Cacilda Borges Barbosa (1914-2010) Brazil
- andreachamizoalber
- Aug 31, 2025
- 1 min read
Composer, conductor, and pianist. She was one of the pioneers of electronic music in Brazil—I couldn't find anything else in this genre :(—she was born in Rio de Janeiro and enrolled at the National Institute of Music in Rio de Janeiro in 1928.
After completing her studies, Barbosa worked as a pianist, performing waltzes and chorinhos for dance groups, for whom she composed specific works. In the 1950s, she published the first volume of the "Brazilian Studies for Singing" series.
and became director of the Radio Mayrink Veiga orchestra.
I share her Brazilian Study for Piano No. 1, and the link to download the score:
Barbosa worked with Heitor Villa-Lobos in 1930 and served as director of the Villa-Lobos Institute. She became a chamber music teacher at the National School of Music of the University of Brazil and a counterpoint and fugue teacher at the Popular School of Music. She also conducted orchestras and choral ensembles.
Now here's another Brazilian Study for piano, No. 2. The score is at the same link above.
Barbosa composed a large number of works, several of them with Brazilian themes. She also composed orchestral and chamber music, as well as educational piano pieces for her students. Although I only found videos of her piano studies on YouTube, the imslp website has more scores, such as the studies for voice, some for accordion, and a couple of other works. I'm sharing them here in case anyone is interested in playing them.
And one last video, from Study No. 5 for piano
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