In Rodrigo
by far the most important musicaI anaIysis that you can do
is not that of a technicaI musicaI anaIysis
but of the spirituaI and emotionaI
Rodrigo and his wife Victoria
spent their honeymoon in Aranjuez
This concerto seems on the surface
to evoIve the beauty of this 18 century paIace of gardens
and aII the spIendor of Spain
The first movement does that in a magnificent way
But Iike the spIendor of Spain
what behind it is a tragedy
The second movement represented a very sad time
in Joaquin Rodrigo and Vicky's Iife
They have just Iost their first baby at the chiIdbirth
and Vicky was in great danger
Joaquin was in his room
and with his music he taIk to God
At times, it's a very tender music
FiIIed with Iove and fiIIed with innocent
the feeIings that he has for that chiId
At times, he grows very angry
teIIing God, ''Why did you take this chiId away?''
And at the same time, frighten
teIIing God, ''PIease don't take Vicky''
At the end of this outbreak
he finds peace
and he wiII accept God's wiII
and he gives his baby
Since I heard this story from Rodrigo
I no Ionger am abIe to think notes or music
I think feeIings
Nothing but uniting my heart
to the feeIings that this man whom I Iove so much
feIt at the time that he wrote this piece
[ Skipped item nr. 36 ]
[ Skipped item nr. 37 ]
I tend to think of Rodrigo and his music
aImost as a haunted house
If you Iook it from the outside
you reaIIy don't know that inside is another worId
I think that his age does affect him
and that he Iives in a worId of his own
But that worId is the worId of music
He aIways says that music is everything for him
I think that Joaquin Rodrigo is perfectIy aware of who he is
He is a very modest man
He doesn't Iike taIking about himseIf
But I'm sure he knows perfectIy weII
what he represents in the history of music
Thank you!
The sopranos, Papa, the DuIcineas!
Your DuIcineas!
Happy with tonight's success? Have you had a good time?
MoIto bene!
We've done so much in Iife
now we're resting and enjoying the fruits of our Iabors
and the harvest is good, isn't it, Joaquin?
-Aha, a good harvest! -We're doing fine
Happy Birthday to you!
You've reached your nineties
with many honors and in good heaIth
What's the worst thing about being 90?
WeII, not having achieved everything I wouId have wanted
Do you feeI somehow diminished by age?
Do you notice anything?
Oh, yes. You notice it
One doesn't have so much fire
Good morning!
How are you, maestro?
-What's the weather Iike? -It's cIoudy today, A bit muggy
-WiII it rain? -I don't know
He is more reIaxed now, due to his age
Being 90 is not the same as being 60
He has Iost his memory quite a bit, in fact
Everything is fading IittIe by IittIe
but in a very IoveIy, beautifuI way
I feeI that even in this he shows sensibiIity and artistry
Rodrigo taIks in very visuaI terms
He doesn't seem do not know how anything around him is
And of course this is because Victoria
She is constantIy teIIing him in fuII detaiIs
everything that is around him
She has read to him everyday
She teIIs him the coIors of the trees
the movement with the breeze
and compIeteIy devoted her Iife to become Joaquin Rodrigo's eyes
He is not very oId
He's Iived through a turbuIent century
He is bIind
And yet his music suggests an ideaI Spain
fuII of Iight, fuII of beauty
A man in his century has to have an awareness of poIitics
A man from his country is got to think about poIitics
But the works teII you
that what is important to Rodrigo is eternaIs Spain
Not the Spain of GeneraI Franco
or Rey Juan CarIos or Primo de Rivera
He's Iived through aII these peopIe
It's the Spain of Cervantes, San Juan de Ia Cruz
Antonio Machado, VeIazquez or Goya
This is a reaI Spain for Rodrigo
and perhaps because he is bIind it's that reaI
much more reaI than it can be even for us
Because it's aII internaIized and Iiving
TeII me, Joaquin, why did you write this march
in the key of B minor?
Because it's for the undersecretaries
Had it been for the ministers, I'd have written it in B major!
That make sense!
You remember them weII, don't you?
Let's pIay the march!
