Rodrigo (Vidre), Joaqun(b Sagunto, 22 Nov 1901; d Madrid, 6 July
1999). Spanish composer. Blind from the age of three, he began his
musical education at an early age and took lessons in composition
with Francisco Antich in Valencia. In 1927 he moved to Paris as a
pupil of Dukas at the Ecole Normale. After his marriage in Valencia
in 1933 to the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, he returned to Paris
for further study at the Conservatoire and the Sorbonne. He lived
and worked in France and Germany during the Spanish Civil War, and
returned finally to Madrid in 1939. Soon after the premire in 1940
of his first concerto, the Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar, he
began to be recognized as one of the leading composers in Spain.
Apart from writing a great deal of music during the following
years, he was active as an academic and music critic, writing for
several newspapers and publishing articles on a wide range of
topics. He also worked in the music department of Radio Nacional
and for the Spanish National Organization for the Blind (ONCE). In
1947 he was appointed to the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music at
Complutense University, Madrid, created especially for him, and in
1950 he was elected to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de S
Fernando.During these and subsequent years he made several tours
throughout Spain, Europe, the Americas and Japan, teaching, giving
piano recitals and lectures, and attending concerts and festivals
of his own music. Amongst the most important of these were
Argentina (1949), Turkey (1953 and 1972), Japan (1973), Mexico
(1975) and London (1986). Distinctions awarded to Rodrigo included
the Gran Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio (1953), the Lgion dHonneur
(1963), election as a member of the Acadmie Royale des Sciences,
des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts of Belgium (1978) to the place left
vacant on the death of Benjamin Britten, and honorary doctorates
from the University of Salamanca (1964), the University of Southern
California (1982), the Universidad Politcnica de Valencia (1988),
and the Universities of Alicante, Madrid (both 1989) and Exeter
(1990). A series of concerts and recitals to celebrate his 90th
birthday took place throughout the world during 1991 and 1992. Two
significant distinctions of Rodrigos old age were the conferment of
the hereditary titles Marqueses de los Jardines de Aranjuez on the
composer and his wife Victoria by King Juan Carlos I in 1992, and
the award of the Premio Prncipe de Asturias de las Artes in
1996.During the second half of the 20th century Rodrigo came to
occupy a position in Spanish musical life close to that of Manuel
de Falla in the first. Like his mentor, he cultivated a style far
removed from the major currents of European musical development
and, as with Falla, his music needs to be judged in the context of
Spain's classical and traditional music, art and literature. His
compositions number around 170, including 11 concertos, numerous
orchestral and choral works, 60 songs, some two dozen pieces each
for piano and guitar, and music for the ballet, theatre and cinema.
His published writings (1999) also demonstrate a remarkable breadth
of knowledge of music and the arts. Rodrigos music attracted
favourable attention from both critics and performers from the
start of his career, first in Valencia and Paris and subsequently
worldwide. His first two guitar concertos, Concierto de Aranjuez
and Fantasa para un gentilhombre, also achieved remarkable
popularity. From the late 1970s onwards, however, appreciation of
his music began to broaden. Wider knowledge of his music
demonstrated that the charge that Rodrigo merely repeated the
formula of his first concerto in later ones could no longer be
substantiated, and recordings showed the quality of such works as
the symphonic poem Ausencias de Dulcinea (1948), the
Scarlatti-inspired piano suite Cinco sonatas de Castilla (195051),
the Invocacin y danza for solo guitar, written in homage to Falla
(1961), the austere Himnos de los nefitos de Qumrn (1965), the
brilliant Concierto madrigal for two guitars (1966), based on a
Renaissance love-song, or the serenely beautiful Cntico de San
Francisco de Ass (1982). Happily the composer's 90th birthday was
also the occasion for thoughtful and appreciative critical
re-evaluations of Rodrigo's music.Rodrigos music was fundamentally
conservative, neocasticista, or faithful to a tradition, to use the
composer's own words. His first works revealed the influence of
