Opus (May 2012)
Musical Production and Professional Work of João de Deus de Castro Lobo (Vila Rica, Brazil, 1794 - Mariana, Brazil, 1832): from the Disappearance of His Work to its Transmission through Social Networks
Abstract
This article is the result of an investigation into the information available on João de Deus de Castro Lobo (1794-1832), the most productive Afro-Brazilian composer from the State of Minas Gerais during the first half of the 19th century in regards to both the volume and diffusion of his works. His printed musical compositions, discography and bibliographic data, as well as information available from notary and ecclesiastical documents, were systematically collected. In parallel, a thematic and detailed catalog of his works was produced from approximately 700 manuscript sources consulted from 20 different collections, based on methodology developed in Brazilian cataloging projects from the 1990s and 2000s. Among the key findings is the realization that had a very active professional musical career in institutions located in Vila Rica (until 1823) and Mariana (at least from 1825). Moreover, after cataloging his works and other sources, we found no original manuscripts of his compositions, only those preserved as transcripts, the majority of them from the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Finally, this paper investigates the causa mortis of João de Deus de Castro Lobo, and from its details, provides a hypothesis for the disappearance of the manuscripts of this composer’s musical compositions relating the loss to the way in which his music became known today.
