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Joaquín Rodrigo

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Joaquín Rodrigo was a Spanish composer and virtuoso pianist, born in Sagunto near Valencia in 1901. At the age of three he went completely blind after diphtheria. At eight he began solfège, piano and violin, and from sixteen harmony and composition. He wrote his music in braille, after which it was transcribed. He studied in Valencia and with Paul Dukas in Paris, where he later studied musicology with Maurice Emmanuel and André Pirro. His first published work dates from 1923.

Music and breakthrough

His most famous piece is the Concierto de Aranjuez, written in Paris in 1939 for the guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza. It is a concerto for guitar and orchestra and a cornerstone of the classical guitar repertoire. Later he and his wife Victoria said that the piece was a response to the miscarriage of their first child. The slow movement was arranged in 1960 by the arranger Gil Evans for Miles Davis's album Sketches of Spain. The jazz guitarist Jim Hall also arranged the second movement.

Influence

The success brought commissions from top soloists. Rodrigo wrote Fantasía para un gentilhombre in 1954 for Andrés Segovia, the Concierto Andaluz for four guitars for Celedonio Romero and his three sons, a harp concerto for Nicanor Zabaleta and works for James Galway and Julian Lloyd Webber. Aranjuez and Fantasía are often paired on one record. Rodrigo died in 1999. His work shows how classical music and jazz could meet through a single melody.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the slow movement of the Concierto de Aranjuez and then compare it with Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis: the same melody, but in a completely different sound.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists