Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra) is aclassical guitar piece composed inMálaga bySpanishcomposer andguitaristFrancisco Tárrega.[1] It requires thetremolo technique and is often performed by advanced players.
The piece was written for and dedicated to Tárrega's patron Concepción Gómez de Jacoby in 1899, commemorating their visit to theAlhambra palace and fortress complex inGranada, Spain. It was originally titledImprovisación ¡A Granada! Cantiga Árabe. It became known through an early 20th-century publication edited by Tárrega and dedicated as an homage to the French guitaristAlfred Cottin [fr].
The piece showcases a challenging guitartremolo, wherein a single melody note is plucked consecutively by the ring, middle and index fingers in such rapid succession that the result is an illusion of one long sustained note. The thumb plays anarpeggio-pattern accompaniment simultaneously. Many who have heard the piece but not seen it performed mistake it for aduet.
The A-section of the piece is written in A-minor and the B-section is written in theparallel major (A-major).
Ruggiero Ricci arranged this piece for solo violin and often performed it as an encore.
Chris Freeman and John Shaw recorded the song for their albumChris Freeman and John Shaw (May 1981, EMI Custom Records YPRX 1828, MAC 126).
Nana Mouskouri recorded a vocal version for her 1989 albumClassical.Sarah Brightman recorded a re-adapted vocal version for her albumClassics.
Alex Jacobowitz frequently performs a version of the song on his marimba and xylophone. He recorded it for several of his albums:Spanish Rosewood (1996),The Art of Xylos(2002), andAria (2010).
Luiza Borac arranged this piece for solo piano on her 2014 CD "Chants Nostalgiques" (Avie AV-2316).
Xavi Ganjam made a special arrangement for sitar on his EPSoham (2019, Ganjam Records, Spain).
Italian violistMarco Misciagna published the arrangement of this piece for solo viola.[2]
Recuerdos de la Alhambra has been used as title or incidental music in many films, including the soundtrack forRené Clément'sForbidden Games (as played byNarciso Yepes), forThe Killing Fields (under the titleÉtude as performed byMike Oldfield), and in the filmsSideways andMargaret.
Performed and arranged byJonathon Coudrille, it was used as the title music for the British television seriesOut of Town and a version performed byPepe Romero was used as incidental music inThe Sopranos episode "Luxury Lounge".Gideon Coe on BBC Radio 6Music uses this tune as a musical background at approximately the half-way point of his evening weekday show.[3] A sung version appears in theStudio Ghibli filmWhen Marnie Was There.
It is also the theme used forPhilip II of Spain in the 4X strategy gameCivilization VI, with the track progressing from a simple guitar arrangement to an entire orchestral performance as Spain advances through the ages.
The theme was part of the soundtrack and storyline for the eponymous 2018 Korean television seriesMemories of the Alhambra.
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