Download Beethoven Songs

At the end of 1809, Beethoven was commissioned to write incidental music for Goethe's play Egmont. The result (an overture, and nine additional entractes and vocal pieces, Op. 84), which appeared in 1810, fit well with Beethoven's heroic style and he became interested in Goethe, setting three of his poems as songs (Op. 83) and learning about him from a mutual acquaintance, Bettina Brentano (who also wrote to Goethe at this time about Beethoven). Other works of this period in a similar vein were the F minor String Quartet Op. 95, to which Beethoven gave the subtitle Quartetto serioso, and the Op. 97 Piano Trio in B-flat major known, from its dedication to his patron Rudolph, as the Archduke Trio.[90]

Some forty compositions, including ten very early works written by Beethoven up to 1785, survive from the years that Beethoven lived in Bonn. It has been suggested that Beethoven largely abandoned composition between 1785 and 1790, possibly as a result of negative critical reaction to his first published works. A 1784 review in Johann Nikolaus Forkel's influential Musikalischer Almanack compared Beethoven's efforts to those of rank beginners.[190] The three early piano quartets of 1785 (WoO 36), closely modelled on violin sonatas of Mozart, show his dependency on the music of the period. Beethoven himself was not to give any of the Bonn works an opus number, save for those which he reworked for use later in his career, for example, some of the songs in his Op. 52 collection (1805) and the Wind Octet reworked in Vienna in 1793 to become his String Quintet, Op. 4.[191][192] Charles Rosen points out that Bonn was something of a backwater compared to Vienna; Beethoven was unlikely to be acquainted with the mature works of Haydn or Mozart, and Rosen opines that his early style was closer to that of Hummel or Muzio Clementi.[193] Kernan suggests that at this stage Beethoven was not especially notable for his works in sonata style, but more for his vocal music; his move to Vienna in 1792 set him on the path to develop the music in the genres he became known for.[191]

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While he completed only one opera, Beethoven wrote vocal music throughout his life, including two Mass settings, other works for chorus and orchestra (in addition to the Ninth Symphony), arias, duets, art songs (lieder), and true song cycles.

Thomson expressed his dissatisfaction with the pre-existing words of many Scottish folk songs in a letter to the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), who he asked to supply new words for these Scottish melodies:

The Wunderhorn collection is not an integral cycle but two separate volumes comprising 21 songs, half of which Mahler orchestrated. Thus, soloists must build their own Wunderhorn Mahler burger, choosing the settings and order.

For the full performances of these pieces and five additional Beethoven masterpieces, listen to the full playlist here, and discover the full context of these songs with Beethoven: Variations on a Life.

printed inside the hidden pocket (..) is a first-person note 'from Ludwig Beethoven' that explains when and where he was born, and how he developed a love of musical composition. It's very sweet and has inspired my older son to take to youtube to discover even more of the songs that were created by the famous composer.

The correlation matrix was then thresholded to generate a sparse network in keeping with other biological networks58. The threshold was based on a relationship between the number of nodes and the average node degree (K). This procedure ensured that comparisons across subjects were based on networks with comparable densities. Details of the thresholding procedure and the rationale for the chosen threshold are presented in the Supporting Information. Briefly, the threshold is based on S = log(N)/log(K). For the data presented here, a threshold of S = 2.5 was applied to the matrix, resulting in the binary adjacency matrix (Aij). Once the complete adjacency matrix was generated for each subject, network statistics were calculated. The network statistics for each node were mapped back into 3D brain space to identify the spatial location of key network nodes and network communities. Networks were generated for each participant using the fMRI time series from each subject's six musical experiences. Results presented here are from the participants' favorite song and the highest and lowest rated songs from the five experimenter-selected genres. Therefore, we conducted three separate network calculations based on most and least preferred songs of the iconic music selections and one for their personal favorite song.

