Digital Resources

PEM - Portuguese Early Music Database

The Portuguese Early Music Database allows free and universal access to a large number of manuscripts with musical notation written before c. 1650 preserved in many different libraries and archives in Portugal and surrounding Spanish locations. Every manuscript is given in full-colour reproduction and entered with a general description. Fragments are indexed in full. Selected codices with monophonic or polyphonic music are also fully indexed. There are many search capabilities that are immediately available to the visitor. Under Sources, the visitor is able to search for manuscripts according to location, type and century (single or multiple choice), in addition to more detailed information such as shelf-mark, provenance, type of notation and other available criteria. Once a manuscript is selected, the researcher is presented with the contents of that source, along with its corresponding images. Under Compositions, the visitor is able to locate specific chants or polyphonic items in the indexed manuscripts, and to search by composer. Under Archives, a list of Iberian collections and libraries are listed using RISM sigla and can be searched.

PEM Team

Manuel Pedro Ferreira | Director

Elsa De Luca | Coordinator of Monodic Sources

Bernadette Nelson | Coordinator of Polyphonic Sources

Elsa De Luca | Zuelma Chaves | Esperanza Rodríguez-García | Development Coordinators

Leandra Scappaticci † | Consultant

Jan Koláček | Web / Database Developer

Musicians of the Franciscan Order in Portugal

Acervo histórico do Mosteiro de Arouca

Arquivo José Mário Branco

Archive Catalog of the Musem & Library of the House of Braganza

Caravelas' Biographical Dictionary

The dictionary’s main objective is to gather biographical information from music professionals and amateurs who worked in the Luso-Brazilian empire (1500-1822). These time limits may be extended for personalities who, after the independence of Brazil, acted in both countries, or whose musical work had a special resonance in both Brazil and Portugal. In the case of foreigners, the emphasis will always be on their activity within these geographical limits (eg composer David Perez’s stay in Portugal). Other names may also be included if warranted.
The dictionary is intended to be a dynamic means of disseminating and exchanging information.

Team:

Coordenation: Alberto Pacheco

Editors: Alberto Pacheco, António Jorge Marques, Cristina Fernandes, David Cranmer

Consultors: André Guerra Cotta, Diósnio Machado Neto, Luísa Cymbron, Marcelo Hazan, Luciane Beduschi

Webmaster: Rui Araújo

Renaissance Canons Project

The Renaissance Canons website is part of a research project developed within the framework of Early Music Departament lessons at Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (Porto/Portugal). Its goal is to provide an online resource to the students to assist their practise of didactic canons from 16th and 17h centuries through the original sources.

The project is incorporated to Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM) and supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Beyond the walls of a classroom, this website was created with the aim to expand the reach of our efforts as a free resource. To this end, its contents (texts and recordings) are published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 licence. All scores and excerpts from original sources are public domain and are referenced with IMSLP pages accordingly.

We appreciate all comments and suggestions that can be done here or directly through the authors.

Pedro Sousa Silva
Project leader, Musicological coordinator, Recordings

Fernando Duarte de Oliveira
Musicological research, Recordings, Site implementation and development

Archive of Iberian Polyphony

Archive of Iberian Polyphony it’s an open-access resource and research tool for musicologists, musicians, and interdisciplinary scholars working in the field of Iberian Studies. The Archive of Iberian Polyphony was developed under the FCT-funded research project The Anatomy of Late 15th- and Early 16th-Century Iberian Polyphonic Music, PTDC/CPC-MMU/0314/2014, directed by João Pedro d’Alvarenga and based in the CESEM – Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music at NOVA FCSH, Portugal, between 2016 and 2019. The Archive gathers information regarding Iberian polyphonic repertories both sacred and secular, their basic musical parameters, texts, sources and composers, also providing downloadable editions of the individual works for study and performance purposes. Although it was designed for a specific project dealing with Spanish and Portuguese polyphony from between the 1470s and the late 1520s, the Archive remains open to future enrichments and will also include later repertories.