Gonzalo Roig

Gonzalo Roig ( born July 20, 1890 in Havana, † July 13, 1970 ibid ) was a Cuban composer.

In 1902 he started at the Asociación del Comercio de Dependientes de La Habana to study music at Agustin Martin Mullor, Gaspar Agüero Barreras and Vicente Alvarez. Since 1909 he was a violinist at the Teatro Martí. In 1917 he worked in Mexico in the company of Maria Guerrero. Together with Ernesto Lecuona, César Pérez Sentenat and others, he was one of the founders in 1922 of the Symphony Orchestra of Havana. Since 1927 he was director of the school and the Banda Municipal de Música in Havana. In 1930 he undertook a tour of the USA, where he conducted the U.S. Army Band, the U.S. Soldier 's Home Military Band and the U.S. Navy Band.

In 1931 he founded with agostin de Rodriguez, a theater group in Martí Theatre, and in 1938 the National Opera of Havana, whose music director he was.

The zarzuela Cecilia Valdés (1932), based on a novella by Cirilo Villaverde is regarded as a key work in this genre in Cuba. In 1938 he composed the music for the film Sucedió en La Habana. Other well-known works by him are El Clarín (1932 ), El Cimarron (1933 ), La Hija del Sol (1933 ) and La Habana de Noche (1936).

Today is known Roig (composed in 1911, notes appeared in 1931, the Spanish original of agostin Rodriguez) mainly through his hit Quiéreme Mucho, which, inter alia, also in English under the title Yours by Jimmy Dorsey (1941 ), Vera Lynn ( was added in 1952 ) and Linda Ronstadt (1992) ( text by Albert Gamse and Jack Sherr ) or German in 1979 by Julio Iglesias (You're my first thought ).

The German version of Quiéreme Mucho (You're my first thought ) is by Ralph Maria Siegel ( 1955) and was then sung by Mieke Telkamp.