Francisco Tárrega
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Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish
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
classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...
ist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''
Recuerdos de la Alhambra ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra'' (Memories of the Alhambra) is a classical guitar piece composed in Málaga by Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega.Library of Guitar Classics, AMSCO Publications, 1998 It requires the tremolo technique an ...
''. He is often called "the father of classical guitar" and is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time.


Biography

Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in
Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...
,
Province of Castellón Castellón (officially in ca-valencia, Castelló) is a province in the northern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Valencia to the south, Teruel to the west, Tarragona to the north, and by the Mediterranean Sea ...
, Spain. It is said that Francisco's father played
flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
and several other music styles on his guitar; when his father was away working as a watchman at the Convent of San Pascual, Francisco would take his father's guitar and attempt to make the beautiful sounds he had heard. Francisco's nickname as a child was "Quiquet". As a child, he ran away from his nanny and fell into an irrigation channel and injured his eyes. Fearing that his son might lose his sight completely, his father moved the family to
Castellón de la Plana Castellón de la Plana (officially in ca-valencia, Castelló de la Plana), or simply Castellón ( ca-valencia, Castelló, link=no) is the capital city of the province of Castellón, in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located in the east ...
to attend music classes because as a musician he would be able to earn a living, even if blind. Both his first music teachers, Eugeni Ruiz and Manuel González, were blind. In 1862, concert guitarist
Julián Arcas Julián Arcas (25 October 1832 – 16 February 1882) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer, who influenced Francisco Tárrega and Antonio de Torres. He was "one of the most important figures in Spanish music in the 19th century". Biogra ...
, on tour in Castellón, heard the young Tárrega play and advised Tárrega's father to allow Francisco to come to
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
to study with him. Tárrega's father agreed, but insisted that his son take
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
lessons as well. The guitar was viewed as an instrument to accompany singers, while the piano was quite popular throughout Europe. However, Tárrega had to stop his lessons shortly after, when Arcas left for a concert tour abroad. Although Tárrega was only ten years old, he ran away and tried to start a musical career on his own by playing in coffee houses and restaurants in Barcelona. He was soon found and brought back to his father, who had to make great sacrifices to advance his son's musical education. Three years later, in 1865, he ran away again, this time to
Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
where he joined a family of
gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
. His father looked for him and brought him back home once more, but he ran away a third time, again to Valencia. By his early teens, Tárrega was proficient on both the piano and the guitar. For a time, he played with other musicians at local engagements to earn money, but eventually he returned home to help his family. Tárrega entered the
Madrid Royal Conservatory The Madrid Royal Conservatory ( es, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid) is a music college in Madrid, Spain. History The Royal Conservatory of Music was founded on July 15, 1830, by royal decree, and was originally located in Mosten ...
in 1874, under the sponsorship of a wealthy merchant named Antonio Canesa. He had brought along with him a recently purchased guitar, made in
Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
by
Antonio de Torres Antonio de Torres Jurado (13 June 1817 – 19 November 1892) was a Spanish guitarist and luthier, and "the most important Spanish guitar maker of the 19th century." It is with his designs that the first recognisably modern classical guitars a ...
. Its superior sonic qualities inspired him both in his playing and in his view of the instrument's compositional potential. At the conservatory, Tárrega studied composition under
Emilio Arrieta Juan Pascual Antonio Arrieta Corera (20 October 1821 – 11 February 1894), also known as Emilio Arrieta, was a Spanish composer. Arrieta was born in Puente la Reina, Navarre. His Italian musical training led him, under the favour of Queen ...
who convinced him to focus on guitar and abandon the idea of a career with the piano. By the end of the 1870s, Tárrega was teaching the guitar (
Emilio Pujol Emilio Pujol Vilarrubí (or ''Emili''; 10 September 1886 – 21 November 1980) was a Spanish composer, guitarist and a leading teacher of the classical guitar. Biography Emili Pujol was born in the little village of Granadella just outside Ll ...
,
Miguel Llobet Miguel Llobet Solés (18 October 187822 February 1938) was a classical guitarist, born in Barcelona, Spain. Llobet was a renowned virtuoso who toured Europe and America extensively. He made well known arrangements of Catalan folk songs for the ...
