Pesquisa documental nos acervos musicais: em busca dos primeiros manuscritos brasileiros para conjunto de saxofones de Francisco Braga

Abstract

This publication presents the first results of my doctoral research, incurred, in the field of research: Interpretative practices and their processes Reflexives: Brazilian music for wind instruments: history, text and interpretive practices. Our goal is to search the origin of the Brazilian chamber's repertoire for quartets and saxophone ensembles, in the 20th and 21st centuries, from a historical and interpretative approach to a group performance. The sources research began, in 2018, in two collections in the city of Rio de Janeiro: the Musical Collection of the Fire Brigade Band and the Collection of Musical Manuscripts from the Alberto Nepomuceno Library of the UFRJ Music School. In the first collection, the scores are not cataloged, thus making access to sources difficult. In addition, some of these musical manuscripts are in a state of degradation and have not received adequate conservation treatment over the years, that is, some of them may disappear at any time. According to Castagna and Duarte (2019), “there is a need for methodological awareness for research and management of music collections, in addition to your consultation, since this type of management provides the safeguard and access to increasing numbers of users”.  From the comparison with sources (scores, bibliographies, catalogues, for example) it was possible to retrieve relevant historical information about a current musical practice at the beginning of the 20th century, when the chamber repertoire for saxophone ensembles was still mostly constituted by transcriptions of operas, as is the case of Noturno by the opera Condor by Carlos Gomes (transcription made by Francisco Braga, in July 1928). We also rescued the saxophone octet/ nonet versions of the works Cantigas e Danças dos Pretos and Gavião de Penacho from the melodrama of Contratador de Diamantes (with text by Afonso Arinos, 1905) that may be the first pieces written for this camera formation in Brazil. Thus, Braga would have been the pioneer in the formation of this repertoire, thus contributing to the consolidation of the first saxophone ensembles during the Belle-Époque period (1889-1930).