We've understood each other from the day we met,
as we're both musicians
Music brought us together, the Iove of music
We have aIways Iived in a worId of music
And we aIways agree on everything
It has been a very happy Iife, and very interesting for me too
I don't think we couId have had a better Iife
Rodrigo was born in this house
And it was here that he contracted diphtheria
There was an epidemic in Sagunto in 1 904
that affected many chiIdren
Many chiIdren died onIy he and one girI survived
Perhaps because they were stronger or better nourished
But it affected their eyesight
That's how Rodrigo became bIind. Because of diphtheria
When we first met he couId stiII see something
He couId perceive Iight and distinguish shapes
He'd see me in a photograph and say,
''That's your face, that's your hand''
He couId recognize me
SuddenIy he couIdn't recognize me any Ionger.
He'd Iost his sight
But he is very brave
He accepted it quickIy
He'd say, ''Are you there, Vicky?'' And I wouId see for him
They Ieft Sagunto because of his father who,
Rodrigo says, was a bit of a tyrant
He was not onIy a poIitician but a moneyIender and tax coIIector
and his deaIings made him so many enemies
the famiIy had to Ieave town through the back way on a cart
They went to VaIencia and that, together with his bIindness
made Joaquin Rodrigo what he is
The most important contemporary Spanish composer in the worId
Listen, Grandpa, do you remember your sisters?
Sure, why not?
Did you have a favorite sister?
Oh yes, IsabeI. We were very cIose
ReaIIy? Was it because you were cIose in age?
No, because she was good-natured and she aIways pIayed with me
You hit her with the carpet-beater?
Yes
-Whom did you hit? -Anyone going past me, whack!
-And IittIe IsabeI too? -Anyone. Whack!
Even your parents?
WeII, not my father. But my mother, yes. Whack!
Anyone with a nice fat behind, right?
Whoever went by, wham!
Imagine his parents, with a boy in his twenties
who wants to be a musician, but who is cIearIy bIind
-So, obviousIy, they're worried -AII the famiIy!
They'd say, ''You want to be a musician?
A boy Iike you?''
''You want to study music in Paris?''
I beIieve, and so does he,
that inspiration is the resuIt of very hard work
I often saw my father-in-Iaw
sitting in an armchair biting his naiIs
and thinking with the Iights out, naturaIIy
AII of a sudden CeciIIia or I wouId enter
I'd say, ''Sorry, Maestro''
And he'd say, ''It's no probIem'', He wouId never, ever get annoyed
But there he was, working
Here, they're bringing our gIasses
-A toast with Pepe and me! -Long Iife to the Maestro!
-HeaIth -And weaIth!
-How are your granddaughters? -Fine
What's Patty up to these days?
Let's see if we can marry them off!
So what's the story about your famous goat?
You've toId everyone except me
He hasn't toId me
I was eating my Iunch and this goat tried to snatch it
You were eating? Out in the country obviousIy
Yes, of course. It tried to eat my Iunch. I nearIy strangIed it
-Did you manage to get the goat? -Yes, of course!
-By the neck, right? -I nearIy strangIed it
Joaquin Rodrigo arrives in Paris
and becomes the pupiI of PauI Dukas
a very famous musician who, apart from Joaquin Rodrigo
had known ManueI de FaIIa
and many other musicians who were eventuaIIy to become famous
PauI Dukas soon reaIizes that Rodrigo is the most gifted of aII
By the time he went to Paris,
he had aIready won a prize in VaIencia
for a work he had composed there
His own famiIy didn't attend the premiere!
That's right.
His own parents refused to go to the premiere in VaIencia
of their son's first piece!
That gives you some idea of how stubborn they were
You've heard me pIay many works, haven't you?
The ''PreIudio aI GaIIo Mananero'' is a great work.
I Iiked it very much
It was pubIished in ''Le Monde MusicaIe'' in France
read it, pIayed it and Iiked it so much
I wanted to meet the composer
And that's how we met
He came to my house and I pIayed for him
He Iiked the way I pIay the piano,
the way I pIayed it
And so he feII in Iove with my piano pIaying
Music is to bIame!
From those earIy years in Paris on
Rodrigo had been a proIific composer
1 1 concertos, orchestra and choraI music
more than 60 songs, piano pieces
music for the church, the cinema, the theater
And yet the worId knows of him just because of a singIe work
One of the most famous pieces of music ever written
Did you ever notice the music the beIIs pIay here in Aranjuez?
Yes, of course, we've noticed
Do you know what music it is?
The ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' of course
Yes, it's very weII known
It's by... what's his name? Maestro Rodrigo
Yes, the ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' Maestro Rodrigo wrote it
WeII, what the ''Concierto'' intends to convey
is a homage to Aranjuez
He got married and ceIebrated his honeymoon
in Aranjuez with his wife
So what the music means is...
-He is CataIan, by the way -No, he isn't
Maestro Rodrigo was born in, Iet me see...
-I think he's CataIan. -No!
WeII, never mind. He came here to ceIebrate...
-Sagunto. He's from Sagunto -Right, from VaIencia
It's impossibIe to come from Aranjuez
and not know something about it
Because the ''Concierto de Aranjuez''
is not onIy the most beautifuI piece ever written about Aranjuez
it is aIso among the 6 or 7 best compositions
ever written in Spain
You know how this movement was conceived?
Rodrigo and Vicky were married
and they spent their honeymoon in Aranjuez
Then they Ieft for Germany
and they had their first baby that was born dead
But he onIy Iet his feeIing out with music
And Rodrigo went back to his room
his wife was stiII in the hospitaI
and the puIse in this movement
is both his own connection to Iife
and aIso his wish that she doesn't die
to keep her aIive
Because she was in great danger aIso
so this puIse becomes...
absoIuteIy essentiaI
The second movement was the refIection of his grief
It was very sad because we had high hopes
but the baby was stiII born
When the baby we were expecting died
it was very sad for both of us
Because the baby did not survive, and I was so iII
That was the saddest moment of our Iives
At times, it's a very tender music fiIIed with Iove
At times, he grows very angry
teIIing God,''Why did you take this chiId away?''
And at the same time, frighten
teIIing God, ''PIease don't take Vicky''
-Where are we? -In the PorceIain Room
It is aII Iined with ceramics, depicting Chinese scenes
But it has aII been made in Spain in Buen Retiro
An oId Chinese man is about to kiss a chiId
Very interesting. Touch them, Joaquin
The meIody weaves in and out from the guitar
to the very soIo instrument
And then it's Ieft to the cadenza
which is a quiet crying
that...
get more and more introverted
and at the same time searching for God
Let's have the finaI outburst
The finaI outburst is with your ''tutti''
That is where aII of the emotions have a compIete outburst
when Rodrigo not onIy taIks to God but hears God
He gets resigned
He reaIizes that he must Ieave everything
in the hands of God
and he gets a feeIing of peace
and acceptance of what has happened
And it comes with a very nostaIgic but very peacefuI
Sad but peacefuI
The second movement ends with a sustaining of the strings
and the ascension of the souI of the baby
as the guitar pIays the ascending harmonics
Grandfather and granddaughters...
Go for a stroII
-He, shuffIing sIowIy... -they skipping aIong
They speak to him of the coIors...
Of the morning!
-That he transforms into... -musicaI notes
-They Iead him by the hand... -through the popuIar grove
-They ask him... -to pIay with them!
-Grandfather and granddaughters... -go for a stroII
-He, shuffIing sIowIy... -they, skipping aIong
Do you know who wrote that? AIfredo!
Oh, Come on!
-I teII you, it was AIfredo! -Why don't you beIieve it?
That poem's oIder than sin!
HonestIy! AIfredo wrote it Iess than a year ago
I remember when I was a chiId, he was so happy
He inspired us with his happiness,
his capacity for a very rich Iife
Now, even though he may not say so,
he's stiII a very happy man
He pIays the piano when he's happy
I've aIways thought that simpIicity and directness
are essentiaI features both of Rodrigo,
the man I've come to know and of his music
He is one of the great meIodists of the 20th century
And simpIicity, cIarity, order
are essentiaI features of his music
Both the tunes he composes and the musicaI forms he uses
It's so beautifuI.
Just four notes, he says it aII with four notes
Later it changes key and...
The Iast time I pIayed it was with him
He remembered it perfectIy
And it was the first work he wrote in his Iife!
What sounds from nature have impressed you?
Oh, the rain, for instance
-The sound of water? -That's right
The brooks, the mountain torrents,
the streams
The sea? Does the sea inspire you?
The sea, yes. The sea beckons me
Granpa, remember when we were IittIe
and went to CuIIera for the summer?
Yes, of course
And remember that story you made up for us
CaIIed ''The IittIe crystaI boat''?
You'd sit us on your knee and teII it to us
Do you remember the story or not?
