Карлос Паредеш: Португалия гитар виртуозының өмірі мен шығармашылығы

Portuguese guitarist and composer (1925–2004)
1=the musician

Carlos Paredes (ˈkaɾluʃ pɐˈɾeðɨʃ; 16 February 1925 – 23 July 2004) was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player and composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of Portuguese guitar of all time. Born in Coimbra, Portugal, in a family with a long tradition of guitar playing, he was taught to play the Portuguese guitar by his father, Artur Paredes. He composed numerous soundtracks for cinema and theatre, such as the soundtrack for the Portuguese film Os Verdes Anos (1963), which contains his famous piece "Canção Verde Anos". He released several recordings as a solo artist and performed in numerous countries worldwide. Besides his music career, Paredes also worked in the public service for most of his life. In 1958, during Portugal's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, he was imprisoned for 18 months for joining the Portuguese Communist Party, at the time an illegal organization.

Carlos Paredes was born in Coimbra on 16 February 1925. His father was Artur Paredes, an acclaimed player of Portuguese guitar from Coimbra. His grandfather Gonçalo Paredes, his great uncle Manuel Paredes and his great grandfather António Paredes were also guitar players. Around 1934, aged 9, Paredes and his family moved to Lisbon. He did his primary education at the João de Deus School, and afterwards attended the Passos Manuel Lyceum. While attending the lyceum, he had violin and piano lessons. In 1943, he entered the Chemical Industrial Engineering Course in Instituto Superior Técnico, but was enrolled for only one year. He started playing guitar when he was 4 years old, taught by his father. At age 9, he began accompanying his father on the guitar, in his father's concerts. At age 14, Carlos and Artur Paredes started participating on a weekly show in the Emissora Nacional de Radiodifusão, Portugal's public national radio broadcaster, a show that was created by Artur Paredes himself. According to some sources, people in the prison thought that Paredes was going insane, walking around his cell pretending to play the guitar, when in fact he was composing. After his release from prison, he was suspended from his job in the hospital and worked for some years as a delegate of medical propaganda.

Paredes' first release was a self titled EP in 1957. In 1968 he released three EPs: Porto Santo, Divertimento and Variações em Ré menor.

In 1970 he released a collaboration album with Cecília de Melo, titled Meu País. In 1971, he released his second solo album, Movimento Perpétuo.

In 1982 his piece "Danças Para Uma Guitarra" was choreographed by Vasco Wellenkamp for the Gulbenkian Ballet. In 1986 he released a collaboration album with Portuguese composer António Victorino de Almeida, titled Invenções Livres. In 1987 he released a new solo album, Espelho de Sons, which reached 3rd place in the Portuguese weekly album charts. and Canção para Titi (2000), with recordings from 1993.

In December 1993, Paredes was diagnosed with myelopathy. The disease forced Paredes to stop playing guitar, thus ending his career as a musician. He was interned at the Fundação Lar Nossa Senhora da Saúde, in Campo de Ourique, Lisbon, until his death. Paredes died on 23 July 2004, in Lisbon. Following his death, the Portuguese government declared one day of national mourning in his honour. He lays buried at the Prazeres Cemetery, in Lisbon.

Carlos Paredes was married two times. He married Ana Maria Napoleão Franco, in 1960. His second marriage was with Cecília de Melo. He is remembered for his humbleness by those who knew him. He refused to solely make a living as a musician and kept his job in the radiography archive of the Hospital de São José until the age of 61, stating that he "loved music too much to live from it". He is frequently called "The master of the Portuguese guitar" (Portuguese: O mestre da guitarra portuguesa) Acclaimed fado singer Amália Rodrigues said that Paredes was "a national monument, like the Jerónimos Monastery". The Carlos Paredes Prize, an award for Portuguese musicians given by the Vila Franca de Xira municipality since 2003, is named after him.