Still, Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty, a new single-disc career overview, does a pretty good job capturing all that was great about Camper Van Beethoven, from the somber side to the silly side and all sides in between. Track for track, all 18 cuts, from the goofy "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon" and "Take the Skinheads Bowling" to the somber "All Her Favorite Fruit" and "Sad Lovers Waltz", to the satirical "When I Win the Lottery" or "Club Med Sucks", hold up really well. While the hardcore might not appreciate hearing these songs in a radically new context, some care has obviously been taken to make sure the thing flows. To the group's credit, they don't try to sneak in any songs from their otherwise OK comeback New Roman Times, either.

But then there's the matter of what's missing, songs such as sentimental favorites "Heart" and "She Divines Water", rockers "(We're A) Bad Trip" and "Turquoise Jewelry", or even any of the group's oddball covers of bands as diverse as Pink Floyd, Black Flag, the Kinks, the Clash, the Monkees, and Sonic Youth. Any fan will cite their own favorite glaring omission, though in the case of at least a few of the AWOL tracks, there may be a reason they didn't show up. Controversially-- or intriguingly-- the band had to re-record a handful of songs from its two-album Virgin catalog after the label refused to relinquish the masters (jerks). They're not remakes, they're careful recreations, and they're remarkably faithful to the originals, so all's good with these "new" versions of "Pictures of Matchstick Men" "Eye of Fatima", and "One of These Days".

Below, we help you explore how to play Beethoven on the piano as well as learning some of the basic information about the composer himself.

Start your musical journeyFall in love with the music - Learn your favorite songs; whether they're classical, pop, jazz or film music, all at a level that suits you.Enjoy interactive piano lessons - Learn with courses that help you master everything from music theory, chords, technique and more.Get real-time feedback - Improve your practice with rich feedback as Skoove listens to your playing and highlights what went well and areas for improvement.7 day free trialNo credit card details requiredStart your piano journey now!

Of course, there are wonderful hidden works of his that some musicians love more than others, but the works mentioned above are among his most critically important. These are some of the best piano songs not only of Beethoven, but of any composer throughout history.

His music is enjoyed even more now than it was while he was alive and pianists both advanced and beginners play his work. With the beginner classical course from Skoove, you can enjoy even more of his piano music and impress your friends with songs they know and love, written by the great Beethoven.

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I tell my Google Home (any of them) to play Beethoven or Mozart and it plays the same pop song everytime. If I tell it to skip, it places another pop song, usually the same. Then other maybe related songs. I would expect it to at least spart with a song composed by or with Beethoven in the title or album name.

