Manuel de Falla (1876-1946); ESP

Falla, Manuel de [Falla y Matheu, Manuel Maria de] (b Cádiz, 1876; d Alta Gracia de Córdoba, Argentina, 1946). Sp. composer and pianist. He was taught the pf. by his mother and harmony by 2 local musicians, but his ambition was to be a composer and he wrote 2 zarzuelas, the first of which was prod. in 1902. Falla then studied comp. in Madrid for 3 years with Pedrell, who imparted the doctrine that a nation's mus. should be based on folk-song. However, it was to the spirit rather than to the letter of Sp. folk-mus. which Falla turned. In 1905 he won the Madrid Acad. of Fine Arts prize for the best lyrical drama by a Sp. composer with his 2-act opera La Vida Breve (but it was not perf.). In the same year he won the Ortiz y Cusso prize for Sp. pianists. For 2 years he taught the pf. in Madrid and in 1907 went to Paris, where he became the friend of and was greatly influenced by Dukas, Ravel, and Debussy. Ricardo Viñes played the 4 Spanish Pieces for pf. in Paris in 1908, and Falla himself introduced them to London at his début there in 1911. La Vida breve was produced in Nice and Paris in 1913 and in Madrid in 1914. The ballet-pantomine El amor brujo followed in 1915. In 1916 he completed his most ambitious and successful concert work (begun in Paris 1909), the Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) for pf. and orch. Falla's fame was est., however, in 1919 by Diaghilev's prod. in London of the ballet El sombrero de tres picos (Tricorne, or The Three-Cornered Hat). In 1919 Falla also completed his major work for solo pf., Fantasía Bética, dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein. Bética was the Roman name (Baetica) for Andalusia. After World War I, Falla's style was less colourfully but no less inherently Sp.—it is truer to say that the popular Andalusian folk element was succeeded by a re-creation of the severer style of the early Sp. polyphonic masters. From this period come the chamber opera (based on an incident in Don Quixote) El Retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show), f.p. 1923, and the hpd. conc. (1926) ded. to Wanda Landowska. In 1926 he began work on an enormous ‘scenic cantata’ Atlántida which was left unfinished and was completed by E. Halffter. In 1939, after cond. 4 concerts in Buenos Aires, he settled in Argentina. Prin. comps.:

OPERAS: La Vida breve (1904-5); Fuego Fatuo (based on Chopin) (1918-19); El Retablo de Maese Pedro (1919-22).

BALLETS: El Amor Brujo (1915); El sombrero de tres picos (1918-19, being rev. version of El corregidory la molinera, 1916-17).

ORCH.: Noches en los jardines de España (1909-15), pf., orch.; Suites Nos. 1 and 2 from El sombrero de tres picos (1919).

CHAMBER MUSIC: Psyche for mez., fl., harp, vn., va., vc. (1924); conc. for hpd. (or pf.), fl., ob., cl., vn., vc. (1923-6).

CHORAL AND VOCAL: Atlántida, scenic cantata, unfinished (completed by Halffter); 3 Melódies, v., pf. (1909); Siete Canciones Populares Españolas (7 Spanish Popular Songs), v., pf. (1914-15); Soneto a Córdoba, v., hp. (1927); Balada de Mallorca (after Chopin), mixed ch. (1933).

PIANO: Nocturno (1899); Serenata andaluza (1899); Vals-capricho (1900); Serenata (1901); Cuatro Piezas Españolas (4 Spanish Pieces), (1907-8); Fantasía Bética (1919); Homenajes (Homages) 1. Fanfare on the name of Arbós, 1933, orch. 1938; 2. A Claude Debussy (elegia de la guitarra), also for guitar as Homenaje a Debussy, 1920, orch. 1939; 3. Rapel de la Fanfare, 1941; 4. A Paul Dukas (Spes Vitae), 1935, orch. 1939; 5. Pedrelliana, 1938. Ritual Fire Dance, Dance of Fear, Pantomime, Récit du Pêcheur, arr. by Falla from ballet El Amor Brujo; suite from 7 Spanish Popular Songs, arr. by Falla; Dance of Miller's Wife and Miller's Dance, from El Sombrero de tres picos, arr. Falla.

ARRS. BY OTHERS: La Vida breve: 2 Spanish Dances, pf. solo and pf. duet, arr. Samazeuilh; 1st Spanish Dance, vn., pf., arr. Kreisler; 2 Spanish Dances, orch. Chapelier; 7 Spanish Popular Songs, orch. by Halffter; Suite for vn. and pf. arr. P. Kochanski; for vc. and pf., arr. M. Maréchal.

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