Rodrigo, Jaquin

Jaquin Rodrigo (1901 - 1999)

The Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, blind from the age of three, has enriched Spanish music in particular through his concertos for guitar, compositions for which he is best known abroad. Rodrigo studied for a time in Paris, where he spent the turbulent years of the Spanish civil war, his subsequent career largely centred on Madrid.

The best known work of Rodrigo is the Concierto de Aranjuez, for guitar and orchestra, written in 1939, closely followed in popularity by his Fantasia para un gentilhombre. Other guitar concertos include a Concierto madrigal for two guitars and a Concierto andaluz for four guitars. He has written concertos for other solo instruments, including the violin, the cello and the piano and a Concierto serenata for solo harp and orchestra, all in a style that has remained consistent throughout his career, both here and in his stage and vocal compositions.

"I believe my blindness gave me more insight with the inner world. The world in which we the blind live. While sitting on this wicker chair I am thinking that the illness, the loss of vision, was the vehicle that took me down the road to music. Otherwise, I would surely have followed in the footsteps of my family and become a merchant (even though my first wishes were very different. I was set on being a streetcar conductor). I have more auditory memories than visual memories. I remember the song of the crickets, of the cicada, the pounding of the waves, the sound of the organ and the church bells in my hometown."