Estanislao Marco Valls (1873-1954)

Marco was born on 17 May 1873 (we even have the time — 4 in the morning, apparently!)¹ He made his performing debut when he was only seven years old, alongside his brother on bandurria. Unfortunately it didn’t go quite to plan. Jorge Orozco tells the story:

‘They thought they would be a big hit there since it was the meeting place for millers and grain farmers. But the reality was nothing like that. Right after they started, they were arrested by the municipal police, charged with vagrancy and resisting authority and jailed for ten days.’²

Nevertheless, the Marco family went on to have a successful performing career. Marco studied with Tárrega, and later became an important teacher himself. His most notable student was Narciso Yepes, who wrote about his teacher fondly in the booklet notes of one of his albums:

‘Estanislao Marco was one of Tárrega’s favourite students. I had the good fortune of studying with him. The Tárrega school had two branches, those who played with the fingertips and those who let their fingernails grow. The first group included: Estanislao Marco, Josefina Robledo, Salvador García and Emilio Pujol. To the second: Miguel Llobet and Joaquín García de la Rosa, whom I also had the good fortune to study with. He was an old man and I was a 13-year-old child, but I remember that contact as something miraculous in my life. The two of us talked as if we were the same age. I don’t remember who approached who, but I am sure that in that mystery was the key to the current that is established between student and teacher and through which not only knowledge and experiences but also a love is passed. This Guajira [by Marco] is the first piece a composer wrote for me and I wish to end the disc with it to pay tribute to the man who placed his confidence in me when I was barely a teenager. I hope I haven’t disappointed him or any one of the others who volunteered to teach me the best of what they had to offer.’³

We have Jorge Orozco to thank for rediscovering Marco. Orozco had heard about Marco and one day stumbled — miraculously — upon the manuscripts Marco’s compositions at a flea market. The merchant had found the scores in a trash collector! Orozco went on to publish the compositions in a four-volume edition.

Here’s Rob MacKillop playing a composition by Marco:

1. Jorge Orozco, Estanislao Marco Valls (1873-1954): Guitarrista y compositor (PILES, Editorial de Música, S. A., 2012), p. 25. ↩︎
2. Ibid, p. 26. ↩︎
3. Ibid., pp. 30-31. ↩︎