JOAQUIN RODRIGO VIDRE (1901-1999)\u2028\r\nMarqus de los Jardines de Aranjuez\r\n\r\nLIFE AND WORKS\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n1. LIFE\r\n\r\nJoaqun Rodrigo was born in Sagunto, in the province of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, on St Cecilia's Day, 22 November 1901. He was the youngest of ten children born to Vicente Rodrigo Peirats, a landowner from Almenara (Castelln). His mother, Vicente Rodrigo's second wife, was Juana Vidre Ribelles. In 1905 an epidemic of diphtheria occurred in Sagunto, as a result of which many children died and Joaqun became virtually blind. The composer would say later, without bitterness, that this personal tragedy probably led him towards a career in music.\r\n\r\nThe Rodrigo family moved to Valencia when Joaqun was four years old, where he entered a college for blind children to begin his education. He quickly showed particular interest in literature and music. In Valencia the Rodrigo family often went to the Apollo Theatre, and young Joaqun was particularly attracted by the music which accompanied the performances. He began to receive instruction in music from teachers at the Valencia Conservatoire, although he did not formally enrol there. His teacher of harmony and composition was Francisco Antich, and the musicians Enrique Gom and Eduardo Lpez Chvarri, whose classes he attended, also exercised an important influence on his musical education. As far as the literary culture was concerned, which Rodrigo prided himself in all his life, this was due in great part to the work of Rafael Ibez, who was employed by the family to look after Joaqun, but who was also his companion, secretary and copyist in subsequent years. "Rafael lent me the eyes I did not have", the composer used to say about the friend who read him the masterpieces of Spanish literature, together with works of philosophy, essays and monographs on the most varied subjects.\r\n\r\nAt the beginning of the 1920s Joaqun Rodrigo was already an excellent pianist and composition student familiar with the most important contemporary trends in the arts. His first compositions were written in small musical forms, although his first large orchestral work dates from1924. His opus 1, Two Sketches for violin and piano ('La enamorada junto al surtidor' and 'Pequea ronda'), was written in 1923. The same year also saw the composition of the Suite para piano, the Canoneta for violin and string orchestra, and an austere Ave Maria for voice and organ which he arranged years later for unaccompanied choir. The Berceuse de otoo, also from 1923, was composed originally for piano, but Rodrigo orchestrated it in the 1930s and also incorporated it later into the beautiful Msica para un jardn of 1957. His first work for large orchestra, Juglares, was successfully premiered by the Valencia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrique Izquierdo in 1924. Encouraged by this triumph, Joaqun entered a national competition the following year with a much more ambitious work, Cinco piezas infantiles, which received an honourable mention from the jury and was premiered with great success in Valencia and Paris in 1927 and 1929 respectively. By the latter date Joaqun was studying with his French master Paul Dukas in the cole Normale de Musique in Paris. Rodrigo had decided to move to France in 1927, since the French capital had been from the beginning of the century an important cultural centre for Spanish writers, painters and musicians. It was to be expected, therefore, that the young Joaqun Rodrigo would want to follow in the footsteps of Albniz, Falla and Turina.\r\n\r\nThe youthful works of Joaqun Rodrigo are characterized by a delicate lyrical style, orchestral colours which are at times quite daring, and a harmonic vocabulary reminiscent of Ravel and Granados, among others. These characteristics, and others, would be confirmed and developed through the years of study with Paul Dukas.\r\n\r\nOn his arrival in Paris, Rodrigo and Rafael Ibez, his friend and secretary, took lodgings in the house of the Valencian painter, Francisco Povo, who introduced them to numerous artists, musicians and editors. In the class of Paul Dukas, where Joaqun Rodrigo studied for five years, there were also the Mexican composer, Manuel Ponce, and the Basque conductor, Jess Armbarri, who would later become a great interpreter of the works of Rodrigo. Paul Dukas described Joaqun Rodrigo as perhaps the most gifted of all the Spanish composers he had seen arrive in Paris. An event of great significance in Rodrigo's life occurred at that time, a meeting with Manuel de Falla, which was the start of a lasting friendship between the two. Falla, who was to be admitted as a member of the French Lgion d'Honneur, insisted that in the concert which was to follow the ceremony not only his own music but also the music of young Spanish colleagues such as Hlffter, Rodrigo and Turina should be heard. Rodrigo was always grateful to Falla for that opportunity to perform his own music before a distinguished and discerning audience.