DISSERTATION ABSTRACT

Marshal Gaioso Pinto
Sacred Music in Goiás (1737-1936) and Balthasar de Freitas’s Collection
(research director: Jonathan Glixon)

Balthasar de Freitas was a musician who lived in the city of Jaraguá, state of Goiás, Brazil. He was born in 1870 and died in 1936, leaving one of the most important collections of music manuscripts from the state of Goiás. Freitas was a composer and copyist himself, and also the heir of the collection that now has his name and which was formed by musicians from preceding generations. The collection contains more than 500 items, divided into four sub-collections: 1) Sacred Music; 2) Instrumental Music; 3) Printed Music; and 4) Other Documents.

The present dissertation will study the sacred music works of Balthasar de Freitas’s collection. A thematic catalogue will be elaborated, presenting the more than 150 pieces which are part of the Sacred Music sub-collection; critical editions and analyses of the main works will also be prepared. The research will also describe the cultural background in which the collection was formed, giving an overview of sacred music in Goiás during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Finally, there will be a discussion about style, performance practices, and notation of the works of the collection.