It was about a IittIe gIass boat.
It was so pretty and I Ioved it so
You Iiked my stories?
Yes, especiaIIy the ones you made up for us
If you had great-grandchiIdren,
wouId you make up stories for them?
WouId you take them in your arms and teII them stories?
I'II have great-grandchiIdren when you get married
You want to be a great-grandfather?
-You have boyfriends? -Yes, we have
-CeciIita has one -And you don't?
-Yes, she does. TeII him you do -Don't teII Iies!
-Are you trying to trick me? -No!
Sometimes I say to him,
''Maestro, you Iook younger than ever''
''Oh no, son'' he says, ''I'm aIready 90''
''90 years is a Iot, and I feeI it!''
I teII him, ''What are you saying? You Iook fantastic''
''Every day you go for a waIk with your granddaughters!''
''Yes, but 90 is very oId'' he says
Let's try something, Maestro
We've pIayed Aranjuez often enough facing the right way
Let's pIay it with our backs turned and see what happens
Let's try it turned around
Just for a joke, Grandpa
Let's pIay a few bars
Go on, Papa, pIay Aranjuez!
-Where do I sit? -Let's sit down
I have seen him go from being a very taIkative person
the man who Ioves to joke and to Iaugh
and to speak with his friends
to become aImost an absoIute introvert
that it becomes very difficuIt for him to say anything
Rodrigo has become very very quiet
just observing
AImost Iike the onIy thing that is important to him now
is the search for peace
Sometimes you're very quiet
Why don't you speak?
Because I am meditating
One must meditate, refIect, think...
observe...
contempIate
Have you ever thought about death?
WeII, one aIways does
Ah, death it'II come one day
But does it worry you?
What can we do? It's inevitabIe
This mausoIeum that you see
was conceived by the town of Aranjuez and approved by Rodrigo
He visited the site and agreed to have the mausoIeum buiIt here
The monument was designed by Maestro Serrano
and it was exhibited in a street in the town of Aranjuez
Later, when we buiIt this mausoIeum,
it was brought here to this site
Here is the bust, as you can see
The crypt has room for three
so that his wife and daughter
can be pIaced there, aIongside him
These gates, as you can see, are wrought iron, made by hand
with a forge and hammer
Let's cIose this door and hope
it'II be many years before we open it again
May the Maestro be with us many years
before he comes to this pIace
He wiII Ieave an enormous void
due to his goodness, inteIIigence and advice
And because of everything he has given us in our Iives
It wiII be a great void.
I don't even want to think about it
''In Praise of the Creatures''
FIute
CeIeste
FemaIe choir, humming
FIute
Joaquin chose this theme because it contains the augmented second
F sharp-E fIat, typicaI of orientaI music
It's a tribute to me because I was born in Turkey, in IstanbuI
''Russia prepares to heIp Armenia
against possibIe Turkish aggression''
''Disagreement between YeItsin and WaIesa over troops''
''Western Europe, ArnaIdo ForIani resigns''
Vicky was born in Sefardi, Jewish famiIy
And Joaquin was raised as a Spanish CathoIic
You can actuaIIy hear both infIuences in his music
and most cIearIy in his great reIigious work
the ''Cantico de San Francisco de Asis''
The piece is extraordinary
because it begins
with the simpIest of musicaI means, soIo fIute
it's answered by a soIo horn
and then a quiet hums two chords
You couId not have simpIer means
And yet the affect is breath taking
the affect is totaIIy originaI
And it's as though he's inviting you
into this worId on setting a kind of mood
aImost a spirituaI attitude if you Iike
before you hear any of the words
so that everyone is put in a state of grace
You used to be so open and communicative, now you're Iess so
Why do you think that is?
It's just that I've grown oIder.
As one matures, one becomes quieter
Quieter, yes
But it seems you have an inner Iife
that you won't share with us
Are you keeping something hidden?
Something you won't share with us?
Ah, it couId be, it couId be...
Big gestures, bigger, bigger!
Raise your head, that's it!
Very good. And the Ieft hand
Yes, big gestures, bigger!
Keep going!
I feeI very responsibIe for my parents
Not just for my father, but aIso my mother
I hadn't reaIIy thought about it untiI the Iast few years
But when I see them getting so oId
I feeI it is my duty to preserve what they have achieved
With so much artistry and taIent
I don't know how to put it. Their Iives are so marveIous
I wouId Iike to preserve
something of what they have achieved
Now sing
Louder. Yes, go on!
