Preserving Sorocaba’s Musical Heritage

Project supported by Sorocaba’s Cultural Incentive Law

The project created a dedicated website providing public access to digitised manuscripts and published editions of musical scores by Sorocaba composers from the 19th and 20th centuries, drawn from the collection of the Sorocaba Diocesan Museum.

The website also hosted audio recordings made in a professional studio of ten compositions from the museum’s collection. To celebrate the launch of the website, a live concert was held at the auditorium of the Historical, Geographical and Genealogical Institute of Sorocaba, featuring live performances of selected works from the collection.

Sorocaba played a fundamental role in Brazil’s history as an important commercial centre and later became a major industrial hub. As a result, the city became particularly recognised for these two areas of activity, in which it continues to hold a prominent position.

However, Sorocaba’s artistic life — and particularly its musical heritage — has always been equally vibrant and significant. From the 19th century onwards, historical records document the presence of numerous musical bands, some of which remain active to this day, as well as orchestras performing national and international repertoire and, most importantly, music composed in Sorocaba itself.

Among the city’s composers are Maurício Garcia Vieira, Vicente Zeferino Sant'Anna and his son Joaquim Izidoro Marins, Fernando Luis Grohmann, João Ribeiro Alencastro and José Raymundo de Mello. Also noteworthy is Manoel A. Lobo, from the neighbouring city of Itu and brother of composer Elias Lobo, who served as chapel master at Sorocaba Cathedral.

The project also highlights the work of João de Camargo, a formerly enslaved man and religious leader who composed Banda nº 5. More recent examples include composers Nilson Lombardi and Felipe Lara.

The project sought to encourage the discovery of additional collections and establish a comprehensive historical timeline that could be gradually expanded, helping to tell a story that remains relatively under-researched.

The project’s greatest contribution lies in ensuring that the musical heritage preserved at the Sorocaba Diocesan Museum would not be lost, while making these valuable works accessible to musicians, conductors and the wider Sorocaba community.

Over time, many of the scores had come close to being lost due to deterioration and inadequate preservation. At the same time, musicians had little opportunity to perform these works, meaning that an important part of the city’s historical heritage was gradually disappearing.

The project also recognised the importance of creating space for contemporary Sorocaba composers to document and preserve their musical legacy through lyrics, compositions and musical scores, complemented by audio recordings that would allow the city to experience, appreciate and preserve their work for future generations.

In this way, the initiative sought not only to preserve the legacy of composers such as Zeferino Sant'Anna and Joaquim Izidoro Marins, whose contributions had faded from public memory, but also to ensure that the musical history being created today could be recorded, shared and remembered.