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Final considerations

In the 190 years comprehended by our research about the publication of Brazilian sacred and religious music from the 18th and 19th centuries, we were able find to date 776 published works. There are publications that are still to be included and there are clues that the initial date is yet to be fixed further back, if we are to believe the information, yet to be confirmed, that Tristão José Ferreira (1783-184?) had one of his works published in the decade of 1830. We can verify the manner how the number of publications were increasing in the period. In the first period (until 1930), we had something like 99 publications, establishing an average of 0,9 publications per year. In the second period (1930 to 1970), the total number goes down to 52, but the average increases to 1,3 per year; in the third period (1970 to 2000), the total number increases to 176, with an average of 6,0 per year. In the fourth period (21st century), we have a total of 466 publications, with an average of 24,0 per year. The numbers are apparently encouraging, but let us not forget the amount of works that were repeatedly published, especially in the realm of the collection Música Sacra Mineira. Apart from that, we have to consider that most of these publications are very difficult to find, even the more recent ones. One can imagine the difficulty of finding publications from the first period. We can only resort to libraries, archives or websites that make them available in one way or another. Moreover, it is quite evident that there is a large amount of works available in Brazilian archives still waiting to be published, studied, performed. There is a great lack of researchers in Brazil in the field of historic musicology, and only the dedicated few are taking on the task of revealing the past of Brazilian musical history in its various aspects. The financial support for publicizing these works has been greatly improved, and online publishing has become a form of cutting costs and making the works available more efficiently. The research hereby presented, resulting in an online catalogue, will allow the constant updating of the contained data, allowing performers and scholars, from Brazil and abroad, permanent access to the exuberant and extensive repertoire of Brazilian sacred and religious music from the past.

Our research continues, digging original publications in archives and libraries, or at least, clues of their existence in catalogues, periodicals of the time and other resources.