\r\n\r\nOn a personal level it was also during these years that the most important event of all occurred for Joaqun Rodrigo, his meeting with the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, whom he married in 1933. Victoria Kamhi was one of the most important influences in Joaqun Rodrigo's career. An excellent pianist, she decided to give up her professional career when she married, in order to dedicate herself exclusively to her husband. Her ability to speak several European languages together with an extensive knowledge of different European cultures made Victoria the ideal companion for Joaqun. Many years later Victoria published an extensive autobiography recounting her childhood, her marriage to Joaqun, and the story of their lives. Its title was De la mano de Joaqun Rodrigo: Historia de nuestra vida.\r\n\r\nThe following year, 1934, after settling in Valencia with his wife, Joaqun Rodrigo composed various songs, among them the famous Cntico de la esposa, to words by St John of the Cross, and his largest work so far, the symphonic poem, Per la flor del lliri blau. With this work he obtained the Crculo de Bellas Artes Prize in Valencia. In Madrid, and again thanks to the support of Manuel de Falla, Rodrigo was awarded the Conde de Cartagena Scholarship, which allowed him to return to Paris with Victoria. Joaqun began to compose assiduously, and works from this period include some of his most important songs and piano pieces. At the same time the composer was attending the classes given by Maurice-Emmanuel at the Sorbonne, and also those of Andr Pirro. He also attended the last classes of his teacher, Paul Dukas. These courses, which covered music from Lassus to the history of opera, were an important source of inspiration for Rodrigo, who was now beginning to have a very solid musical education. In the summer of this same year, the Rodrigos went to Austria to cover the Salzburg Festival as official reviewers for Le monde musical in Paris, and the Valencian paper, Las provincias. It was in Salzburg that Rodrigo composed his moving tribute to the memory of Dukas, the Sonada de adis, at the instigation of the Revue musicale.\r\n\r\nAfter obtaining the renewal of the Conde de Cartagena Scholarship, Joaqun Rodrigo and his wife decided at the beginning of June 1936 to spend some time in Germany, at Baden-Baden. But on the 18th July news came that the Spanish Civil War had broken out. The three years which followed were perhaps the most difficult in the lives of Joaqun and Victoria, since the Scholarship was not renewed again. They decided to give Spanish and music lessons in their room at the institute for the blind in Freiburg, in the Black Forest, where they were received as 'Spanish refugees'. The composer made a study of bird-song there, as well as composing a number of songs, among them the Cancin del cuclillo to a text by Victoria, inspired by the beauty of their surroundings.\r\n\r\nIn the spring of 1938 Joaqun Rodrigo was invited to teach on the summer courses at the University of Santander, which had just opened. The Rodrigos were thus able to renew their contacts with Spanish cultural life, in spite of the difficulties caused by the Civil War. Among the composer's new colleagues were the writers Gerardo Diego and Dmaso Alonso, and the critic Eugenio d'Ors. A very significant encounter took place on the return journey to Paris, when during a lunch with the guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza and the Marqus de Bolarque Joaqun enthusiastically agreed to the idea of writing a concerto for guitar. This work would be the Concierto de Aranjuez. During their last year of residence in the French capital Rodrigo gave piano recitals, undertook various orchestrations which were commissioned from him, and composed a number of songs in light-music style. But when winter arrived the Rodrigos began to consider a permanent return to Spain, once the country was finally at peace. In 1939 Joaqun received a letter from Manuel de Falla in which the latter suggested a post as Professor of Music at either Granada or Seville University. Antonio Tovar also offered him a position in the Music Department of Radio Nacional. Since the Rodrigos were particularly anxious to reside in the Spanish capital, they opted for the second possibility. Joaqun and Victoria finally returned to Spain on the 1st September 1939, two days before the outbreak of the Second World War, carrying with them in a suitcase the manuscript of the Concierto de Aranjuez.