He also studied musicology, which prepared him for his career in Spain as a professor of music history, as well as that of a music critic. In 1927 he moved to Paris where he became a composition student of Paul Dukas. He studied piano and violin early, and then advanced subjects at the conservatory in Valencia. Born in Valencia, he contracted diphtheria when he was three years old and permanently lost his eyesight. Rodrigo, of course, is not an unknown, for during his lifetime he became one of the most honored composers that Spain has ever produced, along with Albéniz, Falla, Granados, and Turina. As a result its ubiquity, the composer even had difficulties collecting royalties for its use, owing to ignorance of the composer or the presumption that it was in the public domain. I first encountered it thirty-something years ago so used on a humorous program on KRMA.

It is known and loved the world over, enjoying several lives as background music in any number of contexts. Rodrigo lived a long life as an honored and distinguished composer, but he will always be remembered for this one composition. Certainly, Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for solo guitar and orchestra falls into this category. We can think of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, for example, and perhaps Alford’s Colonel Bogey March, for another. For composers not of the ranks of the immortals it is rare to have the privilege to create the one composition that-almost alone of their works-seems to take on a life of its own, and becomes cherished by the whole world.

Vivaldi guitar concerto program notes