Joaquín Rodrigo Writings on Music

Joaquín Rodrigo, Spain's leading composer of the second half of the twentieth century, was also a writer of considerable distinction. In addition to his 170 compositions in almost every musical form, including the world-famous Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, he published articles and critical reviews throughout his working life. This volume makes available Rodrigo's writings to English-speaking readers throughout the world. The generous selection reveals an outstanding critical mind, equally illuminating on the main developments in the history of classical music and its most important composers, from Bach and Mozart to Verdi and Puccini, as well as Rodrigo's contemporaries. Rodrigo?s writings also cover many aspects of the culture and music of Spain and the country's major composers, as well as being an invaluable guide to an understanding and appreciation of Rodrigo's own works. The composer's style of writing is extremely varied, by turns incisive, eloquent, poetic, or delightfully humorous. Given the worldwide fame and popularity of his music, the availability in English of a large number of the composer's many articles and critical reviews will be of the greatest interest to musicians, scholars, music critics, and music-lovers alike.

Foreword

Sir Neville Marriner

Joaquín Rodrigo: 1901 – 1999

Raymond Calcraft

1 On the history of music

2 On major composers

3 On his contemporaries

4 On his own music

Joaquín Rodrigo: literature and music

Raymond Calcraft

Raymond Calcraft is a former head of Spanish at three universities in the United Kingdom. He has published books and articles on many aspects of Spanish literature, music, and painting, and has written and presented several programmes on music for the BBC. He has also conducted choirs and orchestras throughout this country, and in France, Germany, and Spain,

Elizabeth Matthews is a former lecturer in modern Spanish language, literature, art, and film at the Universities of Warwick and Exeter, where she was Director of Studies in the Department of Spanish, and for three years Director of the University’s Foreign Language Centre.