The place in history of the Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo is secured by a single work, the Concierto de Aranjuez, composed more than 50 years ago, but so popular in the 1990s that over 40 recordings are currently available. The work has been transcribed from the original guitar to other instruments, including voice and trumpet.
Rodrigo was born in Sagunto, Spain, on November 22, 1901, one of ten children. At the age of three, his vision was affected by diphtheria, and he was nearly blind throughout his life. Nonetheless, he learned to play the violin, and at 14 was studying harmony and counterpoint. He was encouraged in his studies by the great Spanish composer and pianist Manuel de FALLA. Rodrigo also studied under the composer Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory beginning in 1927, aided by his secretary/copyist, Rafael Ibanez.
Although he was in touch with all compositional styles current in Europe during his studies in Paris, Rodrigo never abandoned his Spanish roots and his love for the guitar and Spanish folk song.
Rodrigo’s first major work, Juglares (1924), was given a premiere by the Valencia Symphony Orchestra, and it was this success that persuaded the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi to perform his orchestral work Cinco Piezas Infantiles in 1929. The pieces won second prize in the Spanish National Competition and remain popular teaching pieces to this day. Rodrigo married Kamhi in 1933.
For the duration of the Spanish Civil War Rodrigo lived abroad, but he returned to Spain in 1939 to become the musical advisor of the National Spanish Radio, and the chairman of art and publicity of the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind. In 1948, he became the head of the latter organisation, and taught and worked as a music critic for the newspaper Pueblo. It may have been Rodrigo’s experiences with the Spanish bureaucracy that led to the Gran Marcha de los Subsecretarios (Grand March of the Bureaucrats) duet for piano.
The Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and chamber orchestra was composed in 1940, and has been recorded by every major classical guitarist including Angel and Pepe Romero, Narciso Yepes, Julian Bream and John WILLIAMS, and also by the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. The jazz trumpeter Miles DAVIS recorded a version of the slow movement, arranged by Gil Evans, on the album Sketches of Spain.
For 30 years beginning in 1948, Rodrigo occupied the Manuel de Falla chair at the University of Madrid. His interest in folk music, which he taught, led to the Doce Canciones Espanolas (1951) and the Cuatro Canciones Sefardies (1967).
Rodrigo’s reputation continued to grow during this period. The English composer Robert Shaw brought his work to New York, and the harpist Nicholas Zabaletta commissioned a harp concerto from him in 1956. In 1958, the legendary guitarist Andrés SEGOVIA played Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un gentilhombre with the San Francisco Symphony. Rodrigo festivals were held in Japan in 1972 and in Mexico City in 1981. A week-long festival in Jerusalem, underwritten by the publisher Schott, took place in 1983, and Rodrigo’s music was the focus of concerts spread over two weeks in London in 1986. In 1994, a short film, Shadows and Light, was made by Bullfrog Films, recording the composer in his 90s.
Although Rodrigo has not had a significant impact on music history, he was one of the most popular composers of his day.
Jane Prendergast
SEE ALSO:
FOLK MUSIC; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
Kamhi de Rodrigo, Victoria, trans. Ellen Wilkerson. Hand in Hand with Joaquin Rodrigo: My Life at the Maestro’s Side (Pittsburgh, PA: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1992).
Concierto Andaluz; Concierto de Aranjuez;
Concierto Galante; Fantasia para un
gentilhombre; Tonadilla.