José Ferrer y Esteve (1835-1916)Nocturno, Op. 17, No. 4

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of José Ferrer y Esteve, Pujades y Vilar, a Catalan guitarist and composer whose life and career bridged two important eras in Spanish guitar history—that of

Aguado and that of Tárrega. The city of Barcelona was blossoming into a great artistic center when the young Ferrer moved there in 1860. In the next decades, together with Julián Arcas, Ferrer would be a founder of a guitar circle that would come to include or influence José Brocá, José Viñas, Jaime Bosch, José Costa, Antonio Alba, José Sirera, Miguel Más, and the next great generation of Francisco Tárrega and Miguel Llobet. Ferrer published over sixty numbered opere, several works without opus numbers, some transcriptions of music by Yradier (whom he probably met during a brief sojourn in Paris), and a few manuscripts.1 (He should not be confused with a contem-porary piano composer who also called himself “José Ferrer.”) The present work is taken from from Veladas intimas: Cuatro piezas para guitarra, published in Barcelona by Hijos de Andrés Vidal y Roger in 1892. Many of Ferrer’s works are miniatures in the international salon style of the nineteenth century but a few, including this one, clearly reflect the growing popularity of Spanish national song and dance, and perhaps the influence of the Felip Pedrell. —Richard M. Long

1Josep María Mangado Artigas,La Guitarra en Cataluña, 1769-1939 (London: Tecla 1998)/