The Three Dimensions of Musical Heritage: a Theory in Progress

Abstract

This article studies the meaning of the concept of musical heritage, and its relationship with the official concepts of historical, artistic and cultural heritage (material or immaterial) established in Brazilian law, and the concept of documental or archival heritage, implicit in the Brazilian law for public and private archives. For this purpose, the three major types of musical heritage are analyzed, according to the three dimensions of musical knowledge (1 - musical phenomenon; 2 - notation, recording or programming; 3 physical musical document), corresponding to the three dimensions of knowledge (1 - ontic; 2 - epistemic; 3 - documentary), established by Claudio Gnoli (2012), also supported by the concepts of corpus mysticum and corpus mechanicum. The conclusions leads to the artificiality of separating musical heritage into material and immaterial, and to the need for more integrated actions in relation to its three types, aiming at broader results for the knowledge, protection and dissemination of this kind of heritage.