Santiago de Murcia was born in Madrid on 25 July 1673, the son of Juan de Murcia and Magdalena Hernandez. He married Josefa Garcia in May 1695. In a printed collection of his guitar music he describes himself as Master of Guitar to the Spanish queen Maria Luisa of Savoy. He is assumed to have held this post until her death in 1714. In 1729 he signed a declaration of poverty. He died in Madrid in 1739.

Murcia’s surviving works include four collections: Resumen de acompañar la parte con la guitarra (1714), Cifras selectas de guitarra (1722), the Codice Saldivar no. 4 (c. 1730), and Passacalles y obras (1732). His music reflects an interest in a wide range of pre-existing music for guitar; the collections group works of different styles together, offering a “rich and varied panorama” of the Baroque guitar repertoire. The Cifras selectas manuscript was reported in 2006 to have been discovered in Chile.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Murcia
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q720273