It's been the fate of many composers to be remembered for just a single work. Spain's Joaquin Rodrigo, who died on Tuesday at the age of 97, is such a one. His Concierto de Aranjuez, written in 1939 and premiered in 1940, shines a light so bright that not only do all of Rodrigo's other works lie in its shadow, but so, too, does the entire repertoire of music for guitar and orchestra.

Rodrigo, of course, wrote other concertos, and not just ones for guitar. Some of these have been widely performed and frequently recorded. But, essentially, they are imitations of the single great success, attempts to rekindle the spark that fired enthusiasm for the Concierto de Aranjuez. In that quest they were as futile as Sibelius's vain attempts to repeat the success of his Valse triste.

Rodrigo's place in 20th-century music and his position in the musical life of Spain are as singular as the Concierto de Aranjuez is within his oeuvre. The major musical developments of his time left no mark on his music.

The picturesque style he developed from his youthful contact with Dukas and Falla remained virtually untouched throughout his long life. And after the immediate impact of the Concierto de Aranjuez in Franco's Spain (Rodrigo was abroad when the Spanish Civil War broke out, and didn't return until it was over), his effect on the course of Spanish music was minimal.

This state of affairs seems all the more striking when you think of the Manuel de Falla Chair created for him at Madrid University in 1947, the many honours which were bestowed on him at home and abroad, and the clear and immediate popularity of his tuneful, readily assimilable style.

The composer, who became blind at the age of three after an attack of diphtheria, was head of the music division of the Spanish National Organization of the Blind. His Turkish wife, the pianist Victoria Kamhi, abandoned her career to devote herself to the very special needs of a blind composer. The popularity of his work never waned during his long life, and performers with an equally popular appeal such as Julian Bream, John Williams, James Galway and Julian Lloyd-Webber were never shy of attaching themselves to his brightly shining star. It's hard to imagine that star glowing with any less brilliance now that the composer of the Concierto de Aranjuez has departed this earth.