Blas Parera

Blas Parera

Blas Parera (born February 3, 1776 in Murcia , province of Murcia , † January 7, 1840 in Mataró , province of Barcelona ) was a Spanish composer and creator of the Argentine national anthem .

Life

Blas Parera was born on February 3, 1776 to Ramón Parera and Bernarda Morat in Murcia, Spain. He grew up in Mataró, where he attended the Colegio de Santa Anna, in whose orchestra he also played. In 1793 he emigrated to America and four years later settled in Buenos Aires .

From 1802 to 1803 Parera was a church musician at the Church of San Francisco in Montevideo , Uruguay . He then returned to Buenos Aires and took up a position as professor at the “Colegio de Niños Expósitos”. He also worked as an organist at various churches in Buenos Aires, including the Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires . In addition, he gave concerts, composed various couplets and directed the orchestra of the “Coliseo Provisional de Comedias de Buenos Aires” from 1806.

As a volunteer, he took part in the defense of Buenos Aires during the British invasion .

In 1809 he married one of his students, Facunda del Rey.

For the next four years, Parera worked on an anthem for the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata . He created several compositions, including the "Marcha Patriótica" (Patriotic March), which later became the Argentine national anthem .

In July 1813 he went to Rio de Janeiro to study with Marcos António Portugal . In 1815 he returned to Buenos Aires, where his son Juan Manuel was born. He later became the father of two daughters (Dolores and Juana).

In 1818 Parera moved back to Spain, where he settled in Mataró. He worked there at the post office until 1830. He died on January 7, 1840 in Mataró, where he found his final resting place.

literature

• Víctor de Rubertis: Pequeño Diccionario Musical . Ricordi, Buenos Aires 1981, ISBN 978-950-22-0190-0 .
• Josep M. Bernades: Els Catalans a les Indias (1493-1830) . Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona 1991 (3 vol.).
• Pedro Grases, Pere Molas Ribalta: 200 Catalans a les Amèriques (1493-1897) . Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona 1988.
• Ramon Salas y Oliveras: Presencia mataronina al Río de la Plata a las darreries del siglo XVIII y primera mitad del XIX . Dalmau, Barcelona 1977, ISBN 84-232-0113-9 .
• Carlos Vega: El Himno Nacional Argentino. Creación, difusión, autores, texto y música . New edition EDUCA, Buenos Aires 2005, ISBN 987-119042-5 (unmodified reprint of the Buenos Aires 1962 edition).

Web links

• Alvaro Abós: La música de Blas Parera sigue sonando . In: La Nación of June 9, 2006 (accessed April 2, 2009).