Figure 7: Lithograph of Amalia Gómez34

Fellow Travelers
Pujol tells that in 1896 Concepción was a student of Tárrega’s close friend, the guitarist and
artist Manuel Loscos35 in Valencia; she invited Tárrega (see Figure 8) to perform at her home on
Paseo de la Alameda, along with some prominent individuals including the writer María
Carbonell. That “she was like a sleep-walker and she fainted,” and that doctors had to revive her
seems like more exaggeration on Pujol’s part. (At the time women wore corsets that could
contribute to fainting.) In any event, her relationship with the guitarist became a close one, and
she became devoted to Tárrega and to the guitar. He called her “Conchita,” the affectionate
diminutive he wrote on two of the three pieces he dedicated to her. According to Pujol, they were
so close that Tárrega and his family moved into the tower in Concepción’s San Gervasio villa in
1897 and stayed there some two years, while still maintaining their apartment on Valencia street.
Miguel Llobet was studying with Tárrega in this period, making copies of a number of
his pieces that survive today in the archive of the Music Museum of Barcelona.36 Llobet almost
certainly met Concepción at that time, likely visiting his teacher at her villa.

34
A photo of the lithograph is shown on
https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/repositorio/islandora/object/fotografia:414530
35
Tárrega dedicated his study La Mariposa to Loscos.
36
These are: La mort d'Ase' de Grieg arranjat per Francesc Tàrrega (shelfmark FA168), ‘Copiado por M. Llobet,
Barcelona 1898;’ Zarzuela. La Marcha de Cádiz. Gavota de los Patos' arranjada per Francesc Tàrrega (FA 169),
‘Copiado por M. Llobet, Barcelona 1898;’ and four Tárrega Preludios (FA 177, 178, 180, and 181), all marked
‘Copiado por M. Llobet, Barcelona 1899.’ There are two pieces copied in 1897: Romanza' de Schumann arranjada
per a guitarra per Francesc Tàrrega (FA 182), ‘Copiado por M. Llobet Barcelona 1897, and Air de Ballet' de
Massenet arranjada per a guitarra per Francesc Tàrrega (FA 183), ‘Copiado por M. Llobet Marzo 1897.’

12