Miguel Angel Valda Paredes

Miguel Angel Valda Paredes was born on 7 May 1884 in Sucre (Bolivia). As a teenager he was already highly interested in the folk music of the region, attended folk festivals and transcribed the songs and dances performed there. Miguel Valda also received lessons in piano, flute and guitar by Manuel Caballero and became part of the orchestra of the cathedral Metropolitana in Sucre. Later he became a student of Simeon Roncal, one of the most important Bolivian composers.

To earn a living Miguel Valda decided to study law at the university of Chuquisaca in Sucre. After completing his studies he worked as a criminal judge.
Miguel Angel Valda Paredes died on 26 October 1957 in Sucre (Bolivia).

As a composer Miguel Valda is of high importance for the history of Bolivian music. In the late 19th and early 20th century an interest and appreciation for the traditional music arose in the cultural life of Bolivia where previously European classical music was dominant. Bolivian composers studied the traditional dances and composed their own cuecas, kaluyos or huaynus. Important composers of this movement were for example Simeon Roncal, Jose Lavadenz, Teofilo Vargas and Miguel Valda.

In my possession is an autograph manuscript by Miguel Angel Valda and several unsigned manuscripts that could contain compositions by Valda or other Bolivian composers.

The collection of manuscripts came from a pile of documents that I bought at an Belgian auction house and which very likely all belonged to the Belgian pedagogue and painter Julien Ficher. The lot contained compositions by Julien Ficher, an autograph manuscript by Miguel Angel Valda inscribed to Julien Ficher, an autograph manuscript by Manuel Jose Benavente and the above mentioned unsigned manuscripts.

Due to the fact that it is difficult to get access to Bolivian compositions from the early 20th century and the origin and authorship of the unsigned manuscripts is unclear I would like to present these scores here.

For more information on Julien Ficher and his compositions please go to this website here on my internet presence.

Recuerdo para piano by Miguel Angel Valda

The Recuerdo para piano is a composition by Miguel Angel Valda. The autograph manuscript in my possession shows his personal stamp on the music paper and has the inscription: "Dedicado a mi distinguido amigo Dr. Julian Ficher". The work is dated "Sucre, 10 de abril de 1919" and signed by Valda at the end. Julien Ficher left Bolivia in 1919 and it seems likely that this was a leaving present by Valda. It is also interesting to note that the composition later was retitled and nowadays is known as "En el silencio de la noche".

Bolivian music of unknown authorship

As mentioned above I also own a total of 4 handwritten manuscripts with piano compositions of Bolivian music. All these manuscripts are unsigned and undated. But they all belonged to the pile of documents related to Julien Ficher. Therefore I assume that they all date from the time around 1915. And they very likely bear a relation to Sucre in Bolivia. It might be possible that some of the compositions are also by Miguel Angel Valda or Manuel Jose Benavente, but that is uncertain.

Hopefully experts on Bolivian music from the early 20th century will take a look into the scores and provide more information about the origin of these compositions.

manuscript No.1

This manuscript contains a collection of 8 cuecas. None of the cuecas has a title, they are just continously numbered.

manuscript No.2

This manuscript is a collection of 7 bailes, 2 serenatas, 1 sicuri, 3 tristes and 1 trote. The complete set of works is titled "Varios aires populares"

manuscript No.3

This manuscript contains 4 tristes of which three have the individual titles "Dulce esperanza", "Ilusion" and "El recuerdo de mi". The fourth triste has no title.

manuscript No.4

This manuscript is a set of 4 bailes, none of them has an individual title.