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Ernesto Nazareth

Browse piano sheets by Ernesto Nazareth on Zen Virtual Piano. Ernesto Nazareth, a composer and pianist, was born in Rio de Janeiro as one of five children. His mother, Carolina da Cunha, gave him his first piano lessons. A fall from a tree in his childhood left him with a head wound and bleeding from one ear, and the hearing problems that followed grew worse in adulthood. His mother's first piano lessons and his birth in Rio de Janeiro as one of five children may point to a musical start inside a family. In 1874, after the death of his first piano teacher, Nazareth began lessons with Eduardo Rodolpho de Andrade Madeira, a friend of the family, and later with Charles Lucièn Lambert, a well-known teacher from New Orleans who had settled in Brazil. After that he carried on alone and became practically self-taught. Nazareth's music was noted for creatively blending diverse influences, drawing on Brazilian music and also on European and African music and ragtime. The several teachers of his youth and the blend of Brazilian, European, African and ragtime influences in his music may suggest a broad musical outlook. Casa Vieira Machado published Nazareth's Brejeiro in 1893, and it became one of his most performed works, circulating outside Brazil with later editions in Paris and the United States. Fon-fon!, a Brazilian tango published in 1913 by Casa Arthur Napoleão, takes its title from a popular magazine of the same name that ran from 1907 to 1958. It is one of Nazareth's most popular pieces in Brazil and abroad, with at least 64 recordings through 2012. Between 1909 and 1913, and again between 1917 and 1918, Nazareth played in the waiting room of the old Cinema Odeon in Rio de Janeiro, where admirers came to hear him, and he named the tango Odeon after the cinema. The admirers who came to hear him at the Cinema Odeon and the later editions of Brejeiro in Paris and the United States may suggest that his music reached listeners both in a Rio de Janeiro waiting room and in other countries. In 1919 the Banda do Corpo de Bombeiros recorded three of Nazareth's pieces: Sarambeque, Menino de ouro and Henriette. Heitor Villa-Lobos dedicated his Choro n.º 1 to Nazareth in 1920. In 1926, at the age of 63, Nazareth left the state of Rio de Janeiro for the first time, for a three-month tour of the state of São Paulo that lasted eleven months, with performances in the city of São Paulo, Campinas, Sorocaba and Tatuí. The Academia Brasileira de Música named Nazareth patron of chair no. 28. The band's 1919 recording of three of his pieces and his own performances in several cities of São Paulo state may point to music carried by other players as well as by Nazareth himself. Villa-Lobos's dedication of a choro and the Academia's naming of Nazareth as a patron may hint that his work drew notice from other musicians and institutions.

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Fon-Fon

Ernesto Nazareth

Intermediate

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Questions and answers FAQ

Where was Ernesto Nazareth born and who gave him his first piano lessons?

Rio de Janeiro was his birthplace, and he was one of five children. His first piano lessons came from his mother, Carolina da Cunha.

Which teachers did Ernesto Nazareth study with?

After his first teacher died in 1874, Nazareth took lessons with Eduardo Rodolpho de Andrade Madeira and later with Charles Lucièn Lambert, then continued alone and became practically self-taught.

What is Fon-fon! by Ernesto Nazareth?

Fon-fon! is a Brazilian tango by Nazareth, published in 1913 by Casa Arthur Napoleão, named after a popular magazine, and it has at least 64 recordings through 2012.

What did Ernesto Nazareth do at the Cinema Odeon?

Nazareth played in the waiting room of the old Cinema Odeon in Rio de Janeiro between 1909 and 1913 and again between 1917 and 1918, and he named the tango Odeon after the cinema.