This project began in January 2001, with a research journey led by musician Mark P. Brown, which took him across much of Venezuela in search of composers and their works. It all started in the 1990s, when Brown developed an interest in performing traditional Venezuelan music but discovered that very little of it had been written down, and what did exist was difficult to find. This led him to begin transcribing pieces from the traditional repertoire—at first for his own use, and then, in 2001, with the vision of creating a publication inspired by similar compilations from other countries, collections that had become essential references for musicians interested in those traditions.