''Recuerdos de la Alhambra'' (Memories of the Alhambra) is a classical guitar piece composed in

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist

Francisco Tárrega Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often called ...

.Library of Guitar Classics, AMSCO Publications, 1998 It requires the

tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...

technique and is often performed by advanced players. The piece was written for and dedicated to Tárrega's patron Concepción Gómez de Jacoby in 1899, commemorating their visit to the

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...

palace and fortress complex in Granada, Spain. It was originally entitled ''Improvisación ¡A Granada! Cantiga Árabe.'' It became known through an early 20th-century publication edited by Tárrega and dedicated as an homage to the French guitarist Alfred Cottin.

Performance notes

The piece showcases a challenging guitar ''

'', wherein a single melody note is plucked consecutively by the ring, middle and index fingers in such rapid succession that the result is an illusion of one long sustained note. The thumb plays an

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

-pattern accompaniment simultaneously. Many who have heard the piece but not seen it performed mistake it for a

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo ...

. The A-section of the piece is written in A-minor and the B-section is written in the parallel major (A-major).

Arrangements

Ruggiero Ricci Ruggiero Ricci (24 July 1918 – 5 August 2012) was an American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Niccolò Paganini, Paganini. Biography He was born in San Bruno, California, the son of Italian immigrants who first ...

arranged this piece for solo violin, and often performed it as an encore.

Nana Mouskouri Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri ( el, Ιωάννα "Νάνα" Μούσχουρη ) (born 13 October 1934) is a Greek singer. Over the span of her career, she has released over 200 albums in at least twelve languages, including Greek, French, English, Ger ...

has performed a vocal version and

Sarah Brightman Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer, actress and dancer. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, ...

has performed a re-adapted vocal version in her album ''Classics''. Chris Freeman and John Shaw recorded a non-vocal version for their album ''Chris Freeman and John Shaw'' (May 1981). Luiza Borac has arranged this piece for solo piano on her 2014 CD "Chants Nostalgiques" (Avie AV-2316). Xavi Ganjam made a special arrangement for sitar on his EP 'Soham' (2019) Alex Jacobowitz frequently performs a version of Recuerdos de la Alhambra at his

Marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

Xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...

. When he plays it at his concerts he starts the performance usually with a message for a peaceful coexistence of people with different religions and nationalities. (The building of the Alhambra was undertaken by a team comprising Muslims, Jews, and Christians.) He recorded it also for some of his CDs: ''Spanish Rosewood - the music of Spain'', ''The Art of Xylos '' and ''Aria''. There are also choral and orchestral arrangements of this piece.

Soundtrack use

''Recuerdos de la Alhambra'' has been used as title or incidental music several times, including the soundtrack for

René Clément René Clément (; 18 March 1913 – 17 March 1996) was a French film director and screenwriter. Life and career Clément studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. In 1936, he directed hi ...

's ''

Forbidden Games ''Forbidden Games'' (french: Jeux interdits) is a 1952 French war drama film directed by René Clément and based on François Boyer's novel ''Jeux Interdits''. While not initially successful in France, the film was a hit elsewhere. It won the ...

'' (as played by

Narciso Yepes Narciso Yepes (14 November 19273 May 1997) was a Spanish guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Biography Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, Region of Murcia. ...

), for ''

The Killing Fields A killing field is a concept in military science. Killing field may also refer to: * Killing Fields, a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of ...

'' (under the title ''

Étude An étude (; ) or study is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidl ...

'' as performed by

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), and in the films ''

Sideways ''Sideways'' is a 2004 American comedy-drama road film directed by Alexander Payne and written by Jim Taylor and Payne. A film adaptation of Rex Pickett's 2004 novel of the same name, ''Sideways'' follows two men in their forties, Miles Raymo ...

'' and ''Margaret''. Performed and arranged by

Jonathon Coudrille Jonathon Xavier Coudrille (born Jonathan Coudrill; November 1945) is an English artist, musician and writer. He has lived from a young age on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, an area with which he is still closely associated. His father was th ...

, it was used as the title music for the British television series '' Out of Town'' and a version performed by

Pepe Romero Pepe Romero (born March 8, 1944, in Málaga, Spain) is a classical and flamenco guitarist. Biography Early life Pepe Romero was born in Spain, the second son of celebrated guitarist and composer Celedonio Romero, who was his only guitar t ...

was used as incidental music in ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

'' episode "

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Gideon Coe Gideon Jon Quantrill Coe (born 22 September 1967 in Canterbury, Kent) is a radio DJ, presenter, sportscaster, voiceover artist and journalist. Early career He began his broadcasting career in 1976 as a child presenter on the BBC One TV program ...

on BBC Radio 6Music uses this tune as a musical background at approximately the half-way point of his evening weekday show.Gideon Coe, BBC Radio 6Music
/ref> A sung version appears in the

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ha ...

film ''

When Marnie Was There is a 2014 Japanese animated psychological drama film co-written and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, produced by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. It is based on Joan G. Robinson's 1967 novel of the same name. The film follows Anna Sas ...

''. It is also the theme used for

Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...

in the 4X strategy game ''

Civilization VI ''Sid Meier's Civilization VI'' is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games, and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. The mobile port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the ''Civiliz ...

'', with the track progressing from a simple guitar arrangement to an entire orchestral performance as Spain advances through the ages. The theme was part of the soundtrack and storyline for the eponymous 2018 Korean television series ''

Memories of the Alhambra ''Memories of the Alhambra'' () is a 2018 South Korean television series, starring Hyun Bin and Park Shin-hye. Primarily set in Spain (and in South Korea in later episodes), the series centers on a company CEO and a hostel owner who get entang ...

.''

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Compositions for guitar Compositions by Francisco Tárrega 1896 compositions