\r\n\r\nThe decade of the 1940s was especially important to Joaqun Rodrigo on both professional and personal levels. From 1939 he held the post of Head of the Artistic Section of ONCE, the Spanish national organization for the blind. He was also from 1940 music assessor for Radio Nacional. Cecilia, his only child, was born in 1941, and the following year the composer received the National Music Prize for his Concierto Heroico for piano and orchestra. In 1942 he began work as music critic for the newspapers Pueblo, Marca and Madrid. In 1944 and 45 he was the Director of Music for Radio Nacional, and from 1947 onwards, for the next thirty years, he occupied the position of Manuel de Falla Professor of Music at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1945 he was awarded the Encomienda de Alfonso X el Sabio. The national celebrations of the four-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Cervantes in 1948 inspired one of his most important works, Ausencias de Dulcinea, which was awarded the Cervantes Prize in April of that year.\r\n\r\nOn the 18 November 1951 Rodrigo was admitted to a place as a permanent member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. After his formal address, which took as its subject 'Taught technique and unlearned inspiration', he performed the Cinco Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregn, which had been specially written for the occasion. In 1953 the composer was awarded the Gran Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio and was elected Vice-President of the Spanish Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. In 1954, at the request of the guitarist Andrs Segovia, Rodrigo composed the Fantasa para un gentilhombre for guitar and orchestra, the first performance of which took place the following year in San Francisco, in the presence of the composer\r\n\r\nDuring all these years the composer received many honours both in Spain and from abroad in recognition of his work. He was named Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 1960 and member of the Lgion d'honneur in 1963 by the French government, Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Salamanca in 1964, and in 1966 he received the Gran Cruz del Mrito Civil and the Medalla de Oro al Mrito en el Trabajo. In 1963 he travelled to Puerto Rico to teach a course in the History of Music at the University of Ro Piedras, where he remained until February 1964. These were also years of great personal happiness for Joaqun and Victoria, with the marriage of their daughter Cecilia to the violinist Agustn Len Ara and the subsequent birth of their two granddaughters, Cecilita and Patricia.\r\n\r\nNumerous concerts, recitals and festivals were beginning to take place throughout the world dedicated to Joaqun Rodrigo, now one of the most popular figures in contemporary classical music. A new premiere would take the Rodrigos to the United States again in 1970, that of the Concierto Madrigal for two guitars, which took place in Hollywood. In the following years Joaqun Rodrigo was named Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Southern California (1982), the Universidad Politcnica de Valencia (1988), the Universidad de Alicante and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1989), and the University of Exeter, Great Britain (1990). He was commissioned by two well-known British soloists, James Galway and Julian Lloyd Webber, to write concertos, respectively, the Concierto pastoral for flute, and the Concierto como un divertimento for cello. And in March 1986 Joaqun and Victoria attended a two-week Festival in London dedicated to his music, in which the world premiere took place of one of his last great works, the Cntico de San Francisco de Ass, for choir and orchestra.\r\n\r\nIn 1991 Joaqun Rodrigo received the Guerrero Foundation Prize and the same year was raised to the nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the title 'Marqus de los jardines de Aranjuez'. In 1996 he received another great honour, being awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize "for his extraordinary contribution to Spanish music, to which he has given a new and universal dimension." The same year he was awarded the Medalla de Oro de Sagunto, the Gran Cruz de la Orden Civil de Soldaridad Social, and the Estrella de Oro de la Comunidad de Madrid. In 1998 the French government honoured him with the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and in the same year he received a prize from the Sociedad General de Autores de Espaa as the most distinguished composer of classical music. In 1998 he was awarded the Medal of Honour of the Universidad Internacional, Santander, and, the following year, the Gold Medal of the Festival of Granada.\r\n\r\nHis wife and inseparable companion Victoria died on the 21st July 1997, and Joaqun Rodrigo himself died two years later, on the 6th July 1999, at his Madrid home, surrounded by his family. The mortal remains of Joaqun and Victoria rest together in the family pantheon in the cemetery at Aranjuez.