The intention was to record as much music as possible as quickly as possible, before encroaching influences like radio and cinema began transforming the region's distinctive culture.

But the Brazilian mission's collection ended up languishing in vaults here

They recorded whoever and whatever seemed to be interesting: piano carriers, cowboys, beggars, voodoo priests, quarry workers, fishermen, dance troupes and even children at play

Early in 1938, Mario de Andrade, the municipal secretary of culture here, dispatched a four-member Folklore Research Mission to the northeastern hinterlands of Brazil on a similar mission.