A master among us

Mr. Nilson Lombardi has placed Sorocaba, his home city, in the world-map of erudite music. His compositions started to spread from the 60s on and it has been interpreted in recitals and recorded in long playing by Eudóxia de Barros, Attílio Mastrogiovanni, Orlando Retroz, Beatriz Balzi and Fábio Luz. His name appears in the Brazilian Music History, by Vasco Mariz (Nova Fronteira Publisher, pages 382-383) and as an article in the Brazilian Music Encyclopedia (Art Publisher/Publifolha, page 454).
More recently, he has been granted an APCA prize of Erudite Music – fair homage to an artist that even being little spread to the public and lacking of a promotional scheme, has attracted to his compositions the admiration of successive generations of interpreters and contemporaneous erudite music appraisers from Brazil and other countries.
Lombardi belongs to a team of compositor lapidated by Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (1907-1993), on of the most important Brazilian music figures of all times. Member of the Camargo Guarnieri School established in São Paulo in the fifties, the composer from Sorocaba figures in the contemporaneous music scene beside Osvaldo Lacerda, Marlos Nobre, Kilza Setti, Sérgio de Vasconcellos-Corrêa and Brenno Blauth and others.
Lambardi defines himself as a continuer of Guarnieri’s work and places in 1954 the initial moment of his career as a compositor, when he started to study with the negro Dance author. About Guarnieri, Vasco Mariz affirms:

 

Camargo Guarnieri’s work catalog, published in 1979 by the University of São Paulo Communication and Art School, is the main prove of the master’s operosity. (…) It is the largest collection of music creation that Brazil has produced, following Villa-Lobos, not far behind either in number nor quality.

 

Beyond the refined techniques of music construction, Lombardi has inherited the nationalist inspiration from his master — even though Lombardianan music also displayed itself sensitive to the cosmopolitan esthetic which swept the globe in the second half of the twentieth’s century, through bossa-nova, big hands and jazz.
To comprehend the thematic and creative universe of Mr. Nilson Lombardi, it is necessary to go back in time, to his home town, on January 3rd of 1926. Located one hundred kilometers (60 miles) from the State Capital São Paulo, Sorocaba was physically and culturally in the half way between the metropolis and the remote interior of Brazil. An economical and political center of a region dominated by rural habits, the city sought the urban vocation since the beginning of the earlier century, materialized in its textile factories, schools, newspapers, working village and railroad. Even though immersed in tradition from the interior of Brazil, it cultivated since then, a sophisticated social life to the provincial patterns, in which there was not a lack of theaters, clubs, movie theaters and starting in 1933 the first radio broadcasters. The influence from the State Capital and the strong presence of immigrants, among which was the Lombardi family, would be sufficient to assure the plurality and the constant agitation from Sorocaba’s cultural environment.

Lombardi’s family lived a few blocks from the catholic cathedral, in which the front plaza used to happen religious and popular art manifestations. The composer recalls that when a child he used to enjoy watching the public band concerts and walking along the procession, attracted by the vibrant tones of the songs. In a family of amateur musicians (the closer one was his father, tailor José, who player acoustic guitar), Lombardi was in contact since early years with many instruments and popular rhythms, before his piano initiation and erudite music (he composed a waltz with his ukelele or cavaquinho (a chordophone classified as a plucked lute) at the age of twelve). While to many composers of the twentieth Century the search for Brazilianity was imposed as an option and in some cases, almost an esthetic and ideological obligation, to the Sorocabano (native from Sorocaba) was a naturally uncovered way, from a happy and country type childhood. Later on this would be traversed by a multicolored range of influences, with no harm to the inherent nationalism. Accordingly to Luis Trench, effective member of São Paulo’s Art Criticizers Association:

 

...a Brazilian equivalent to Schumann, he [Nilson Lombardi] does not deny his origins, on the contrary, he writes [music] with refinement and spontaneity, without the necessity of exoticism exhibition.

