Brazil: Central and Southern Areas

Abstract

The music of central and southern Brazil is as diverse as one hundred million people that populate the area. The European settlement of Brazil was undertaken as a joint venture between Portugal and Roman Catholic Church; with the sword came the cross. In southern Brazil, the church was far more active with the indigenous population than with the Portuguese. Jesuit missionaries, who arrived around 1550, were particularly fervent in their desire to convert the native Americans. The Jesuits were successful in acculturating native Americans through music and musical instruction, particularly within the missions they organized in the extreme southern parts of the country. The significance of the lay brotherhoods becomes particularly evident with the rise of what has been called the barroco mineiro ‘baroque of Minas Gerais’. In 1698, prospectors found gold in the Serra do Espinhaco, and during the 1700s, the mines of Minas Gerais, Goias, and Mato Grosso were producing 44 percent of the world’s supply of gold.