Vals

• Ponce composed this waltz in 1932 for Andrès Segovia.¹
  • Note: the liner notes may give the date as 1937, but Oxford Music Online gives it as 1932, which makes more sense, because both Segovia and Ponce were in Paris in 1932, but Ponce left in 1933. 
• When he wrote this piece, Ponce was living in Paris, where he studied composition with Dukas and founded a Spanish-language musical journal, Gaceta musica. (The journal’s contributors included Villa-Lobos and Milhaud.) Ponce’s good friend Segovia was also living in Paris during this period.² 

“To sum up, your work is what has the most value for me and for all musicians who hear it.” 

Segovia, letter to Ponce, December 1929³

1. “4 Pieces for Guitar (Ponce, Manuel),” IMSLP, accessed July 7, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/4_Pieces_for_Guitar_(Ponce%2C_Manuel). 
2. Ricardo Miranda Pérez, “Ponce (Cuéllar), Manuel” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 7, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022072. 
3. Miguel Alcazar, ed., The Segovia-Ponce Letters, trans. P. Segal (Columbus, Ohio: Editions Orphee, 1989), 13.