Francisco Tárrega
1852 - 1909
Life and Music
- Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Villarreal, Castellón, Spain. It is said that Francisco's father played flamenco and several other music styles on his guitar; when his father was away working as a watchman at the Convent of San Pascual the child would take his father's guitar and attempt to make the beautiful sounds he had heard. Francisco's nickname as a child was "Quiquet".
- An infection permanently impaired his eyesight and when the family moved to Castellón the child was enrolled in music classes. Both his first music teachers, Eugeni Ruiz and Manuel González, were blind.
- In 1862, concert guitarist Julián Arcas, on tour in Castellón, heard the young Tárrega play and advised Tárrega's father to allow Francisco to come to Barcelona to study with him. Tárrega's father agreed, but insisted that his son take piano lessons as well.
- Three years later, in 1865, he ran away again, this time to Valencia where he joined a gang of gypsies. He ran away a third time, again to Valencia. By his early teens, Tárrega was proficient on both the piano and the guitar.
- Tárrega entered the Madrid Conservatory 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 by Antonio de Torres.
- During the winter of 1880, Tárrega replaced his friend Luis de Soria, in a concert in Novelda, Alicante, 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. He also played in London, but he liked neither the language nor the weather.
- Francisco Tárrega and 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 afterwards, Tárrega met a wealthy widow, Conxa Martinez, who became a valuable patron to him.
- From the latter 1880s up to 1903, Tárrega continued composing, but limited his concerts to Spain.
- In January 1906, he was afflicted with paralysis on his right side, and though he would eventually return to the concert stage, he never completely recovered. He finished his last work, Oremus, on 2 December 1909. He died in Barcelona thirteen days later, on 15 December, at the age of 57.
- Francisco Tárrega's music and style of guitar playing became strongly influential in the twentieth century. He was central to reviving the guitar as a solo instrument in recital and concerts.
- He is also the composer of what has been claimed to be "probably the world's most heard tune": the Nokia ringtone, Nokia tune, or simply Nokia, also used in advertising spots, is based on Tárrega's Gran Vals. His music also inspired Mike Oldfield to arrange Tárrega's tremolo study Recuerdos de la Alhambra for the soundtrack of the film "The Killing Fields".
Did you know?
In about 1902, Tárrega cut his fingernails and created a sound that would become typical of those guitarists associated with his school.
Source: Wikipedia