 

Estela and José, Mr. Lombardi’s parents. José was a violinist other than a taylor Orphan of mother when three years old, Mr. Lombardi was raised by his father and grandmother, Mrs. Ana

 

The piano’s learning process started late. Orphan of mother (Mrs. Estela passed away when he was three years old), the boy was raised by his father and grandmother, Mrs. Ana — two generous personalities which dominated the compositor’s childhood, assuring him calm days, although not wealthy. In modest families, the tradition required that the teenagers contributed with the house expenses, that way, when he turned fifteen Mr. Lombardi got a job as a telegraphist of Sorocaba’s Railroad, even without being directly requested. He was able to start his piano lessons only by the age of nineteen when he was hired in a second job, and still had to wait other three years to gather enough money to buy his own instrument. Until then, he practiced in a commercial store piano that Freitas Junior, relative and friend, kindly lent to him.

 

Mr. Lombardi and friend from his youth in the 40’s Picture from his graduation at São Paulo’s Music Institute (1954)

 

At first, Mr. Lombardi studied with the Belgium father José Zanolla and after he passed away, Mr. Lombardi started to have classes with professor Maria de Oliveira Cordeiro (Mrs. Nenê), principal of Chiafarelli School. His father, seeing his efforts to study music and maintain his job decided to excuse him from work, advising him to keep his studies in São Paulo. Free of other concerns, Mr. Lombardi went to the Capital of the State, where he started to study piano at the Musical Institute, and orpheonic singing and musical education at the Paulista Conservatory of Orpheonic Singing.
On January 1954, Mr. Lombardi and his master from Sorocaba presented the three movements of Schumann’s lowered La Concert for Piano and Orchestra, op. 54, at Sorocaba’s Chiafarelli’s Auditory stage. That was a remarkable year to Mr. Lombardi’s biography; he was achieving his maturity as an instrumentalist, without, however, thinking about composition. During the same period of time, the Sorocaba citizen concluded his studies at the Musical Institute and at Paulista’s Conservatory, habilitating himself to work as a professor. Finally, crowding a prodigious year, he became Mr. Camargo Guarnieri’s student. The meeting with the internationally acclaimed musician was decisive to his life. Lombardi recalls:

 

Mr. Guarnieri occupied a primacy position in the musical scenery, since he used the Brazilian music tradition norms, but always with his own themes, without falling back to folkloric themes. I have once read in the newspaper that he used offered six month long composition course scholarships at São Paulo’s Dramatic and Musical Conservatory. I decided to apply to it and ended-up being approved. After this period, other students and I proposed that he kept giving us private classes. Mr. Guarnieri accepted and I ended-up being under his orientation during fifteen years.

 

Mr. Lombardi receiving the diploma of Orpheonic Singing and Piano from Mr. Guarnieri in 1954

 

As Guarnieri’s student, Mr. Lombardi started living with São Paulo’s main musicians. The learning process went through the profound knowledge of great music pieces of all times. By need and pleasure, Mr. Lombardi along with others Guarnieri’s disciples have become habitués of São Paulo’s Municipal Theater and all other places where there was a cultural activity taking place. In the field of composition, the disciples filled the sits beside the master, giving credit to the identity of the Brazilian music. During the Conservatory period, Mr. Lombardi was introduced by Mr. Guarnieri to the pianist Eudóxia de Barros, which became his friend and first interpreter. From the sixties on Mrs. De Barros became the main discloser of all the compositors form that school and always insisted on including Mr. Lombardi’s pieces in her repertory (in 1966, the concert player has done a presentation in Washington, United States, entitled Ponteio no 3, leading Washington Post to compliment the “attracting rhythms” which emerge from a constant sonorous movement). Regarding the art from Sorocaba citizen, Mrs. De Barros has affirmed in an electronic message from 2002:

 

Since he [Lombardi] is a pianist, his songs are always very pianistic, beyond very melodious and Brazilian like. The melody is contagious, in short, he has great talent, especially to the miniatures and I always feel very comfortable playing his compositions.

