The Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón. He composed Recuerdos de la Alhambra (translated as Memories of the Alhambra) for guitar in 1896 whilst in Granada, the Andalusian city famous for its magnificent Alhambra Palace and snowy mountainous backdrop of the Sierra Nevada.

The piece is famed for the use of the guitar tremolo technique, wherein a single melody note is plucked by the fingers in such rapid succession that a long sustained melody is created while another bass melody is played with the thumb. The piece was further arranged by the great violinist Ruggiero Ricci and is known for its fiendish technical demands on the violinist. The tremolo guitar technique is replaced by the equally demanding ricochet bowing technique, where the bow is thrown at the string to create a tremolo effect while the bass line melody is bowed between the groups of ricochet notes.

from notes by Sebastian See-Schierenberg © 2015