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A digital collection of Brazilian music scores

06/03/2023

Objectives

The present project aims to provide open access to 7,000 digital scores by Brazilian composers in the public domain. 
Among the candidate works are those authored by the following composers:

Luís Álvares Pinto (1719 – 1789)

J.J. Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (1746 - 1805)

José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767 - 1830)

Francisco Manuel da Silva (1795 - 1865)

D. Pedro I (1798 – 1834)

José da Gama Malcher (1814 – 1882)

Henrique Alves de Mesquita (1830 – 1906)

Antonio Carlos Gomes (1836 – 1896)

Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847 – 1935)

Leopoldo Miguez (1850 - 1902)

Henrique Oswald (1852 – 1931)

Euclides Fonseca (1854 – 1829)

Ernesto Nazareth (1863 – 1934)

Alberto Nepomuceno (1864 – 1920)

Alexandre Levy (1864 – 1892)

Silvio Deolindo Froes (1864 – 1948)

Francisco Braga (1868-1945)

Meneleu Campos (1872 – 1927)

Patápio Silva (1880 - 1907)

Glauco Velasquez (1883-1914)

Luciano Gallet (1893-1931)

Lorenzo Fernandez (1897 – 1948)

This preliminary list was established by a survey proposed to the Brazilian musical community – orchestras, universities and music schools -, for pointing out eligible repertoires. The corpus to be considered will be supervised by the Curatorial Board constituted by:

  • Dr. Flavia Toni (Academia Brasileira de Música, USP – Universidade de São Paulo)
  • Dr. Jonas Arraes (UFPA – Universidade Federal do Pará)
  • Dr. Lenita Waldige Mendes Nogueira (UNICAMP - Universidade Estadual de Campinas)
  • Dr. Manoel Correa do Lago (Academia Brasileira de Música
  • Dr. Rosana Lanzelotte (Instituto Musica Brasilis)

Partnerships

In order to raise the sources from which the editions will be elaborated, the Instituto Musica Brasilis has established technical cooperation agreements with institutions that own collections. The following technical cooperation agreements have already been signed:

  • Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (Rio de Janeiro) - Rede da Memória Virtual Brasileira
  • Biblioteca da Escola de Comunicação e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo (ECA / USP)
  • Biblioteca do Museu da Universidade Federal do Pará - Fundo Vicente Salles
  • Acervo Lorenzo Fernandez
  • Orquestra Ribeiro Bastos (São João Del-Rei)
  • Núcleo Caravelas - CESEM / Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Lisboa/Portugal)
  • Editora Irmãos Vitale (Rio de Janeiro)
  • Editora Fermata (São Paulo)

Partners in perspective:

  • Biblioteca do Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro) - Fundo Mozart de Araújo
  • Biblioteca do Centro de Artes e Comunicação da UFPE (Recife)
  • Biblioteca do Instituto Ricardo Brennand (Recife) – Fundo Padre Jaime Diniz
  • Centro Cultural São Paulo
  • Faculdade de Artes do Paraná - Universidade do Estado do Paraná
  • Fundação Gulbenkian (Lisboa, Portugal)
  • Instituto Moreira Salles (Rio de Janeiro)
  • Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros - Universidade de São Paulo
  • Museu da Inconfidência (Ouro Preto, MG)
  • Museu Carlos Gomes (Campinas, SP)
  • Núcleo de Acervos da Escola de Música da Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais (MG)

Preliminary contacts:

  • OSESP
  • UFLA - Universidade Federal de Lavras (MG) - Museu Bi Moreira
  • Universidade Federal de Pelotas (RS)

Digital preservation will be ensured by Rede Cariniana - Brazilian Network of Digital Preservation Services - an initiative of IBICT - Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology - (https://www.gov.br/ibict/pt-br/central-de-conteudos/noticias/2021/dezembro2021/rede-cariniana-e-instituto-musica-brasilis-firmam-parceria).

Metodology

Digital sheet music representatives are generated in two ways:

  • editing manuscript sources using specific software (eg Finale, Sibelius)
  • scanning old editions, when free of rights

Scores will be made available in .pdf format, with separate parts for instruments, with a resolution of 300 dpi.

Each digital score is assigned a unique identifier - the ISMN (International Standard Music Number for Notated Music) - equivalent to the ISBN for textual publications.

The methodologies adopted for implementation are in line with the best web practices, in order to increase the ease of location, access and reuse, in accordance with the standards established by the W3C consortium (Linked Data, 2015), Interconnected Open Data ( LOD – Linked Open Data) and FAIR principles (GO-FAIR, 2022).

Reuse

In addition to the Musica Brasilis portal, images of scores and respective metadata are also published on the Brazilian Virtual Memory Network - an initiative of the National Library Foundation - and on Wikimedia Commons, which contributes to increased visibility and reuse. The metadata is published on Wikidata, the metadata hub for the world's leading libraries (Lanzelotte & Zumpano, 2022).

The project collaborates with the Brasil em Concerto initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (https://www.gov.br/mre/pt-br/canais_atendimento/imprensa/notas-a-imprensa/projeto-brasil-em-concerto), and edited the repertoires of D. Pedro I and Carlos Gomes recorded in 2022 by the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra.

References

LANZELOTTE, R.S.G. ZUMPANO, N. 2022. WIKIDATA COMO CONCENTRADOR DE METADADOS: uma parceria para a divulgação de repertórios musicais brasileiros. In: Anais do 7. Seminário de Informação em Arte. Rio de Janeiro: Redarte. https://doity.com.br/media/doity/submissoes/artigo-7138d928bb6cfe0682665e6531d5f8530f0ad54a-arquivo.pdf

LANZELOTTE, R.S.G. ZUMPANO, N. 2022. Difusão do legado musical brasileiro: a disponibilidade de partituras pela Web. In: Patrimônio Musical Brasileiro, Revista LABORHISTÓRICO, v.8, p.325 - 342. https://dx.doi.org/10.24206/lh.v8i1.46739