Copland in Brazil

In Brazil, vacillating between the Axis and the Allies in 1941, Copland’s assignment was to persuade the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos to visit the United States, a time-consuming and ultimately fruitless task. He met another “standout” composer, however, M. Camargo Guarnieri, whose music Copland deemed “authentically Brazilian.” When Copland performed his Piano Sonata at a concert of U.S. music in Rio de Janeiro, critics found it overly abstruse. Copland also visited a samba school, which spurred his passion for Brazilian popular music. In São Paulo, he met critic and scholar Mário de Andrade, whose mixed-race status Copland realized would bar him from visiting the United States as a cultural diplomat.