A Spanish guitarist, composer and theorist, Santiago de Murcia was probably born in Madrid, and both his parents were instrument makers and musicians at the royal court of Spain. Between 1690 and 1700 he was a choirboy at the Royal Chapel, and there studied music with his own father, with Francisco Guerau, and with Antonio Literes, the most famous composer of the day. He accompanied Spain's newly crowned king Philip V to Naples in 1702, where he would have met Corelli and Scarlatti. By 1705 Murcia was guitar tutor to the Spanish Queen, Maria Luisa Gabriela of Savoy, the young wife of Philip V, who also employed one Antonio de Murcia (probably Santiago's brother) as her personal guitar maker. By 1714, the year of Maria Luisa's death, he was in the service of Jacome Francisco Andriani, a wealthy Italian knight who came to Spain in 1706 to support Philip V during the war of succession (1700-1714). It is likely that Andriani helped Murcia with the publication costs of de Murcia’s book Resumen de Acompañar la Parte con la Guitarra, which was published in 1717.
After Maria Luisa's death and Philip V's remarriage he may have travelled widely, including Belgium and France where he may have met Robert de Visée, François Campion and François le Cocq. Nothing definite is known of Murcia until 1732, which is the year he dedicated his manuscript collection, Passacalles y Obras de Guitarra, to Joseph Alvarez de Saavedra, another of his patrons and King Philip’s former notary. It is thought that Murcia accompanied Saavedra to Mexico, (who died in Pueblo in 1737,) which would explain why all of his collections have turned up in that country. He is believed to have died in Mexico.
