Frevo music has been an significant piece of Brazilian culture for decades. Throughout the twentieth century, frevo band Military Police (later named “Captain Zuzinha Frevo Band”) authored over 8,000 original manuscripts, creating a formal record of the genre's emergence. The Imago Institute plans to digitize this collection.
Throughout modern Brazilian history, frevo, a form of upbeat music and dance, has been a significant part of the country's traditional and cultural heritage. In the late 2000's, frevo was officially declared as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) and later by UNESCO.
Capitão Zuzinha and his frevo band Military Police, wrote thousands of manuscript scores throughout the twentieth century. These frevo scores document the historical origins of modern frevo and the genre's emergence in Brazilian pop culture.
In total, there are approximately 8,700 original manuscripts in the collection. For this project, the Imago Institute plans to digitize the musical arrangements and make them accessible online. The project team will clean and preserve the physical materials as they conduct careful digitization. The collection is located at the Memorial Denis Bernardes in the Federal University of Pernambuco, which has established a partnership with Imago Institute to ensure that the collection will be preserved and curated for long-term preservation and accessibility.
The timeline for this project has been delayed due to limitations caused by COVID-19.
