Amparito Roca

Amparito Roca is the name of a piece of music composed in 1925 by Spanish musician and composer Jaime Teixidor (1884–1957) who named it after one of his piano students, then 12-year-old Amparito Roca (1905–1977).

It was first performed in September 1925 in the theater El Siglo in the town of Carlet where the composer lived at the time. It is a pasodoble and one of the better known pieces of Spanish music around the world.

Jaime Teixidor

Jaime (Jaume) Teixidor (or Texidor) was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 16, 1884, and died in Baracaldo, Spain, on February 23, 1957. He was a Spanish musician, conductor, publisher, and composer.

After studying composition and conducting in Barcelona, he joined the army in 1906 as a musician, playing the saxophone. He became the director of the 68th “Africa” Regiment Band (Banda Música Del Regimiento 68) in the autonomous Spanish city of Melilla on the Moroccan coast. He retired from military service in 1920 after thirteen years with this band.

In 1924, he directed the Banda de Musica Primitiva in Carlet and also taught piano and violin. He resided in Carlet for only a couple of years and then moved to Manises, Valencia, to lead the Banda del Círculo Instructivo Musical. In 1928, he won a competition to direct the municipal band of Baracaldo which he did until the end of his life. One source indicates he gave up the direction of the band for political reasons during the Spanish Civil War. In Baracaldo, he also set up a music publishing firm, which published his own compositions and also the work of others.

His daughter, María Teresa Tico Texidor (1907–1993), was also a composer, and she wrote such works as “Paz Eterna” and “Rosa Evangélica.” He composed over 500 works. These include marches and pasodobles as well as boleros, foxtrots, jotas, sambas, tangos, schottisches, and waltzes for band.

His best-known composition is "Amparito Roca", written in 1925 and first performed in September of that year at the Teatro del Siglo in Carlet. The score was published in Madrid later in 1925 by Música Moderna, and then in Barcelona by Joaquín Mora in 1928. Boosey & Hawkes published this in 1935 in an arrangement by Aubrey Winter (1870–1955). A book has been published (written in Spanish) under the auspices of the Ajuntament De Carlet, Valencia, with the title "Amparito Roca, El Pasadoble Del Mestre Texidor". It contains biographical material and commentary on the works of Texidor with a catalogue and discography. The text is by Angel Valero Garcia and the hardback is beautifully illustrated.....