Música na Princesa D'Oeste Mineiro: uma cartografia das práticas, formações e espaços educativos em Formiga

Abstract

In the mid-eighteenth century, the opening of new roads between the main towns in the Brazilian province of Minas Gerais towards the deposits in Goiás led to the process of settlement of the vast hinterland located between the Grande and São Francisco rivers. This movement, driven by the civilizing project of the Portuguese Crown, fostered the creation of several community nuclei along the most usual routes which, over time, became villages and cities with an intense cultural activity. The present work is based on a documental investigation about the musical activities that took place in the region where the city of Formiga (MG, Brazil) is located today. This city was considered, at the time, one of the main entrances towards the hinterland and a strategic stopping point for traders, troops and groups of travellers. The research on primary sources provided the opportunity to collect and analyse still unpublished data which enabled us to understand the musical practices of the various social groups which constitute the local community throughout its formation. In this sense, we have consulted especially: 1) Public and personal collections; 2) Seasonal newspapers and magazine reports; 3) Iconographic material; 4) Travellers' and local memorialists' reports; 5) Judicial processes; 6) Musicographical documents; 7) Correspondence; and 8) Statements of former cultural agents who worked in the region during the first half of the twentieth century. All over this investigation, facts, spaces, institutions, trajectories of groups and people who produced and practiced music throughout Formiga’s history were identified, building a narrative not yet considered by local historiography. Thus, it is concluded that since the beginning of its settlement, a wide variety of musical practices occurred in the geographic space of Formiga. Those were fostered by a context initially favored by the intense traffic of people during the twentieth century, driven by the structural, political and cultural progress experienced by Formiguense’s community and expressed mainly by different local social groups. In a tripartite structure, this thesis presents at first the basis of the documentary and methodological structure that supported this musicological investigation. The second chapter intertwines the historiographical narrative of musical formation and development of this region along the 19th century. The third and last chapter that weaves 19th century themed stories selected from the initial structure.