lobos has received more than 726,487 page views. His biography is available in 50 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 48 in 2019). Heitor Villa-Lobos is the 119th most popular composer (up from 131st in 2019), the 31st most popular biography from Brazil (down from 29th in 2019) and the most popular Brazilian Composer.

Heitor Villa-Lobos is most famous for his compositions. He was a Brazilian composer, conductor, and pianist. He was also a pioneer of Brazilian nationalism in classical music.

Memorability Metrics

  • 730k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 67.48

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 50

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.28

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.91

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Heitor Villa-Lobos ranks 119 out of 1,451. Before him are Arthur Honegger, Gregorio Allegri, Francisco Tárrega, György Ligeti, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, and Fanny Mendelssohn. After him are Muzio Clementi, Krzysztof Penderecki, Josef Strauss, Emmerich Kálmán, Max Bruch, and Girolamo Frescobaldi.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1887, Heitor Villa-Lobos ranks 19. Before him are Jozef Tiso, Bernard Montgomery, Wilhelm Canaris, Juan Gris, Vidkun Quisling, and Chūichi Nagumo. After him are Saint-John Perse, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, James B. Sumner, Felix Yusupov, Georg Trakl, and Henry Moseley. Among people deceased in 1959, Heitor Villa-Lobos ranks 12. Before him are Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Willans Richardson, Raymond Chandler, Billie Holiday, Adolf Windaus, and Boris Vian. After him are Shirō Ishii, Camilo Cienfuegos, Bohuslav Martinů, George Grosz, Buddy Holly, and Alfred Schütz.

Others Born in 1887

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Others Deceased in 1959

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In Brazil

Among people born in Brazil, Heitor Villa-Lobos ranks 31 out of 2,236. Before him are Djalma Santos (1929), Emerson Fittipaldi (1946), Paulo Freire (1921), Romário (1966), Maria II of Portugal (1819), and Antônio Carlos Jobim (1927). After him are Roberto Carlos (1973), Nelson Piquet (1952), Nílton Santos (1925), Sebastião Salgado (1944), Rivaldo (1972), and Neymar (1992).

Others born in Brazil

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Among COMPOSERS In Brazil

Among composers born in Brazil, Heitor Villa-Lobos ranks 1. After him are Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836), Ary Barroso (1903), Egberto Gismonti (1947), Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847), Camargo Guarnieri (1907), Francisco Mignone (1897), Alberto Nepomuceno (1864), Cláudio Santoro (1919), and Alexandre Levy (1864).

Brazilian born Composers

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