About
Josep Rodoreda i Santigós (Barcelona, February 13, 1851 - Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 9, 1922) was a musician and composer.
Biography
He was the son of Ramon Rodoreda and Bonifaci, of Valls, and of Antònia Santigós, of Barcelona.
He composed almost four hundred works of different genres, many of them awarded at the various competitions where he participated. His most famous work is Virolai de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat (1880), popularly known as the Virolai, with lyrics by Jacint Verdaguer. He continued the work of Clavé after his death (1874).
He studied music at Escolania de Nuestra Señora del Remei in Barcelona, under the direction of Nicolau Manent. He was a piano professor at the Conservatory of the Liceu from 1875 to 1883. He was the principal conductor of the Coral Society Euterpe from 1876 to 1886. In 1878 he was appointed permanent member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona. In 1886 he was appointed director of the newly created Municipal Band of Barcelona and the same year of the new Municipal School of Music of Barcelona. In 1898 he marched to San Sebastián to get to the front of the Municipal band of that city. At the beginning of century XX he was in the capital of Spain like professor having between his students in Basque Jose Maria Beobide Goiburu. Towards 1906 he moved to Buenos Aires to take over the artistic direction and chairs and lectures on superior theory, harmony and composition of the Thibaud-Piazzini Conservatory, where he was a professor of what later he would be a great scholar of folklore Argentinean Manuel Gómez Carrillo, without forgetting composition and musical criticism, until his death in 1922.
As Wagner, he was part of the Catalan delegation of the Patronatverein de Bayreuth, a delegation chaired and represented by Joaquim Marsillach; this Board of Trustees of the Bayreuth Festival had been created by Richard Wagner to pay for the cost of the premiere of Parsifal.
The Virolai
In the year 1880, in the year of the Millenarian of Montserrat, Rodoreda was the winner of the musical contest that was celebrated to commemorate the festivities. The competition was presented with 68 scores. Virolai had to be put to music by Jacinto Verdaguer. Actually, the Virolai de Rodoreda would not become a symbol until well into the twentieth century and from then on it would become not only a sign of spirituality but also of Catalanism.
Of his extensive production they emphasize Homeland, on traditional Catalan elements, the Hymn of the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona (1888), the oratorio Las Siete Palabras and the idyllic dramatic Night in the forest for soloists, choir and orchestra. He also left some writings showing fervent Wagner.
Personal fund
His background is preserved in the Orfeó Català Documentation Center. The fund comprises 150 scores, 141 of them are manuscripts and the rest are printed. Also accompanying the bottom 2 opera books. The total works that he conforms are from the same composer who names the background, most of them autographs. Of the musical repertoire that is found among its background, it is worth mentioning religious music such as Masses, Hymns, Te Deum, but we can also find pieces about Basque folklore, operas, songs and various compositions for band. As outstanding scores of the composer we find: La Primavera (1883), by orchestra, the dramatic idyll The night in the woods, with text by Apel·les Mestres (1883), songs and various compositions for band.