 

Mr. Lombardi directing Sorocaba’s Youth Symphony Orchestra (fifties decade).

 

The lombardian piece started to stand out in the Brazilian musical scenery in the sixties, period which the author has won he Piano Musical Composition Contest with the Miniature Cycle (Ciclo Miniatura), composed of Melody, choro music, Lullaby, Waltz and the Northeast Brazilian rhythmic formula known as Baião. The repercussion of the Cycle led Mr. Lombardi to become invariably known as a miniaturist. After the miniature cycle, he has composed the Six Miniatures (Seis Miniaturas) series. The work was transcribed to an orchestra by the French musician Monsieur Michel Phillipot, having integrated many seasons of the State of São Paulo’s Symphonic Orchestra. Although he has work pieces that last longer, the author does not hide his preference for faster pieces of about a minute. Regarding this work characteristic he uses to evoke the thoughts of the critic Mr. Caldeira Filho, which explains:

 

(…) miniature is not simply diminutive, tiny and delicate. It is the object as a whole, with all its details, with all its realities, but in a minimal dimension point. It is like seeing through reversed opera glasses: it is all reduced in size, but nothing is lost in accuracy or realism.

 

Victory celebration of the Miniature Cycle from the Composition Contest, 1960.

 

On the year of 1963 Mr. Lombardi did win first place in the Composition Contest promoted by São Paulo’s Folklore Commission, presenting three folkloric songs. In the same year his Melody for cords was performed by the São Paulo’s Municipal Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Camargo Guarnieri. In the seventies, other interpreters found out the lombardian inspiration, among them, the pianist Mr. Attílio Mastrogiovanni (which dedicated an entire vinyl LP to his music), the organist Mr. Orlando Retroz and the violinist Mr. Pedro Cameron. In a meeting promoted by the master, Mrs. Nenê, Lombardi was presented to a young pianist which would become a good friend and maybe an enthusiastic. Nowadays an international concert artist, residing in Italy, Mr. Fábio Luz has made Mr. Lombardi an almost mandatory presence in his recordings and concerts. In an e-mail from June of 2002, Mr. Luz declared:

 

I have learned to recognize the profound truth – the sincere soul – behind each musical note written by him. By fact the main musical critic and well missed Dr. José da Veiga Oliveira has written that “Nílson Lombardi is always sincere in each musical note thrown at the pentagram” and this gift specifically enriched by the knowledge which was scientifically transmitted by Mr. Camargo Guarnieri, additioned by his huge spiritual knowledge, made of him one of the most talented Brazilian piano compositor of his time, which has been well defined by Mr. Luis Roberto Trench from the newspaper O Dia.

 

Mr. Nilson Lombardi and Mr. Camargo Guarnieri at Viracopos Airport, 1963

Mr. Lombardi, Mrs. Eudóxia de Barros, Mr. Osvaldo Lacerda and friends, 70s decade

 

Mr. Lombardi has been receiving complements from the specialized critic since when his compositions have arisen in concerts and recorded work. Mr. José da Veiga Oliveira has assures in 1976 in an article from Diário Popular: “The pianist brazilianly sings in a lyricism of irresistible enchantment.” In an article from 1977 Mr. Caldeira Filho has said that Mr. Nilson Lombardi “…knows how to develop and modulate, in other words, play with sonorous colors.” This composing style, accordingly to Mr. Lombardi, was born from an effort that mixes esthetic emotion and rational work. He assures that the creator vein shall be leased to the critical sense in a way that the author shall always analyze its own work. Thank to the acquired practice in years of studies, Mr. Lombardi is able to develop and conclude a miniature in a question of minutes.
The most popular of all, entitled To Luiza (Miniature number 5 from the series of six miniatures), was created in twelve minutes. Under his influences, Mr. Lombardi points out Schumann in first place, along with Chopin, Brahms, Debussy and Satie, beyond the great names of the modern instrumental music. He describes:

 

I have heard a lot of American and Brazilian music, jazz and bossa-nova. My work is impregnated with several musical streams and very little of the classicism, which appears only in isolated works. But what always predominates is my style, a result from the influence received from Mr. Guarnieri, which is the counterpoint, the linearity and polyphony.

