Rafael Rodríguez Albert

Rafael Rodríguez Albert was born on 6 February 1902 in Alicante (Spain). He began to lose his eyesight at the age of five and became completely blind by the age of eight. His father introduced him to music, and he received his first education at the Colegio Nacional de Ciegos in Alicante. His family subsequently lived in Socuéllamos and Villarrobledo, where he composed his first work in 1914, a pasodoble entitled "El general", which was performed by the local municipal band.
In 1917 Rodríguez Albert moved with his family to Valencia, where he studied piano, harmony and composition at the Conservatory. In 1922 he completed his piano studies and received the First Prize in Piano, which he shared with Leopoldo Querol. He also studied Philosophy and Letters at the University of Valencia and completed two years of law studies.
In 1925 he received an honourable mention at the Spanish National Music Competition for his "Colección de canciones", a collection of songs based on poems by Heinrich Heine. In 1928 his orchestral work "Cinco piezas" for small orchestra and piano was premiered in Alicante. During this period he established contacts with several important Spanish musicians, including Óscar Esplá and Manuel de Falla, whom he visited in Granada in 1929. He also travelled to Paris in 1929, 1931 and 1937, where he met Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud.
During the early 1930s Rodríguez Albert continued his activities as a pianist, composer and teacher. In 1930 he composed the three-act lyrical work "La ruta de Don Quijote". He also collaborated with Federico García Lorca on a stage work entitled "Inquietud", whose libretto was lost during the Spanish Civil War. In 1932 he became a professor of harmony and piano at the Instituto Provincial de Ciegos in Alicante, and in 1935 he was appointed professor of solfège and piano at the Colegio Nacional de Ciegos in Madrid.
During the Spanish Civil War Rodríguez Albert continued teaching, but after the war he was dismissed from his position because of his Republican sympathies and was briefly imprisoned in Alicante in 1939. In 1940 he joined the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE) and moved to Granada, where he held administrative and educational positions until 1947. 
In 1947 Rodríguez Albert moved to Madrid, where he continued to work for the ONCE while pursuing his career as a composer, pianist and teacher. He also directed the organisation's plucked-string orchestra and worked on the development of Braille music notation. In 1952 he received the Spanish National Music Prize for his "Cuarteto en re mayor" for guitar and string trio. In 1954 he represented Spain at an international conference on Braille music notation in Paris. In 1958 he obtained the professorship of Music History and Aesthetics at the Colegio Nacional de Ciegos in Madrid. His educational writings include the "Compendio de armonía, contrapunto y fuga" and the "Historia abreviada de la música".
In 1961 Rodríguez Albert received the Spanish National Music Prize for a second time, this time for his orchestral composition "Fantasía en tríptico sobre un drama de Lope". Other compositions from this period include the guitar work "Sonatina en tres duales" (1962), which received recognition at an international guitar competition in Liège. In 1962 he also contributed music to Antonio Buero Vallejo's play "El concierto de San Ovidio". In 1966 he received a grant from the Fundación Juan March to compose his "Sinfonía del Mediterráneo".
In 1977 his chamber composition "La Antequeruela" (1976), based on texts by Federico García Lorca, received the National Composition Prize "Manuel de Falla" from the University of Granada.
Rafael Rodríguez Albert died on 15 February 1979 in Madrid (Spain).