Name
1514 - Teresa(s): The folk song "Terezinha de Jesus"and its possibilities for spiritual musical learning
Date & Time
Monday, July 27, 2026, 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Description
This text presents an analysis and a didactic-musical proposal based on two arrangements by Heitor Villa-Lobos of the brazilian folk song “Terezinha de Jesus”, focusing on their applications in music education integrated with Christian spirituality. We describe how this song has been taught and performed in dozens of editions of the HausMusik Brazil Project, engaging a wide and diverse audience. The results fostered sonic, rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, bodily, and spiritual discovery, traversing the four dimensions proposed by Tillmann (2009)—material, somatic, expressive, and transcendental—revealing distinct dimensional nuances depending on the arrangement studied. In the Guia Prático, the composer revives the lyrics and music in a vocal arrangement. The song narrates the fall of Teresa and the arrival of three knights who come to her aid—her father, her brother, and the one she marries (Villa-Lobos, 1941). Aligned with the narrative of the song, and referring to a specific Teresa, Terezinha de Jesus, a woman consecrated to Jesus, I propose analogies between the lyrics and musical activities for collective singing, exploring aspects of a cultural collective spirituality while continually returning to the musical material of the song. From this arrangement, the contrafactum technique (Fallows, 2001; Leach, 2006) was applied to the creation of new lyrics and prosodies aimed at deepening knowledge of five Teresas in Christian hagiography: Teresa of Jesus (2003), Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1997), Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (2001), Teresa of Calcutta (1998), and Teresa of the Andes (1993). At work no. 3 of the Brinquedo de Roda cycle, Villa-Lobos revisits the theme with instrumentation for solo piano. The presence of three recurring constructive elements in this arrangement evokes the building of dialogical bridges toward the Trinitarian nature of Christianity. This Trinitarian nature, already introduced in the title of the piece—“Os Três Cavalheirozinhos”—is present in its tripartite formal design (ABA’) and in the compositional technique of thematic framing. In the central section (B), the Alberti Bass accompaniment in the left hand, with three successive pitch levels, consolidates the tonality of the folk melody. In sections A and A’, like a “pictorial frame,” an ostinato structured in a rhythmic movement of eight seemingly homogeneous semiquavers reveals, in its harmonic rhythm, three displaced tonal supports, resulting in a three-layered polyrhythm. These shifts in tonal supports configure the rhythm of baião, a national intangible musical heritage. This polyrhythm became a powerful raw material for rhythmic exploratory experiences, emphasizing the somatic dimension of musicking.This work reports and documents, through graphic and multimedia materials, the use of these arrangements as tools for music teaching, deepening the integration of musical practice with elements of Christian spirituality.
Location Name
210A - Poster Gallery
Session Type
Poster Presentation
Presenter(s)
Janice Possamai Fiedler
Poster Board
47