\r\n\r\nSource: Joaquin-Rodrigo.com\r\n Raymond Calcraft\r\n",// }; var person_473_2 = {'headerContent': " Joaquin RodrigoComposer",'headerImageURL': "https:\/\/www.grantparkmusicfestival.com\/application\/files\/1515\/9068\/4304\/Joaquin_Rodrigo_360x360.jpg",'mainContent': "JOAQUIN RODRIGO VIDRE (1901-1999)\u2028\r\nMarqus de los Jardines de Aranjuez\r\n\r\nLIFE AND WORKS\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n1. LIFE\r\n\r\nJoaqun Rodrigo was born in Sagunto, in the province of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, on St Cecilia's Day, 22 November 1901. He was the youngest of ten children born to Vicente Rodrigo Peirats, a landowner from Almenara (Castelln). His mother, Vicente Rodrigo's second wife, was Juana Vidre Ribelles. In 1905 an epidemic of diphtheria occurred in Sagunto, as a result of which many children died and Joaqun became virtually blind. The composer would say later, without bitterness, that this personal tragedy probably led him towards a career in music.\r\n\r\nThe Rodrigo family moved to Valencia when Joaqun was four years old, where he entered a college for blind children to begin his education. He quickly showed particular interest in literature and music. In Valencia the Rodrigo family often went to the Apollo Theatre, and young Joaqun was particularly attracted by the music which accompanied the performances. He began to receive instruction in music from teachers at the Valencia Conservatoire, although he did not formally enrol there. His teacher of harmony and composition was Francisco Antich, and the musicians Enrique Gom and Eduardo Lpez Chvarri, whose classes he attended, also exercised an important influence on his musical education. As far as the literary culture was concerned, which Rodrigo prided himself in all his life, this was due in great part to the work of Rafael Ibez, who was employed by the family to look after Joaqun, but who was also his companion, secretary and copyist in subsequent years. "Rafael lent me the eyes I did not have", the composer used to say about the friend who read him the masterpieces of Spanish literature, together with works of philosophy, essays and monographs on the most varied subjects.\r\n\r\nAt the beginning of the 1920s Joaqun Rodrigo was already an excellent pianist and composition student familiar with the most important contemporary trends in the arts. His first compositions were written in small musical forms, although his first large orchestral work dates from1924. His opus 1, Two Sketches for violin and piano ('La enamorada junto al surtidor' and 'Pequea ronda'), was written in 1923. The same year also saw the composition of the Suite para piano, the Canoneta for violin and string orchestra, and an austere Ave Maria for voice and organ which he arranged years later for unaccompanied choir. The Berceuse de otoo, also from 1923, was composed originally for piano, but Rodrigo orchestrated it in the 1930s and also incorporated it later into the beautiful Msica para un jardn of 1957. His first work for large orchestra, Juglares, was successfully premiered by the Valencia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrique Izquierdo in 1924. Encouraged by this triumph, Joaqun entered a national competition the following year with a much more ambitious work, Cinco piezas infantiles, which received an honourable mention from the jury and was premiered with great success in Valencia and Paris in 1927 and 1929 respectively. By the latter date Joaqun was studying with his French master Paul Dukas in the cole Normale de Musique in Paris. Rodrigo had decided to move to France in 1927, since the French capital had been from the beginning of the century an important cultural centre for Spanish writers, painters and musicians. It was to be expected, therefore, that the young Joaqun Rodrigo would want to follow in the footsteps of Albniz, Falla and Turina.\r\n\r\nThe youthful works of Joaqun Rodrigo are characterized by a delicate lyrical style, orchestral colours which are at times quite daring, and a harmonic vocabulary reminiscent of Ravel and Granados, among others. These characteristics, and others, would be confirmed and developed through the years of study with Paul Dukas.\r\n\r\nOn his arrival in Paris, Rodrigo and Rafael Ibez, his friend and secretary, took lodgings in the house of the Valencian painter, Francisco Povo, who introduced them to numerous artists, musicians and editors. In the class of Paul Dukas, where Joaqun Rodrigo studied for five years, there were also the Mexican composer, Manuel Ponce, and the Basque conductor, Jess Armbarri, who would later become a great interpreter of the works of Rodrigo. Paul Dukas described Joaqun Rodrigo as perhaps the most gifted of all the Spanish composers he had seen arrive in Paris. An event of great significance in Rodrigo's life occurred at that time, a meeting with Manuel de Falla, which was the start of a lasting friendship between the two. Falla, who was to be admitted as a member of the French Lgion d'Honneur, insisted that in the concert which was to follow the ceremony not only his own music but also the music of young Spanish colleagues such as Hlffter, Rodrigo and Turina should be heard. Rodrigo was always grateful to Falla for that opportunity to perform his own music before a distinguished and discerning audience.