The Life and Compositional Style of Francisco Tarrega

Although one who wishes to explore the history of the guitar may examine the life and compositions of Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), others will find it more helpful to investigate the methods that he used for composing and transposing music for the instrument. With the intent of improving music pedagogy and performance the purpose of this research is to investigate the guitar compositions of Francisco Tárrega. The particular problems of this study were to (1) prepare a biographical sketch of Francisco Tárrega; (2) to identify his compositional and arranging styles; (3) create a works list and discography; and (4) arrange and perform a piano excerpt by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) for classical guitar utilizing techniques developed by Tárrega. A biographical sketch of Francisco Tárrega’s life has been crafted by comparing and contrasting multiple biographical sources. Tárrega produced 217 works including arrangements, transcriptions. Some broad information concerning Tárrega’s compositional style has been identified and incorporated into the Beethoven transcription