Rather an odd name…”City of Music of Bahia”. Maybe they were trying to incorporate the fact that Salvador was named a “City of Music” by UNESCO in 2015, combining this with the fact that the music of Salvador is really the music of a wider region, that being the Brazilian state of Bahia (setting aside the fact that Bahia is part of a yet wider cultural region: the Brazilian nordeste, Northeast).
Salvador IS a profoundly musical city, set in a profoundly musical state, set in a profoundly musical region, set in a profoundly musical country. And if Paris has the Louvre and Chicago The Museum of Science and Industry then it’s only fitting and fair that Salvador has a Museum of Music, no matter how oddly christened.
https://cidadedamusicadabahia.com.br
Admission is 20 reais full price (4 dollars), and half price for Salvador residents with proof-of-residence, students, and venerables over 60.
And the place is full-tilt magic! Mostly via screens, small and large…history, musicians down through the decades, their music, the new and the young… Unlike Salvador’s Carnival museum though (which was projected by the same architect/designer: Gringo Cardia), the music museum isn’t set up for non-Portuguese speakers. Hopefully this will eventually…soon?…be remedied … most of what’s in this museum will be new information to most non-Salvador residents (and to a lesser degree perhaps, most Salvador residents as well). Explanations in a language one understands would be really helpful.
The museum is located in the lower city, close to the bottom of the elevator connecting upper and lower cities, across the street from Salvador’s Mercado Modelo.
The address is Praça Visconde de Cayru, 19 – Comércio