Adagio for Small Orchestra (1967)

Composer note
Adagio for Small Orchestra (1967) was my first work for orchestra. I was a student at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere. It was also the first piece I took to Nadia Boulanger in Paris when I began my studies with her in 1969, and she told me, “You were born to write music.”

Scored for flute, clarinet, oboe, two horns, two bassoons and strings, the Adagio is cast in a simple, song-like adaptation of sonata form. Its lyrical opening theme repeats, followed by a short closing phrase, a development and a condensed recapitulation. While the Copland-inspired “pre-Rodríguez” tonal language of this early work differs sharply from the harmonic complexities of more recent scores, there remain melodic, textural and structural “fingerprints” which reveal hints of my later works.

— Robert Xavier Rodríguez