Rodriguez, Gerardo

Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodriguez was born in Montevideo in the family of the owner of the popular cabaret Moulin Rouge. He studied, but did not finish his studies in the discipline "architecture". Already in his student years, Rodriguez began composing music. One of his first famous works was today the world famous tango “Kumparsita” ( Spanish: La Cumparsita ), written in 1916. Pascual Contursi and Enrique Pedro Maroni later wrote the lyrics for the music. The composer himself, despite his musical talent, was embarrassed to perform his works. For a while, he directed his own tango orchestra in Montevideo.

While touring Europe as Uruguayan consul in Germany, Rodriguez lingered in Paris. There, in 1931, he collaborated with the film company Luces de Buenos Aires, which hired the tango star Carlos Gardel .

Matos composed music for the Buenos Aires Theater, including Manuel Romero's El Gran Circo Rivolta.

The composer died after a long illness in 1948 in Montevideo.

List of works

• La Cumparsita (1916);

• "Che papusa, oí",
• "Son grupos",
• "Yo tuve una novia",
• "Cuando bronca el temporal",
• "Hablame",
• "Pobre corazón",
• Haceme caso a mí,
• "Canto por no llorar",
• "Rosa reseca",
• "Botija linda",
• "El pescador",
• "Te fuiste, ¡ja, ja!",
• "Adiós Argentina",
• "Mi provinciana"
• "La milonga azul",
• "Dale celos",
• "Raspail",
• "Mocosita",
• "La muchacha del circo",
• "San Telmo"