, and
Daniel Fortea Daniel Fortea i Guimerà (28 April 1878 in Benlloc, Spain – 5 March 1953 in Castellón de la Plana, Spain) was a Spanish guitarist, composer, and music educator. Biography In his childhood, Fortea learned the clarinette, guitar and bandurria ...
were pupils of his) and giving regular concerts. Tárrega received much acclaim for his playing and began traveling to other areas of Spain to perform. By this time he was composing his first works for guitar, which he played in addition to works of other composers. During the winter of 1880, Tárrega replaced his friend Luis de Soria, in a concert in
Novelda Novelda (, ; ) is a town located in the province of Alicante, Spain. , it has a total population of 27,135 inhabitants. Novelda has important quarries and mines of marble, limestone, silica, clay and gypsum. It is a major centre of the marble ind ...
,
Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...
, where, after the concert, an important man in town asked the artist to listen to his daughter, María José Rizo, who was learning to play guitar. Soon they were engaged. In 1881, Tárrega played in the Opera Theatre in Lyon and then the Paris Odeon, in the bicentenary of the death of
Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque w ...
. He also played in London, but he liked neither the language nor the weather. There is a story about his visit to England. After a concert, some people saw that the musician was in low spirits. "What is the matter, maestro?" they asked him. "Do you miss home? Your family, perhaps?" They advised him to capture that moment of sadness in his music. Thus he conceived the theme of one of his most memorable works, '' Lágrima'' (literally meaning teardrop). After playing in London he returned to Novelda for his wedding. At Christmas 1882, Tárrega married María José Rizo. To enlarge his guitar repertory and, no doubt, to make use of his considerable knowledge of keyboard music, he soon began transcribing piano works of
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
, Chopin,
Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...
and others. Tárrega and his wife moved to Madrid, gaining their living by teaching privately and playing concerts, but after the death of an infant daughter during the winter, Maria Josefa de los Angeles Tárrega Rizo, they settled permanently in Barcelona in 1885. Among his friends in Barcelona were
Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...
,
Enrique Granados Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados y Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916), commonly known as Enric Granados in Catalan or Enrique Granados in Spanish, was a composer of classical music, and concert pianist from Catalonia, Spain. ...
,
Joaquín Turina Joaquín Turina Pérez (9 December 188214 January 1949) was a Spanish composer of classical music.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online (2014)"Joaquín Turina"/ref> Biography Turina was born in Seville. He studied in Seville as well as in Mad ...
and
Pau Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals,
. Francisco Tárrega and María José (María Josefa) Rizo had three more children: Paquito (Francisco), Maria Rosatia (María Rosalia) (best known as Marieta) and Concepción. On a concert tour in Valencia shortly afterward, Tárrega met the wealthy Concepción Gómez de Jacoby, who became a valuable patron to him. She allowed him and his family use of part of her house outside Barcelona. Later she took him to
Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
, which later inspired the guitarist to write ''
Recuerdos de la Alhambra ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra'' (Memories of the Alhambra) is a classical guitar piece composed in Málaga by Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega.Library of Guitar Classics, AMSCO Publications, 1998 It requires the tremolo technique an ...
'', which he first dedicated to Concepción in 1899 with the title "A Granada." He later dedicated a revised published version of this piece to Alfred Cottin, the French guitarist he had met in Paris while participating in a concert on a visit accompanied and almost certainly sponsored by Gómez de Jacoby. From the later 1880s up to 1903, Tárrega continued composing and traveling, but limited his concerts to Spain. In 1900, Tárrega visited
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, where he was said to have heard a repetitive rhythm played on an Arabian drum and the following morning composed ''Danza Mora'' based on that rhythm. In about 1902, he cut his fingernails and created a sound that would become typical of those guitarists later associated with his school. The following year he went on tour to Italy, performing in Rome, Naples, and Milan. In January 1906, he was afflicted with paralysis on his right side, and though he would eventually return to performing, he never completely recovered. He finished his last work, ''
Oremus ''Oremus'' (Latin: "Let us pray") is the invitation to pray, said before short prayers in the Catholic Mass and the Lutheran Divine Service, as well as other Western liturgies. It is used as a single exclamation in the East (in the rites of the ...
'', on 2 December 1909. He died in Barcelona thirteen days later, on 15 December, at the age of 57.