\r\n\r\nOn a personal level it was also during these years that the most important event of all occurred for Joaqun Rodrigo, his meeting with the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, whom he married in 1933. Victoria Kamhi was one of the most important influences in Joaqun Rodrigo's career. An excellent pianist, she decided to give up her professional career when she married, in order to dedicate herself exclusively to her husband. Her ability to speak several European languages together with an extensive knowledge of different European cultures made Victoria the ideal companion for Joaqun. Many years later Victoria published an extensive autobiography recounting her childhood, her marriage to Joaqun, and the story of their lives. Its title was De la mano de Joaqun Rodrigo: Historia de nuestra vida.\r\n\r\nThe following year, 1934, after settling in Valencia with his wife, Joaqun Rodrigo composed various songs, among them the famous Cntico de la esposa, to words by St John of the Cross, and his largest work so far, the symphonic poem, Per la flor del lliri blau. With this work he obtained the Crculo de Bellas Artes Prize in Valencia. In Madrid, and again thanks to the support of Manuel de Falla, Rodrigo was awarded the Conde de Cartagena Scholarship, which allowed him to return to Paris with Victoria. Joaqun began to compose assiduously, and works from this period include some of his most important songs and piano pieces. At the same time the composer was attending the classes given by Maurice-Emmanuel at the Sorbonne, and also those of Andr Pirro. He also attended the last classes of his teacher, Paul Dukas. These courses, which covered music from Lassus to the history of opera, were an important source of inspiration for Rodrigo, who was now beginning to have a very solid musical education. In the summer of this same year, the Rodrigos went to Austria to cover the Salzburg Festival as official reviewers for Le monde musical in Paris, and the Valencian paper, Las provincias. It was in Salzburg that Rodrigo composed his moving tribute to the memory of Dukas, the Sonada de adis, at the instigation of the Revue musicale.\r\n\r\nAfter obtaining the renewal of the Conde de Cartagena Scholarship, Joaqun Rodrigo and his wife decided at the beginning of June 1936 to spend some time in Germany, at Baden-Baden. But on the 18th July news came that the Spanish Civil War had broken out. The three years which followed were perhaps the most difficult in the lives of Joaqun and Victoria, since the Scholarship was not renewed again. They decided to give Spanish and music lessons in their room at the institute for the blind in Freiburg, in the Black Forest, where they were received as 'Spanish refugees'. The composer made a study of bird-song there, as well as composing a number of songs, among them the Cancin del cuclillo to a text by Victoria, inspired by the beauty of their surroundings.\r\n\r\nIn the spring of 1938 Joaqun Rodrigo was invited to teach on the summer courses at the University of Santander, which had just opened. The Rodrigos were thus able to renew their contacts with Spanish cultural life, in spite of the difficulties caused by the Civil War. Among the composer's new colleagues were the writers Gerardo Diego and Dmaso Alonso, and the critic Eugenio d'Ors. A very significant encounter took place on the return journey to Paris, when during a lunch with the guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza and the Marqus de Bolarque Joaqun enthusiastically agreed to the idea of writing a concerto for guitar. This work would be the Concierto de Aranjuez. During their last year of residence in the French capital Rodrigo gave piano recitals, undertook various orchestrations which were commissioned from him, and composed a number of songs in light-music style. But when winter arrived the Rodrigos began to consider a permanent return to Spain, once the country was finally at peace. In 1939 Joaqun received a letter from Manuel de Falla in which the latter suggested a post as Professor of Music at either Granada or Seville University. Antonio Tovar also offered him a position in the Music Department of Radio Nacional. Since the Rodrigos were particularly anxious to reside in the Spanish capital, they opted for the second possibility. Joaqun and Victoria finally returned to Spain on the 1st September 1939, two days before the outbreak of the Second World War, carrying with them in a suitcase the manuscript of the Concierto de Aranjuez.