Tárrega: "Recuerdos de La Alhambra"

The "Spanish guitar", as we know it today, added its sixth string only at the end of the 18th century. Before, it had five strings and also four, and the instrument was called differently. It remained an "amateur" instrument from the 17th century until the beginning of the 19th century, although during that period it enjoyed many virtuosos, among them Gaspar Sanz (around 1674) and later Fernando Sor (1778-1839).

Only in the mid-nineteenth century would the sustained development of the instrument and the technique of the "classical guitar" emerge, thanks to the contributions of the Spanish romantic composer Francisco Tárrega, born in Villarreal in 1852 and died in Barcelona in 1909. His transcriptions of works from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and other composers underlie the concert repertoire for classical guitar of our times.

Francisco Tárrega (1852 - 1909)

And he also made a contribution, of course. One of its most popular pieces is known as Recuerdos de La Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra), a beautiful and simple melody inspired by the palace and fortress complex built on a rocky hill in Granada, Spain, dating from the mid-fourteenth century. In 1492, with the conquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs, it became the royal palace.

Memories of the Alhambra demands from the performer proper handling of the "tremolo" technique, wherein a single melody note is plucked consecutively by the ring, middle and index fingers in such rapid succession, with the support of the thumb that pulsates a lower string doing its part in the harmonic framework. Proficient performance of a tremolo will tend to make the repeated string resemble a long sustained note, as may a violin, for example.
The rendition, brilliant, is by the Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic, who, curiously, plays the tremolo with only two fingers.