This week’s Francisco Friday selection is Tarrega’s Endecha. In Spain, an endecha is a short and plaintive song of lament. This composition is yet one more example of Tarrega’s beautiful compositional taste, to which I have added some variations and improvisation.
Here’s some interesting information from Naxos regarding the history of the endecha song form (or ‘endechear’, to lament or sing endecha):
Sephardic music, from the ancient domain of al-Andalus (Andalusia), lies at the heart of of this selection of songs in remembrance of a lost homeland. The word endechar comes from a time before the expulsion of the Jews and their culture from Spain in 1492; within the Jewish community it meant ‘to sing funeral dirges’ or ‘to lament’. After leaving Spain, the Sephardim kept alive the tradition of singing endechas (laments), romances (narrative ballads), and other songs in their traditional language, ladino, or Judaeo-Spanish, which was based on ancient Castilian. This was enriched by the addition of words from Hebrew and then from the languages, music and instruments of the places to which they travelled, such as Greece, the Balkans, Turkey and Morocco.
Francisco Tarrega
Spanish guitarist of the Romantic Era, he is the godfather of the
classical guitar. Visually impaired, yet prolific, precocious, and
free-spirited, he left a legacy of beautiful, iconic music.