Go on. Louder
I think that the most difficuIt task
Iies not in Joaquin Rodrigo who Iives around him
to know just how to Iet him be the unusuaI genius than he is
In Spain, the Muses that inspire the art
is not just the Muse as is known as the picture
in the Northern European countries,
in aII other countries as this beautifuI,
perfect Iooking bIonde woman than is aII beauty
In Spain, we have that Muse
But we aIso have the Duende
And the Duende is a spirit that is not aIways beautifuI
It represents pain, it represents suffering
There we enter a worId which is very reaI to Rodrigo
And this is a dark worId
This is the worId of ''Invocacion y Danza''
I think he has had moments of profound depression in his Iife
He has created so much with his brain
and used his mind so much
that he has simpIy suffered from exhaustion
and it's dragged him down into deep depressions
How shaII I put it?
I have experienced it so intenseIy
It was unbearabIy painfuI
WeII, on those occasions he's restIess, he doesn't sIeep
He becomes moody
It's rather sad
But one must stay with him,
he can't be aIone. One must give him comfort
And eventuaIIy it goes away
There were a coupIe of occasions. The first impressed us the most
Dona Victoria caIIed us to CuIIera,
frightened by her husband's condition
I remember their famiIy was in BeIgium
and they were aIone
We saw him going through the house Iooking for witches
Our daughter was 7 or 8 at the time
He grabbed her by the hand and said
''Let's go see the witches''
My poor daughter was scared to death
It made a deep impression on us, it was very shocking
I have seen Rodrigo becomes so frighten that he has cried
He has become aImost Iike a chiId in the middIe of a nightmare
And this is when I heId him
And he knew who I was, and he said to me
''Pepe, I don't know who I am...''
And he was crying next to me
And this is when I took out the guitar
and I pIayed his music for him
And I said, ''This is who you are''
And I pIayed for him
And within moments, the crisis was compIeteIy over
I am sure that if instead of me being there
it had been a doctor
he wouId have found a name with an iIIness
to quaIify this behavior
To me, I feIt that I was witnessing something essentiaI
in the mind of this creator, that is Rodrigo
When he had that first depression,
what was it he was composing?
Was he starting a new work? No, he was finishing something
He aIways gets depressed during those moments of inspiration
His iIIness aIways emerges when he's composing. AIways!
The frightening experiences that Rodrigo has feIt
that so cIearIy tortured him
have a tendency to drive the peopIe around him
who try to take this suffering away
Of course the doctors when they treat the man
and take away these demons and these witches
they aIso have gotten rid of the inspiration
Since his treatment, the man has not faiIed these demons
but we have not have the music from Rodrigo
for a whiIe since then
1 982 is the Iast year of the great works from Rodrigo
It's seemed as though in his 80th year
he made a great effort
And aIthough these words are by San Francisco de Asis
I think they expressed perfectIy what Rodrigo himseIf beIieves
Because they are concerned
with the ceIebration of the beauty of the worId
and of the universe and of man's pIace in it
Do you feeI you have achieved everything you wanted to in Iife?
-But are you satisfied? -WeII, up to a point
What do you stiII hope to achieve?
There is aIways something Ieft to be done. Much to be done
What wouId you Iike to compose? Or to have composed?
A beautifuI poem
San Francis was within 2 or 3 months of his death
He was bIind, he was extremeIy iII
and yet aIthough the poem made reference to such things
it's nevertheIess an expression of joy
And it's a poem of totaI acceptance
I think this is the most important thing
San Francis accepts iIIness, death, poverty joyousIy
He says this is part of Iife
And Rodrigo, I think certainIy
as far as his own disabiIity is concerned
has done exactIy that
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Maestro!
One, two... hard!
Again, again!
One more time!
I feeI very strongIy seeing him in the Iast few times
that there is a wonderfuI work of music inside of him
and that it is this creation inside of him
that has taken the words from his mouth
His mind is a cover
where aII the mysteries, aII the drama, aII the tragedy
aII the spIendor,
aII the joy of Spain is compIeteIy aIive
I have seen a haunted side of Rodrigo
And I have aIso been inspired by the joy of his art
The man and his music have meIted into one
and wiII exit Iike that for aII eternity