 

Professor Lombardi has also been lectured. In 1958 he has entered a State Magister through a competitive audition and started to share his time among the studies with Mr. Camargo Guarnieri in São Paulo and the classes in public high schools – starting at Guararapes, region near by the capital of São Paulo and subsequently in the cities of São Roque and Sorocaba. In 1964 he started giving classes in the Dramatic and Musical Conservatory “Dr. Carlos de Campos”, in the city of Tatuí, where he actuated during ten years in parallel to his classes in public hig schools. Finally, in 1975, he was hired by São Paulo’s State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (Unesp) as a professor from the following disciplines: Musical Language Structure, Musical Analysis, Musical Composition and complementary Piano. He has retired from this function in 1992, after almost eighteen years of lecturing.
Throughout his academic life Mr. Lombardi has never quit studying. In the beginning of the seventies he was oriented by Mrs. Nellie Braga during three years in the Tagliaferri School, which has been another important influence. In 1980 he traveled to Europe and during four months and a half he traversed for study purposes all main French, Spanish, British and Italian musical centers. At Paris Musical Superior Conservatory he has done many researches which resulted in the following dissertation: The innovative aspects in the pianistic techniques of Claude Debussy. In Spain he has deepened his knowledge about the Spanish nationalists Albéniz, Granados and Manuel de Falla, among others. In 1984 he received the post-graduation master degree from the University of São Paulo (USP) School of Communication and Arts, presenting the following dissertation: Work and style of São Paulo’s native compositor Camargo Guarnieri. He has also written other three hundred pages about the actuation of the maestro Eleazar de Carvalho directing the Symphonic Orchestra of the State of São Paulo, in which he has been a member during four years.
During many times in the last fifty years Mr. Lombardi has been seemed as what we like to call a cultural agitator. In 1956 he directed the Universitarian Choir of the College of Philosophy, Science and Letters of Sorocaba. In 1957 he directed the Cultural Center Brazil-USA Choir also in his hometown. In the following year he directed Sorocaba’s Youth Orchestra which has been organized by him and Mr. William Fabri. In 1961 he has collaborated in the foundation of the Brazilian Pro-Music Society, in São Paulo. Between 1968 and 1972 he was the delegate of the State Culture Secretary in Sorocaba. In 1984 he participated in the foundation of the Brazilian Musical Center where he is still working. In the same period, in Sorocaba, he has been the partner founder of Sorocaba’s Musical Center (Cemso), which promoted several international concerts.
The majority of Mr. Nilson Lombardi’s work has been edited or recorded on vinyl. If one is lucky it will be possible to listen to it in concerts and recitals (in March of 2002 the Symphony Culture Orchestra, from Padre Anchieta Foundation, has opened the symphonic season with The Composition School of Camargo Guarnieri, interpreting Six Variation About a Schoenberg’s Theme from Mr. Lombardi. The concert was directed by Mr. Lutero Rodrigues and solo from Mrs. Eudóxia de Barros). His compositions have been also largely utilized as obligatory pieces in exams and festivals, what makes him known particularly among the young musicians. In March of 2002 the author received the Great Critic Prize from the Paulista Art Critics Association (APCA) regarding the Erudite Music category, the award took place at São Paulo’s Municipal Theater.
At the age of seventy-six Mr. Lombardi still has an agitated routine, which includes constant trips to the State capital to participate in the Brazilian Music Center meetings and to also watch the concerts and recitals. A person of many friends who easily fascinates people with his happy personality, Mr. Lombardi is always thinking about new projects in the cultural area. In Sorocaba, where he lives with relatives in the same house where he was raised, he frequently receives the love and homage from his fellow citizens that recognize in his work one of the reasons for the city’s projection in the art field.

José Carlos Fineis
Sorocaba, October of 2002