Region in Brazil. A mining region for gold and precious stones, it was discovered in the late 17th century and exploited throughout the next century, during which an important musical life developed. Its population at first included Amerindians (pure blood or mestizos), Portuguese and Brazilian colonizers and African slaves. By the mid-18th century mulattos and Brazilians of African descent formed the majority of the population in spite of intensive migration from Portugal and other areas of the colony itself. Soon a large number of free mulattos held important positions among the clergy and became craftsmen and artists, and the splendid development of local Baroque architecture, sculpture and music was due largely to them. The musicologist Francisco Curt Lange, who first uncovered the musical history of this area, referred to this phenomenon as mulatismo musical. From the mid-1940s Lange found substantial documentary evidence of a unique musical development which reached its peak during the last two decades of the 18th century, and he and others edited some manuscripts of a large corpus dating from this period.
Musical life in Minas Gerais was organized after the Portuguese example in and around the various brotherhoods (irmandades) and not the church; all practising musicians belonged to a music brotherhood. Such corporations included the Irmandade de S Cecilia, Irmandade do SS Sacramento, Irmandade da Ordem Terceira do Carmo, Irmandade da Ordem Terceira de S Francisco etc. These brotherhoods supplied music for the Church or the municipality, which generally commissioned specific works, or simply performances for religious festivities.
The most active music centres in colonial Minas Gerais were the capital Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto), Sabará, Mariana, Arraial do Tejuco (now Diamantina), São João del Rei and São José del Rei (now Tiradentes). In spite of the relative isolation of these centres, there is evidence of local organ builders (e.g. Manuel de Almeida Silva), and the use of the harpsichord in church, and extant manuscript copies and prints of contemporary European music (Haydn, Boccherini, Mozart, Pleyel, Beethoven) indicate acquaintance with current European styles. Almost all mineiro composers cultivated a particular homophonic style which drew on characteristics of pre-Classical styles. Compositions of the ‘Minas School’ are in general liturgical works for four-part mixed chorus with orchestral accompaniment. The most important composers were José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (1746–1805), Marcos Coelho Netto (1746–1806), Francisco Gomes da Rocha (d 1808), Ignacio Parreiras Neves (c1730–c1793), Antonio dos Santos Cunha, Manoel Dias de Oliveira (c1735–1813) and João de Deus de Castro Lobo (1794–1832), followed in the 19th century by José Maria Xavier (1819–87), Luís Batista Lopes (1854–1907), João Francisco da Mata (d 1909) and Martiniano Ribeiro Bastos (1835–1912). The latter, from São João del Rei, was so influential in maintaining the tradition of sacred music performance among local amateur musicians that the Orquestra Ribeiro Bastos has continued uninterrupted since that time. The major archives of Minas Gerais, belonging to the church, orchestra or choral associations, are found in Ouro Preto, Mariana, Sabará, São João del Rei, Diamantina and Tiradentes. The oldest known manuscripts date from the 1770s, but the repertory was constantly copied as late as the 1880s for use in Minas Gerais and the neighbouring captaincies. Theatre life is well documented but no work produced in Vila Rica is extant.
F.C. Lange: ‘La música en Minas Gerais: un informe preliminar’, Boletín latino-americano de música, vi (1946), 409–94
F.C. Lange: ‘A música na Vila Real de Sabará’, Revista de Estudos Históricos [Marilía, Brasil], v (1966), 97–198
G. Béhague: ‘Música “barrôca” mineira: problemas de fontes e estilística’, Universitas [Salvador, Brazil], ii (1969), 133–58
F.C. Lange: A música no período colonial em Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, 1979)
F.C. Lange: História da música nas irmandades de Vila Rica (Belo Horizonte, 1979–)
F.C. Lange: ‘La música colonial religiosa de la capitania general de Minas Gerais y su incorporación a la vida musical contemporánea’, Revista musical de Venezuela, iii/6 (1982), 11–32
F.C. Lange: ‘Algumas novidades em tormo à atividade musical erudita no período colonial de Minas Gerais’, Latin American Music Review, iv (1983), 247–67
J.M. Neves: A Orquestra Ribeiro Bastos e a vida musical em São João del Rei (Rio de Janeiro, 1987)
M. Conceição Rezende: A música na história de Minas colonial (Belo Horizonte, 1989)
R. Duprat, ed.: Acervo de manuscritos musicias: Coleção Francisco Curt Lange (Belo Horizonte, 1991–4)
J.M. Neves: Música sacra mineira: catálogo de obras (Rio de Janeiro, 1997)
GERARD BÉHAGUE