Musica colonial: 18th century music score meets 21st century digitalization technology

The Musica Colonial project is an initiative to preserve, digitize, and provide online access to the sole copy of a handwritten Colonial times cathedral music scores with Spanish lyrics collection in microfilm format archived at the Mesoamerican Center for Regional Research (CIRMA) located in Antigua, Guatemala. Various fields and methodologies of research can be done on this collection because of its multi-faceted and culturally rich content. This paper mainly focuses on the music aspect of the collection and illustrates the different stages of making the musical content of the collection accessible to the public. Digitization is the most affective and promising way to display this special collection to the rest of the world.