Joaquín Rodrigo
(November 22, 1901July 6, 1999),
commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist.
Concierto de Aranjuez
March 11th Irving Symphony Aranjuez Concerto written by spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo
Soloist Zaira Meneses
The Concierto de Aranjuez is a guitar concerto by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the 20th century.
Inspiration[edit]
The Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The work attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature.
According to the composer, the first movement is "animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour without either of the two themes... interrupting its relentless pace"; the second movement "represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.)"; and the last movement "recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar." He described the concerto itself as capturing "the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains" in the gardens of Aranjuez.
Rodrigo and his wife Victoria stayed silent for many years about the inspiration for the second movement, and thus the popular belief grew that it was inspired by the bombing of Guernica in 1937. In her autobiography, Victoria eventually declared that it was both an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon and a response to Rodrigo's devastation at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy.[1] It was composed in 1939 in Paris.
Rodrigo dedicated the Concierto de Aranjuez to Regino Sainz de la Maza.
Rodrigo, nearly blind since age three, was a pianist.[2] He did not play the guitar, yet he still managed to capture and project the role of the guitar in Spanish music.[3]
Political context[edit]
In 1939, the Spanish Civil War had just ended, beginning (or continuing, depending on the part of Spain) the Spanish State of general Francisco Franco. A work premiered in Spain in this highly charged environment had to celebrate, or pretend to celebrate, or permit the interpretation that it was celebrating, the current political situation. The celebration of a palace and gardens of a sixteenth-century Habsburg king offered no ideological threat to the Francoist State, and was in harmony with its emerging policy of celebrating Spanish history, conservatively interpreted.[citation needed]
Composition[edit]
Composed in early 1939, in Paris, amid the tensions of the impending war, it was the first work Rodrigo wrote for guitar and orchestra. The instrumentation is unusual: rarely does the guitar face the forces of a full orchestra. Thus, the guitar is never overwhelmed.
Premiere[edit]
The premiere of the Concierto de Aranjuez was held on 9 November 1940 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, in Barcelona. It was performed by guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Barcelona conducted by César Mendoza Lasalle.
On 11 December 1940 the concerto received its first performance in Madrid, at the Teatro Español de Madrid conducted by Jesús Arámbarri, with the same soloist. The United States premiere was given by Rey de la Torre on 19 November 1959, with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Robert Shaw.
Structure[edit]
This concerto is in three movements, Allegro con spirito, Adagio and Allegro gentile. The first and last movements are in D major, while the famous middle movement is in B minor. Along with the solo guitar, it is scored for an orchestra consisting of two flutes (one doubling on piccolo), two oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons, two horns in F, two trumpets in C, and strings.
First movement[edit]
The first movement’s 40-measure introduction begins with the solo guitar strumming a three-measure theme in 6/8. The theme is made of tonic, supertonic, and dominant chords and features a flamenco-like hemiola rhythm. As it repeats several times, the tonic chord’s uppermost note gets higher, starting with the third, then using the fifth, the tonic, and the fifth again.
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![\relative c'' \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } {
\key d \major \time 6/8 \clef "treble_8"
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "acoustic guitar (nylon)"
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4. = 84
\partial 8
<< {
\set stringNumberOrientations = #'(down)
\override StringNumber #'staff-padding = #'()
\override TextSpanner #'dash-fraction = #'()
\override TextSpanner #'font-shape = #'upright
\override TextSpanner #'(bound-details left text) = \markup { "C. 7ª" }
\override TextSpanner #'(bound-details right text) = \markup { \draw-line #'(0 . -2) }
\override TextSpanner #'(bound-details right padding) = #-3
\override TextSpanner #'(bound-details left stencil-align-dir-y) = #0.8
b8^\markup { \dynamic mf \italic "grazioso" } |
\once \override Score.BarNumber #'break-visibility = ##(#f #t #t)
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #83 \bar "|"
d \startTextSpan b d \stopTextSpan r e cis |
a\2 fis\3 b\rest b4\rest b8 \startTextSpan |
d b d \stopTextSpan r e
\override TextSpanner #'(bound-details left text) = \markup { "C. 10ª" }
r \startTextSpan |
fis d \stopTextSpan b\rest b\rest b\rest
fis' | \acciaccatura { g16[ a] } g8 es^\2 g r <es a>4 |
} \\ {
\override StringNumber #'staff-padding = #'()
r8 | <e,, b' g'>[ r q] a,4 g'8 | d,4 a''8\5 <cis,\6 d>16 d <cis d> d
r8 | <e b' g'>[ r q] a,4 a''8 | d,,,4 a''8\5 <cis,\6 d>16[ d <cis d> d]
r8 | g4. g
} >>
}](https://upload.wikimedia.org/score/9/y/9ye0jvkqubtoqfhm67oa01jfhcx39cs/9ye0jvkq.png)
Second movement[edit]
The second movement, the best-known of the three, is marked by its slow pace and quiet melody, introduced by the cor anglais, with a soft accompaniment by the guitar and strings. A feeling of quiet regret permeates the piece. Ornamentation is added gradually to the melody in the beginning. An off-tonic trill in the guitar creates the first seeds of tension in the piece; they grow and take hold, but relax back to the melody periodically. Eventually, a climactic build-up starts. This breaks back into the main melody, molto appassionato, voiced by the strings with accompaniment from the woodwinds. The piece finally resolves to a calm arpeggio from the guitar, though it is the strings in the background rather than the guitar’s final note that resolve the piece.
