Pedro Ximenes Abril Tirado was born in Arequipa, Peru. A prolific composer and instrumentalist, he was also known as Pedro Tirado, Abril Tirado or Pedro Jiménez de Abril Tirado and was considered by Bernardo Alcedo, a contemporary of his, as “the best musical talent in Peru” 1. His works include masses, symphonies, concerts for violins, quartets, yaravis and minuets, as well as pieces for voice and piano, cello and guitar, among others. In the early 1830s, he worked as a composer in the Cathedral of Lima. Between 1831 and 1838, his name appeared in the Peruvian capital’s media as some of his quartets and concerts were being performed. According to Cedar Viglietti, Verdi reportedly incorporated some of Tirado’s yaravis into his opera La Traviata2. On the other hand, Edgar Valcárcel further notes that his works also included a concert for guitar and orchestra. Unfortunately, nowadays, very few samples of his work survive in Peru, in the Cathedral of Santiago de Chile and in the Cathedral of Sucre, Bolivia. Only two of his works are conserved in the archiepiscopal archives of Lima. Tirado lived in Bolivia on invitation of President Andrés de Santa Cruz. His appointment as the chapel master of the ancient Cathedral of La Plata was highlighted in 1833 by the El Boliviano newspaper: “… Mr. Tirado’s compositions have been praised in Europe and he is without a doubt America’s top musician3.” He worked as chapel master at the Cathedral of Sucre in 1835 and at the Santa Iglesia Metropolitana de las Charcas, as well music professor in the College of Junin and the Girls College in this same city. In 1844, the collection of 100 minuets for guitar was published in Paris by the Parent and S. Richault publishing houses. He died in Sucre at age 76. Pedro Tirado’s works are a valuable antecedent to understanding Latin American musical culture and a vitally important topic of study and research. In the 20th century, the existence of this brilliant composer was revealed for the first time, in Lima, by Néstor Guestrín. Later, during the first The Guitar in Peru recital, performed at the ICPNA in July 1985, Octavio Santa Cruz “premiered” a number of his minuets for guitar. Also, Gunther Vilar made available a copy of the facsimile edition of the 100 minuets for guitar published by Parent. A copy of this publication was given to us by Octavio Santa Cruz, to whom we are very thankful. We wish to highlight the valuable work carried out by Santa Cruz in researching and disseminating Peruvian guitar music. He is nowadays a reference and a model. The minuets for guitar are extremely rich musically and technically. They are divided in 2 sections, which are constantly repeated. There are no tempo indicators. The movement –crescendo, decrescendo, dolce, forte, piano or pianissimo– written on the facsimile and the notation marks are reproduced without any change in this publication. They could be grouped by tonality to be performed in concert. (Hide extended text) ... (Read all)
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