The official Rio 2016 cultural programme, Celebra, will leave Brazil with a valuable cultural legacy: a bilingual digital platform covering more than five centuries of the country's rich musical heritage.

The online platform, which is free to use, was launched on Monday (12 August) and is illustrated with images, videos and musical scores. The initiative came to life through a partnership between Rio 2016, the Musica Brasilis portal and Funarte. In the first instance, around 500 artists will be featured in the project.

The project is organised chronologically in a timeline taking users on a journey through the sounds and lyrics of Brazil's artists and composers, as well as the country's most important musical genres.

"Timelines are an effective way for us to consolidate our knowledge on a range of subjects, and this is the first timeline for our music," said Carla Camurati, Director of Culture at Rio 2016, alongside Rosana Lanzelotte of Musica Brasilis.

The timeline begins in the year 1500, when Europeans were first exposed to indigenous music. Covering the intervening centuries down to the 21st century, the timeline approaches the present day with the MC Duels in 2007 and 2012 organised by the Street Family Collective in Belo Horizonte.

The final entry is for 2016, the year in which Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympic Games and Musica Brasilis was invited to develop the project. Searches can be made by composer, title or genre, from classic to popular music, divided into 15 subcategories including punk, rock, and several Brazilian traditions such as choro, frevo, axé and MPB.  

CELEBRA can be accessed here