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![\version "2.16.2"
\header { tagline = "" }
foo = \relative c' \new Staff {
\key b \minor \time 4/4 \clef "treble"
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "english horn"
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 44
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #2 \bar ""
\override TupletBracket #'stencil = ##f
\override Score.SpacingSpanner #'common-shortest-duration = #(ly:make-moment 1 2)
fis32\(\p e_\markup { \italic dolce } fis8. ~ fis4 ~ fis8\) fis16\( g a8 \acciaccatura { b32 } a16 g |
fis32 e fis8. ~ fis4 ~ fis16[\)\< \set stemLeftBeamCount = #1 \set stemRightBeamCount = #1 r \set stemLeftBeamCount = #1 \times 2/3 { fis16(\( g a]) } b8 cis\) |
\acciaccatura { cis32\! } a16\( g g fis \times 2/3 { fis( e d) } e8 ~ e16\) fis\( d cis d8 \times 2/3 { e16( cis b) } | \break
cis32 b cis8. ~ cis4 ~ cis16[\) \set stemLeftBeamCount = #1 \set stemRightBeamCount = #1 r \set stemLeftBeamCount = #1 cis(\< d] e8 d16 cis) |
cis8(\> b ~ b2.)\!
}
\score {
\foo
\layout {
indent = 0\cm
ragged-last = ##t
}
}
\score {
\foo
\midi { }
}](https://upload.wikimedia.org/score/i/6/i6o62hg3zbis5xof6pbvcegqj5gmk39/i6o62hg3.png)
Third movement[edit]
The third movement is in mixed metre, alternating between 2/4 and 3/4. At the beginning of the movement, four-measure phrases containing 9 beats in total are formed from one 3/4 measure followed by three 2/4 measures. As the movement progresses, the metre becomes more irregular.
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CONCIERTO ANDALUZ for Four Guitars and Orchester
Rodrigo was born in Sagunto (Valencia), and completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He began to study solfège, piano and violin at the age of eight; harmony and composition from the age of 16. Rodrigo studied music under Francisco Antich in Valencia and under Paul Dukas at the „École Normale de Musique” in Paris. After briefly returning to Spain, he went to Paris again to study musicology, first under Maurice Emmanuel and then under André Pirro. He wrote his compositions in Braille, and they were transcribed for publication.
It is a great surprise to many music-lovers that the Spanish composer most associated with the guitar in fact did not know how to play it (he never mastered the instrument himself). Rodrigo not only wrote five concertos for this instrument; he also added more than twenty works for solo guitar to the repertoire, amongst them two sonatas and three groups each containing three separate pieces. In the majority of these works Rodrigo shows himself to be the last of the Spanish composers who worked within a recognisable national tradition.
Concierto Andaluz for four guitars and orchestra, written for the quartet of guitarists, Los Romeros, received its world premiere performance in San Antonio, Texas, USA on 18 November 1967.
The concerto is a poetic evocation of Andalusia, with its sounds, its lights, the fragrance of its flowers. The Spanish rhythms vibrate in the Andalusian groves and instrumental colors sparkle in the Mediterranean sun, as the music of the guitars resounds in the air. It shows characteristics of the flamenco forms Buleria, Zapateado and Sevillana.