\r\n\r\nThe decade of the 1940s was especially important to Joaqun Rodrigo on both professional and personal levels. From 1939 he held the post of Head of the Artistic Section of ONCE, the Spanish national organization for the blind. He was also from 1940 music assessor for Radio Nacional. Cecilia, his only child, was born in 1941, and the following year the composer received the National Music Prize for his Concierto Heroico for piano and orchestra. In 1942 he began work as music critic for the newspapers Pueblo, Marca and Madrid. In 1944 and 45 he was the Director of Music for Radio Nacional, and from 1947 onwards, for the next thirty years, he occupied the position of Manuel de Falla Professor of Music at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1945 he was awarded the Encomienda de Alfonso X el Sabio. The national celebrations of the four-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Cervantes in 1948 inspired one of his most important works, Ausencias de Dulcinea, which was awarded the Cervantes Prize in April of that year.\r\n\r\nOn the 18 November 1951 Rodrigo was admitted to a place as a permanent member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. After his formal address, which took as its subject 'Taught technique and unlearned inspiration', he performed the Cinco Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregn, which had been specially written for the occasion. In 1953 the composer was awarded the Gran Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio and was elected Vice-President of the Spanish Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. In 1954, at the request of the guitarist Andrs Segovia, Rodrigo composed the Fantasa para un gentilhombre for guitar and orchestra, the first performance of which took place the following year in San Francisco, in the presence of the composer\r\n\r\nDuring all these years the composer received many honours both in Spain and from abroad in recognition of his work. He was named Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 1960 and member of the Lgion d'honneur in 1963 by the French government, Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Salamanca in 1964, and in 1966 he received the Gran Cruz del Mrito Civil and the Medalla de Oro al Mrito en el Trabajo. In 1963 he travelled to Puerto Rico to teach a course in the History of Music at the University of Ro Piedras, where he remained until February 1964. These were also years of great personal happiness for Joaqun and Victoria, with the marriage of their daughter Cecilia to the violinist Agustn Len Ara and the subsequent birth of their two granddaughters, Cecilita and Patricia.\r\n\r\nNumerous concerts, recitals and festivals were beginning to take place throughout the world dedicated to Joaqun Rodrigo, now one of the most popular figures in contemporary classical music. A new premiere would take the Rodrigos to the United States again in 1970, that of the Concierto Madrigal for two guitars, which took place in Hollywood. In the following years Joaqun Rodrigo was named Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Southern California (1982), the Universidad Politcnica de Valencia (1988), the Universidad de Alicante and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1989), and the University of Exeter, Great Britain (1990). He was commissioned by two well-known British soloists, James Galway and Julian Lloyd Webber, to write concertos, respectively, the Concierto pastoral for flute, and the Concierto como un divertimento for cello. And in March 1986 Joaqun and Victoria attended a two-week Festival in London dedicated to his music, in which the world premiere took place of one of his last great works, the Cntico de San Francisco de Ass, for choir and orchestra.\r\n\r\nIn 1991 Joaqun Rodrigo received the Guerrero Foundation Prize and the same year was raised to the nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the title 'Marqus de los jardines de Aranjuez'. In 1996 he received another great honour, being awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize "for his extraordinary contribution to Spanish music, to which he has given a new and universal dimension." The same year he was awarded the Medalla de Oro de Sagunto, the Gran Cruz de la Orden Civil de Soldaridad Social, and the Estrella de Oro de la Comunidad de Madrid. In 1998 the French government honoured him with the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and in the same year he received a prize from the Sociedad General de Autores de Espaa as the most distinguished composer of classical music. In 1998 he was awarded the Medal of Honour of the Universidad Internacional, Santander, and, the following year, the Gold Medal of the Festival of Granada.\r\n\r\nHis wife and inseparable companion Victoria died on the 21st July 1997, and Joaqun Rodrigo himself died two years later, on the 6th July 1999, at his Madrid home, surrounded by his family. The mortal remains of Joaqun and Victoria rest together in the family pantheon in the cemetery at Aranjuez.\r\n\r\nSource: Joaquin-Rodrigo.com\r\n Raymond Calcraft\r\n",};Unsuk Chincomposer 2351a5e196