Joaquín Rodrigo

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.

‘The translation of every one of the articles, from the simplest to the most complex, could not be bettered, and the concluding essay, a synthesis of music, poetry and history, is simply masterly.’Cecilia Rodrigo‘This is a great work… brilliantly accomplished'.Pepe Romero‘This is a beautifully presented book, and these excellent translations of the writings of Joaquin Rodrigo cover an immense span of musical awareness. The entire publication provides a scholarly revelation of the insights and responses of a great composer, whose creative life spanned the whole of the 20th century.’ Professor Graham Wade, formerly City of Leeds College of Music‘Joaquín Rodrigo is universally regarded as one of Spain's greatest composers, but what admirers sometimes overlook is that he was also a prolific author of writings about music and musicians. These provide us with an indispensable window into the mind of a multifaceted artist, one whose works exhibit both emotional immediacy and intellectual sophistication. But to those not fluent in Spanish, the literary dimension of his creative life has remained largely inaccessible—until now. With the advent of Writings on Music, Calcraft and Matthews make available to readers of English an impressive array of commentaries on a wide variety of musical subjects, rendered in a prose style that matches the elegance of the original Spanish and accurately conveys the composer's insights.'Professor Walter Clark, University of California, Riverside‘It is wonderful to think that the Spanish will long be reminded of their character, their qualities of thought, of feeling, and of being, through the music of Joaquín Rodrigo’Yehudi Menuhin'Raymond Calcraft and Elizabeth Matthews are to be congratulated on the devoted service they have given to Rodrigo. From playing his music, I believe I understand Rodrigo the composer; now I feel I know Rodrigo the man.'Sir Neville Marriner

• ForewordSir Neville MarrinerJoaquín Rodrigo: 1901 – 1999 Raymond Calcraft1 On the history of music2 On major composers 3 On his contemporaries 4 On his own musicJoaquín Rodrigo: literature and music Raymond Calcraft