Musical style

Tárrega composed music in the romantic style of 19th-century European masters. His conservatory training and familiarity with contemporary classical genres and techniques are apparent in his compositions and transcriptions; these are more sophisticated than those of Spanish guitarist-composers of the previous generation and his contemporaries, e.g., Magín Alegre, Tomás Damas, Julián Arcas, José Viñas, and José Ferrer. A virtuoso on his instrument, he was known as the "
Sarasate Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908), commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate, was a Spanish (Navarrese) violin virtuoso, composer and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works inclu ...
of the guitar," although Tárrega preferred small intimate performances over the concert stage. Tárrega is considered to have laid the foundations for 20th-century classical guitar and for increasing interest in the guitar as a recital instrument.


Compositions

Although only 19 original compositions were published in his lifetime, Francisco Tárrega composed approximately 80 original pieces and 120 transcriptions – mostly for his own use and that of his students. The exact number has yet to be determined. Most of his later published works were edited by others, and often altered. His favored genres were
character piece A character piece is a musical composition which is expressive of a specific mood or non-musical idea. History The term "character piece" was coined by Marin Marais in the ''avertissement'' to his fifth book of viola da gamba music published in 1 ...
s (several with Spanish, 'Moorish' and "Arabic" allusions) including preludes, etudes, caprices, serenatas, exotic dances, mazurkas, waltzes, and 'ancient dances' also favored by his contemporaries Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados (e.g., gavota, minuetto, and pavana). He transcribed many works from the piano (he was a capable keyboard player), violin and especially the operatic repertory. As with several of his Spanish contemporaries, such as his friend
Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...
, he had an interest in combining the prevailing romantic style in classical music with Spanish folk elements, and transcribed several of Albéniz's piano pieces. The contemporary guitarist and composer Angelo Gilardino has written that Tárrega's 9 ''Preludios'' are "... the deepest musical thought of Tárrega in the most concentrated form." He is also the composer of ''Gran Vals'', an excerpt of which was used in the
Nokia tune The Nokia tune (also called Grande Valse) is a phrase from a composition for solo guitar, ''Gran Vals'', composed in 1902 by the Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega. It has been associated with Finnish corporation Nokia ...
, the default ringtone of
Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
phones. It appears on these phones in a variety of different styles and instrumentations; for example, phones from 2002 to 2007 include piano-based renditions, while phones released during 2008 to 2010 feature a
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...
-inspired guitar rendition.


Guitars

The guitars used by Tárrega include: * Enrique Garcia, n°74 (1906) - This instrument was gifted by Tárrega to his friend Alfred Cottin, to whom he dedicated the composition Recuerdos de la Alhambra. It then became the official guitar of 'Les Amis de la Guitare', a circle of Parisian guitarists, where it was played by Django Reinhardt, among others. In 2019 Kyuhee Park recorded a video of Recuerdos de la Alhambra on this guitar. (See External Link) *
Torres Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname *Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott **Torres (album), ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres Places Americas *Torres, Colorado, an un ...
, FE 17 (1869) – This is the guitar that was given to 17 year old Francisco Tárrega by Torres personally after hearing him play. *Torres, SE 49 (1883) *Torres, SE 114 (1888); in the collection of Sheldon Urlik


Notes


References

*''Diccionario biográfico–bibliográfico—histórico: crítico de guitarras (instrumentos afines), guitarristas (profesores–compositores–concertistas–lahudistas–amateurs), guitarreros (luthiers). Danzas y cantos—terminología'' by Domingo Prat (Buenos Aires: Romero y Fernández
934 Year 934 ( CMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring and Summer – The Hungarians make an alliance with the Pecheneg ...
*''Tárrega. Ensayo biográfico'' by Emilio Pujol (Lisboa: Talleres Gráficos de Ramos, Afonso & Moita, L.D.A., 1960/ Valencia: Artes Gráficas Soler. S.A., 1978). *''Francisco Tárrega Biografía Oficial'' by Adrián Rius Espinós, published by Ayuntamiento de Vila-Real, *''Concepción Gómez de Jacoby: Tárrega’s Enigmatic Patron and Recuerdos de la Alhambra'' by David J. Buch (http://michaelorenz.blogspot.com/2020/11/concepcion-gomez-de-jacoby-tarregas.html) *''Francisco Tárrega – Selección de Obras'' by Adrián Rius Espinós (includes CD with historical recordings by Josefina Robledo
example:
" Capricho árabe", published by Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Vila-Real and Instituto Valenciano de la Música
Francisco Tárrega, Werden und Wirkung
by Wolf Moser, published by Edition Saint-Georges. . *''Francisco Tárrega, Complete Guitar Works'' by Michel Beauchamp, edited by Productions d'Oz. *''Francisco Tárrega y la guitarra en Espana entre 1830 y 1960'' by Wolf Moser, published by Piles Editorial de Música S.A. *''Francisco Tárrega, Collected Guitar Works'', reprints of early editions, by Rafael Andia, Chanterelle 1001 and 1002.


External links

* * *
Free Scores and biography
(with MIDI music files, that are not at all reflective of Tárrega's performance style, but instead of sheetmusic)

www.theguitarmuseum.com
Francisco Tárrega
an
Música
by Carmen Copovi Llop

from Francisco Tárrega's room in the Vila-real City Museum
Monument in Vila-Real
* by Salvador Carracedo Benet
"Kyuhee Park , Recuerdos de la Alhambra (F. Tárrega)"
ref> {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarrega, Francisco 1852 births 1909 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century guitarists 19th-century Spanish composers 19th-century Spanish male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century guitarists 20th-century Spanish composers 20th-century Spanish male musicians Blind classical musicians Composers for the classical guitar Composers from the Valencian Community People from Villarreal Spanish classical composers Spanish classical guitarists Spanish male classical composers Spanish male guitarists Spanish Romantic composers