Antonio Rodríguez de Hita (18 January 1722 – 21 February 1787) was a Spanish composer.

Life

Rodríguez was born at

Valverde de Alcalá Valverde de Alcalá is a municipality of the Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula a ...

. He became ''maestro de capilla'' at

Palencia Cathedral The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Antoninus () is a Roman Catholic church located in Palencia, Spain. It is dedicated to Saint Antoninus of Pamiers. History The cathedral was built from 1172 to 1504 stands over a low-vaulted Visigothic crypt (the Cr ...

(c.1740-c.1757) and at the

Royal Convent of La Encarnación Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

, Madrid. His father, Marcos Rodríguez del Mercado, a schoolteacher at Corpa Madrid, forced him to study at the college of the Cathedral of

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...

, where he studied Latin, music theory, plainchant, organ and composition. Early in August 1738, he was named second

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

in the cathedral and in September was appointed ''maestro de capilla'' through open competition. Rodríguez took holy orders later. His earliest known works are the Vespers for 2 choirs written in the old style, 1740. In August 1744 he became ''maestro de capilla'' at

. In 1747 he was ordained priest and remained at Palencia until at death of José Mir y Lusa, maestro at the

, Madrid. While at Palencia he wrote the treatise ''Diapasón instructivo'' (1757) in which he promoted the French and Italian homophonic styles over the old Spanish style.Bonastre, F. ''Estudio de la obra teórica y práctica del compositor Antonio Rodríguez de Hita''. Francesc Bonastre i Bertrán. ''Revista de musicología'' 1979 In 1765 Rodríguez was named Mir's replacement and moved to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

in 1765. At this point he had already composed the 250 sacred works that constitute the bulk his oeuvre. Only three years after his arrival in Madrid he started his activity as a theatrical composer in association with the playwright

Ramón de la Cruz Ramón de la Cruz (28 March 1731 – 5 March 1794) was a Spanish neoclassical dramatist. Born in Madrid, he was a clerk in the ministry of finance. He is the author of nearly 400 ''sainete A sainete (farce or titbit) was a popular Spanish com ...

, with whom he helped create the national zarzuela style. Their first work was ''Briseida'' (1768), a heroic zarzuela, based on a modernization of the work of

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (17 January 160025 May 1681) (, ; ) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished Spanish Baroque literature, poets and ...

which was a great success. This was followed by the comedy ''Las segadoras de Vallecas'', and in the next year, 1769, another rural comedy ''Las labradoras de Murcia''. Rodríguez returned to the heroic genre with ''Scipión en Cartagena'', but this was not well received and Rodríguez began to concentrate again on sacred music. In 1777, taking advantage of his high standing in society, Rodríguez wrote a report on the state of music in Spain and demanded the creation of an Academy of Music to promote a Spanish style – though his own definition of the new Spanish style included many French and Italian characteristics. He died in

. Rodríguez de Hita was also teacher of the poet and musician

Tomás de Iriarte Tomás de Iriarte (or Yriarte) (18 September 1750 in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife – 17 September 1791 in Madrid) was a Spanish neoclassical poet. Life Tomás was born to the Iriarte family, many of whose members were writers in the humani ...

Works

Musical treatises

* ''Diapasón instructivo'' (1757)

Sacred

* ''Vísperas a 2 coros'' (1740) * ''Canciones instrumentales'' (Escala diatónico-chromático-enharmónica) (1751) * ''Completas'' (1751) *

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

a 8 voces ''Credidi'' (1756) y ''Laudate Dominum'' (1759) * Misa ''Exsultavit ut gigas'' (1758) *

Villancicos The ''villancico'' (Spanish, ) or vilancete ( Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Ped ...

''Venid, escuchad, prestad atención'' (1746), ''Ha de este trono'' (1757), ''Esferas, qué es esto'' (1763) y ''Alegres las campanas'' (1764) * Villancicos ''Venid al portal'' y ''Oye, pues, divino amor'' (1776); ''Para quién es, gitanillas, el panderillo'' (1780); ''En fieros huracanes'' (1770); ''Alto alorbe'', (1777); ''Dadme consuelo'', (1775) y ''Oh Admirable'' (1780) * Masses ''O gloriosa virginum'' (1771); ''Pange lingua'' (1772); ''Jesu corona virginum'' (1774); ''Misa de difuntos'' (1778)

Theatrical

* ''El chasco del cortejo'', tonadilla a solo (1768, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe) *'' Briseida'' (libretto

), heroic

zarzuela () is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name o ...

, 2 acts (11 July 1768, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe) * ''Las segadoras de Vallecas'' (libretto Ramón de la Cruz), burlesque zarzuela (3 September 1768, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe) * ''Las labradoras de Murcia'' (libretto Ramón de la Cruz), burlesque zarzuela, 2 acts (16 Sep 1769, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe) * ''Hormesinda'' (libretto

Nicolás Fernández de Moratín Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (1737–1780) was the father of one of the most important Spanish writers and dramatists of the neoclassical era, Leandro Fernández de Moratín. He himself was involved in the Spanish literary movement of the da ...

), tragedy, 5 acts (12 Feb 1770, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe) * ''Scipión en Cartagena'' (libretto Agustín Cordero), heroic zarzuela, 2 acts (15 July 1770, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe) * ''El loco, vano y valiente'', zarzuela, 2 acts (31 March 1771, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe), (at least 1

aria In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

in act II) * ''La república de las mujeres'' (libretto Ramón de la Cruz from ''Les Amazones Modernes'' by Marc-Antoine Legrand and Louis Fuzelier),

sainete A sainete (farce or titbit) was a popular Spanish comic opera piece, a one-act dramatic vignette, with music. It was often placed at the end of entertainments, or between other types of performance. It was vernacular in style, and used scenes of lo ...

(4 October 1772, Madrid, Teatro del Príncipe)

Recordings

* Canciones instrumentales. La Grande Chapelle, dir. Albert Recasens (Lauda LAU005) * Mass "O gloriosa Virginum". La Grande Chapelle, dir. Albert Recasens(Lauda LAU009) * La Briseida, opera (extracts) Aria No. 4. Amor, sólo tu encanto. Aria No. 13. Deydad que las venganzas.

María Bayo María Josefina Bayo Jiménez (born 28 May 1961 in Fitero) is a Spanish soprano. Bayo studied at the Conservatorio Navarro de Música Pablo Sarasate in Pamplona and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold The Hochschule für Musik Detmold is a univ ...

Les Talens Lyriques The French musical ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was created in 1991 in Paris, France, by the harpsichordist and orchestral conductor Christophe Rousset. This instrumental and vocal formation derives its name from the subtitle of '' Les fêtes d'H ...

, Naive. on ''Arias de Zarzuela Barroca''. (Naïve 8885).

Editions

* ''De pena de susto''. from ''Las labradoras de Murcia'' in ''Spanish Theater Songs – Baroque and Classical Eras: Medium High Voice/Medium Low Voice'' By Carol Mikkelsen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez De Hita, Antonio 1722 births 1787 deaths Spanish composers Spanish male composers 18th-century composers 18th-century Spanish male musicians