Before Tárrega, Spain’s growth in the arts were stunted. After the tumultuous century that included the Napoleonic wars, revolutions, coup d’ éstats, and the “anti-Romantic” government of Ferdinand VII, the arts began to recover.3 Fernando Sor’s journey took him to England, Moscow, and Paris, in which city he befriended fellow countryman and guitarist Dionisio Aguado. Sor also taught the Frenchman Napoléon Coste, whom appeared at Sor’s final concert. 4
In 1874 Tárrega entered the Real Conservatorio in Madrid to study piano and harmony. At this point in history, the guitar was not considered an instrument on the same performance level as the piano in Europe. Tárrega’s father even wanted him to study piano in addition to guitar.5 Tárrega’s formal education may have started then, but he was anything but a neophyte to performing. He was a traveling bohemian, going city-to-city and tavern-to-tavern. Even as a thirteen-year-old, living in Castellón was too mundane, and so he would head to Valencia for new adventures. To pay for room and board, young Tárrega played the guitar.6 Before Tárrega made it into school (where he still was having difficulties paying for tuition), his mother passed away leaving his father behind. His father had been almost blind since he was thirty-five.7 Even Tárrega himself was conditionally unfit for military service due to his vision damage.8 When Tárrega was three, his babysitter hurled him headfirst into a water-filled ditch, and that incident was the source of his eye problems that plagued him until his death.9