composers such as Granados, Ravel and Stravinsky, but his
individual musical voice was soon heard in the songs, piano works
and orchestral pieces composed during the 1920s and 30s. As he
matured, his wide knowledge of and sympathy with the music and
culture of earlier times bore fruit. His forms were traditional,
but appropriate for his purposes, and his musical language, drawn
from both Classical and nationalist sources, underpinned a melodic
gift of remarkable eloquence. He made many of the finest settings
of classical Spanish poetry, his guitar pieces are in the central
repertory, and his concertos are the most significant such works
composed in Spain.WORKS(selective list)instrumentalOrch: 5 piezas
infantiles, 1924; Zarabanda lejana y villancico, 1930; Per la flor
del lliri blau, 1934; Concierto de Aranjuez, gui, orch, 1939;
Concierto heroico, pf, orch, 1942; Concierto de esto, vn, orch,
1943; Conc. in modo galante, vc, orch, 1949; Concierto serenata,
hp, orch, 1952; Soleriana, 1953; Fantasa para un gentilhombre, gui,
orch, 1954; Msica para un jardn, 1957; Sones en la Giralda, hp,
orch 1963; Concierto madrigal, 2 gui, orch, 1966; Adagio, wind,
1966; Concierto andaluz, 4 gui, orch, 1967; A la busca del ms all,
1976; Concierto pastoral, fl, orch, 1977; Concierto como un
divertimento, vc, orch, 1981; Concierto para una fiesta, gui, orch,
1982
Pf: Suite, 1923; Preludio al gallo maanero, 1926; 4 piezas,
1938; 4 estampas andaluzas, 194654; 5 sonatas de Castilla con
toccata a modo de pregn, 195051; 3 evocaciones, 1981
Gui: Zarabanda lejana, 1926; Por los campos de Espaa, 193942; 3
piezas espaolas, 1954; Tonadilla, 2 gui, 1960; Invocacin y danza,
1961; Sonata a la espaola, 1969; Sonata giocosa, 1970; Trptico,
1978
Vn: 2 esbozos, vn, pf, 1923; Capriccio, 1944; Sonata pimpante,
vn, pf, 1966; 7 canons valencianes, vn, pf, 1982
Vc: Siciliana, vc, pf, 1929; Sonata a la breve, vc, pf, 1978;
Como una fantasa, 1979
stagePavana real (ballet, V. Kamhi), 1955; El hijo fingido
(zarzuela, after Lope de Vega), 1964
vocalCntico de la esposa, 1v, pf/orch, 1934; Trptic de Mossn
Cinto, 1v, orch, 1935; Ausencias de Dulcinea, Bar, 4 S, orch, 1948;
4 madrigales amatorios, 1v, pf/orch, 1948; Diez canciones espaolas,
1v, pf, 1951; 3 villancicos, 1v, pf/gui, 1952; Msica para un cdice
salmantino, Bar, SATB, orch, 1953; Cnticos nupciales, 3 S, org,
1963; Cantos de amor y de guerra, 1v, orch, 1965; 4 canciones
sefardes, 1v, pf, 1965; Himnos de los nefitos de Qumrn, 3 S, TB,
orch, 1965; Rosaliana, 1v, orch, 1965; Con Antonio Machado, 1v, pf,
1971; Lricas castellanas, 1v, 3 insts, 1980; Cntico de San
Francisco de Ass, SATB, orch, 1982
Principal publishers: Chester, Ediciones Joaqun Rodrigo, Schott,
UME
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Chase: The Music of Spain (New York, 1941,
2/1959; Sp. trans., 1943, rev. 2/1981 by E. Franco and T. Marco) F.
Sopea: Joaqun Rodrigo (Madrid, 1946, 2/1970) F. Sopea: Historia da
la msica espaola contempornea (Madrid, 1958, 2/1976) A. Iglesias:
Joaqun Rodrigo: su obra para piano (Madrid, 1965, 2/1996) J.M.
Gironella: 100 espaoles y Dios (Barcelona, 1969) M.G. Santos:
Espaoles universales (Madrid, 1969) M. Veyrat: Hablando de Espaa en
voz alta (Madrid, 1972) A. Fernndez-Cid: La msica espaola en el
siglo XX (Madrid, 1973) V. Vay Pla: Joaqun Rodrigo: su vida y su
obra (Madrid, 1977) J. Climent: Historia de la msica contempornea
valenciana (Valencia, 1978) F. Len Tello: La esttica de la msica
vocal de Joaqun Rodrigo: catorce canciones para canto y piano,
Cuadernos hispanoamericanos, no.355 (1980), 70106 T. Marco:
Historia de la msica espaola: siglo XX (Madrid, 1983, 2/1989; Eng.
trans. 1993 as Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century) G. Wade:
Joaqun Rodrigo and the Concierto de Aranjuez (Leeds, 1985) V. Kamhi
de Rodrigo: De la mano de Joaqun Rodrigo: historia de nuestra vida
(Madrid, 1986; Eng. trans., 1992 as Hand in Hand with Joaqun
Rodrigo: my Life at the Maestro's Side) W. Moser: Aranjuez und die
Folgen: Leben und Werk des Komponisten Joaqun Rodrigo, Gitarre
& Laute, ix (1987), 216 R.P. Calcraft, ed.: Catlogo general de
obras de Joaqun Rodrigo (Madrid, 1990, 4/2000) Joaqun Rodrigo 90
aniversario, ed. Sociedad General de Autores de Espaa (Madrid,
1991; Eng. trans. 1992) [incl. catalogue of works] J. Arnau Amo: La
obra de Joaqun Rodrigo (Valencia, 1992) G. Wade: Distant
Sarabandes: the Solo Guitar Music of Joaqun Rodrigo (Leeds, 1996)
A. Iglesias, ed.: Escritos de Joaqun Rodrigo (Madrid, 1999) E.
Moyano Zamora: Concierto de una vida: memorias del Maestro Rodrigo
(Madrid, 1999) RAYMOND CALCRAFT
