André Guerra Cotta In Memoriam

Thursday, October 14, 2021

We were deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of our colleague André Guerra Cotta (1966-2021).

André was one of the founding members of RISM Brazil when it was reactivated in 2005 and he represented the working group at conferences in Brazil and abroad. He was a consistent presence at IAML conferences and other international gatherings. We fondly remember hosting him in 2016, when the Editorial Center organized the conference Documenting Musical Sources in Latin America. He gave a paper entitled “Brazilian Musical Heritage: An Overview and Some Brief Considerations,” which can be viewed on YouTube. In it, he outlined the music collections preserved throughout the country but also made it clear what a monumental task it is to document them all, for only a minority of them have been adequately described. André joined us again in Germany in 2019 when we held a conference about the concept of the musical work. His paper (also available on YouTube) emphasized the use of international standards and even drew on non-library contexts to show what can be learned from other sectors.

Soon after our cataloging program, Muscat, was adopted by the international RISM community in 2016, André made sure it became known among Brazilian musicologists by giving several Muscat workshops in his country. As early as 1999, André had translated the RISM guidelines into Portuguese, and the flexibility of the Muscat platform opened up new opportunities for collaboration and projects. Recognizing the need to make RISM’s cataloging platform as widely accessible as possible, he led the effort to make Muscat available in Portuguese, which had an additional benefit of strengthening ties between RISM Brazil and RISM Portugal. The Portuguese version of Muscat and André’s translation of the guidelines were released in early 2020. André’s work is of long-lasting importance to RISM and it will benefit Portuguese-speaking musicologists and librarians for decades to come.

We remember André’s warmth, generosity, and sense of humor. Though we saw him in person only occasionally, our encounters with him were always highlights. He was passionate about his field and we will do our best to keep building upon the foundations he set for us. We mourn this loss to the RISM community.

Remembrances of André have been published by the Laboratório de Musicologia, Universidade de São Paulo and the Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Música.

Category: In memoriam