Remembering Manuel Parada

Manuel Parada de la Puente was born in San Felices of Gallegos, Salamanca, Spain on June 26, 1911. He began his musical studies at Salamanca, in the convent school where he studied. His father, a doctor, wanted him to study law. However, Manuel Parada dropped out of law school and devoted himself to composition. He completed his musical studies at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid at the Conservatory of Madrid where he was a disciple of Conrado del Campo, who was also the teacher of such master and diverse composers as Evaristo Fernández Blanco, Federico Moreno Torroba, Jacinto Guerrero, Salvador and Miguel Alonso Barcarise.

During the Spanish Civil War, Manuel Parada joined the national ranks, although he never went to the front lines and served as a pianist in a military band. After the Civil War, through his friendship with Jose Luis Saenz de Heredia, his first collaboration started in cinema with the movie “Raza” (Race) in 1941. In this film, whose script was written by Francisco Franco Bahamonde, financial backing could not be found for to its realization. Parada then became an assistant of the faculty of the National Orchestra, the Symphonic Orchestra and the Philharmonic. In the early forties Parada married and dedicated himself fully to the composing for film. One of the most prolific film composers of Spain along with Juan Quintero and Jesus Garcia Leoz, and his catalog includes more than two hundred works. Manuel composed soundtracks for over ten years and was responsible for both the composition and orchestration.

He held various management positions in the General Society of Authors of Spain, including the office of vice president. During the 1960s he composed scores for 14 Euro-westerns how many of these were in name only for tax purposes is open to question. Among his credited scores were “The Terror of Oklahoma” (1959), “Welcome Padre Murray”, “Four Bullets for Joe” (both 1964) and “Kid Rodelo” (1966). In 1960 he received an award from the Cinema Writers Circle for his entire musical work for the cinema. The two directors with whom he worked the most were Jose Luis Saenz de Heredia and Rafael Gil. Parada also composed music for the theater and composed poetry. He was the author of the music magazine News and Documentary better known as NO-DO from 1943-1981. Manuel Parada died on December 26, 1980 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Today we remember composer Manuel Parada on what would have been his 110th birthday.