Josef, Bernard Alcedo (Retuerto)
1788 - 28.12.1878

A brief biography.

José-Bernardo Alcedo was born in Lima (Perú) in 1788, son of Isidoro Alcedo and Rosa Retuerto. He studied music in the priory of St. Agustin in Lima under direction of Cipriano Aguilar, O.S.A. and was at the music-academy in the priory de nuestra Señora del (Santisimo) Rosario in Lima, directed by Pascual Nieves, O.P. There he joined the Dominican Order on 27 May 1806 and was professed in 1807. He was not a priest. Alcedo lived in this priory for fifteen years and was held responsible for the choral song. There he composed his Misa in D in 1804. 
For the proclamation of independence of Spain, don José de Martin offered a prize for the text and melody of the Marcha Nacional del Perú (National Anthem of Peru) on 2nd August 1821. Among others Alcedo sent in two compositions.
Seven compositions were played and the text of José de la Torre Ugarte (1786-1831) with the melody of Alcedo was chosen as National Anthem on 17th September 1821. The soprano Rosa Merino sang this anthem for the first time in the Theatre of Lima, 25th September 1821.
This Anthem is the National Anthem of Perú since 12 February 1913.

Alcedo started as the conductor of the Military Band with the 4th Battalion to Chile, but resigned in Santiago de Chile to devoted himself to the music.
The Archbishop Valdivieso appointed him the Maestro de Capilla of the Choir of the cathedral in Santiago in 1833. He carried out this duties for eighteen years. He returned to Peru in 1864, was under an engagement to the Conservatorio Música in Lima.

He died 28 December 1878.

There are preserved:
Himno Nacional del Peru: marcha Himno al 2 de mayo;
Miserere (1872). Misa en Re mayor. Misa en Mi be mol. Misa en Fa mayor.
Misa de Requiem. Canción para la Bataila de Ayacucho.
Pasión para el Domingo de Ramos. Pasión para el Viernes Santo.
La Araucana, obertura militar para orquesta.
La Chicha, La Cora y La Pola, canciones populares.
Varios Villancicos.

He wrote a Filosofia Elemental de la Música in 1869.

Sources : Guillermo Alvarez Perca, O.P.: Historia de la Orden Dominicana  en el Peru (Siglos XVIII-XIX), Lima 1997, p. 165-170.

Philately

150th Anniversary of Independence, 1821-1971.

Independence Proclamation by José de San Martín in presence
among others the Provincial Jerome Cavero, O.P. and José-
Bernardo Alcedo, O.P., composer of the National Anthem,
in the City Hall of Lima on 23 July 1821. 

Peru 1971, Michel 822, Sc C 325. 

José-Bernardo Alcedo (1788-1878), composer of the National Anthem
of Peru, with the lyricist José de
la Torre Ugarte (1786-1831), and the beginning staves of the National Anthem.

Peru 2006, Mi 2076, Sc -- .

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