Rodrigo de la Guitarra ("Rodrigo of the

gittern The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...

") was a Spanish

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...

nist and gittern player, active primarily in the first half of the fifteenth century. Rodrigo was in the service of the

House of Trastámara The House of Trastámara ( Spanish, Aragonese and Catalan: Casa de Trastámara) was a royal dynasty which first ruled in the Crown of Castile and then expanded to the Crown of Aragon in the late middle ages to the early modern period. They wer ...

, and was a court composer for

Ferdinand I of Aragon Ferdinand I (Spanish: ''Fernando I''; 27 November 1380 – 2 April 1416 in Igualada, Òdena) named Ferdinand of Antequera and also the Just (or the Honest) was king of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and (nominal) Corsica and king of Sici ...

when he received the

Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of ...

in 1412. At Ferdinand's death in 1416, Alfonso V was crowned King of Aragon, and Rodrigo remained in his service under the title ''ministril de camara''. He was sent to visit the

Count of Foix The Count of Foix ruled the independent County of Foix, in what is now Southern France, during the Middle Ages. The House of Foix eventually extended its power across the Pyrenees mountain range, joining the House of Bearn and moving their cou ...

and the courts of

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

and Castile, accompanied by Diego, a singer who also served the Aragonese royalty."Rodrigo de la Guitarra". ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and the ...

''. 2nd edition, Oxford, 2001. Rodrigo accompanied Alfonso on a visit to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in 1421; while he was away the following year, his wife, Ines Gonzalez, was kidnapped in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, and his house was robbed. The abductors were caught in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsul ...

and punished.M.C. Gómez, "Some Precursors of the Spanish Lute School". ''Early Music'' 20 (1992), pp. 583-593. By late 1423 he had returned to Spain, and is recorded as being in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

; he remains in Aragonese records until 1427. He then disappears from the historical record until 1458, when he was one of several instrumentalists who accompanied the

Feast of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by G ...

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

that year. No surviving works have definitively been attributed to Rodrigo, though it has been suggested that he is the author of ''Angelorum psalat'', a ballade from the Chantilly Codex. In the manuscript, the piece is listed under the name ''

S Uciredor Rodericus (or S Uciredor) was a French composer of the 14th century. Rodericus is known through a single ballade attributed to him in the Chantilly Codex as S Uciredor, which is "Rodericus" spelled backwards. The piece, ''Angelorum Psalat'', is in ...

'', or ''Rodericus'' spelled backwards, and Rodrigo de la Guitarra is the only known musician of the era with that name.

Gilbert Reaney Gilbert Reaney (11 January 1924 – 22 March 2008) was an English musicologist who specialized in medieval and Renaissance music, theory and literature. Described as "one of the most prolific and influential musicologists of the past century", ...

, "The Manuscript Chantilly, Musee Conde 1047". ''

Musica Disciplina The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern editions ...

'' 8 (1954), pp. 78-79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigo De La Guitarra 15th-century musicians 15th-century deaths 14th-century births