Part Impressionist, and part neo-Classicist, Manuel de Falla is difficult to peg, but he is widely regarded as the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early twentieth century. His output is small but choice, and revolves largely around music for the stage. Falla's reputation is based primarily on two lavishly Iberian ballet scores: El amor brujo (Love, the Magician), from which is drawn the Ritual Fire Dance (a pops favorite, often heard in piano or guitar transcriptions), and the splashy El Sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat). He also gained a permanent place in the concert repertory with his evocative piano concerto, Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

Born in 1876,Falla first took piano lessons from his mother in Cádiz, and later moved to Madrid to continue the piano and to study composition with Felipe Pedrell, the musical scholar who had earlier pointed Isaac Albéniz toward Spanish folk music as a source for his compositions. Pedrell interested Falla in Renaissance Spanish church music, folk music, and native opera. The latter two influences are strongly felt in La Vida breve (Life Is Short), an opera (a sort of Spanish Cavalleria rusticana) for which Falla won a prize in 1905, although the work was not premiered until 1913.

A second significant aesthetic influence resulted from Falla's 1907 move to Paris, where he met and fell under the Impressionist spell of Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Maurice Ravel. It was in Paris that he published his first piano pieces and songs. In 1914 Falla was back in Madrid, working on the application of a quasi-Impressionistic idiom to intensely Spanish subjects; El amor brujo drew on Andalusian folk music. Falla wrote another ballet in 1917, El Corregidor y la molinera (The Magistrate and the Miller Girl). Diaghilev persuaded him to expand the score for a ballet by Léonide Massine to be called El sombrero de tres picos, and excerpts from the full score have become a staple of the concert repertory. In between the two ballets came Nights in the Gardens of Spain, a suite of three richly scored impressions for piano and orchestra, again evoking Andalusia.

In the 1920s, Falla altered his stylistic direction, coming under the influence of Stravinsky's Neo-Classicism. Works from this period include the puppet opera El retablo de Maese Pedro (The Altarpiece of Maese Pedro), based on an episode from Don Quixtote, and a harpsichord concerto, with the folk inspiration now Castilian rather than Andalusian. After 1926 he essentially retired, living first in Mallorca and, from 1939, in Argentina. He was essentially apolitical, but the rise of fascism in Spain contributed to his decision to remain in Latin America after traveling there for a conducting engagement. He spent his final years in the Argentine desert, at work on a giant cantata, Atlántida, which remained unfinished at his death in 1946.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]


Although, he only composed 25 works, he remained a highly individual composer in his life. Clearly drawing from Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel and later the neo-classicism of Stravinsky, de Falla forged a highly individual style.

He's not discussed much around here for reasons I'm not sure of, but I imagine that there many people on this very forum who appreciate his music as much as I do.

Certainly I do. I've all his splendid piano music.

I love everything de Falla composed, the two ballets, the Nights in the Gardens of Spain, La Vida Breve, La Atlántida, the concerto for harpsichord, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello, the Siete canciones populares españolas. He was a very good composer.

"The Nights in the Gardens of Spain" is a such a beautiful piece of music. Unfortunately, I own only two recordings of this work. My favorite one being the Martha Argerich/Barenboim recording on the Elatus/Warner label.

A curiosity: The Siete Canciones Populares Españolas are famous in the arrangement of Paul Kochanski for
violin and piano. (Perlman had a beautiful recording)- Kochanski was a fine violinist an arranger who recorded only one major work: Brahm's third sonata with Rubinstein, published on a CD I've. But he recorded also some short pieces published on a extremely rare vynil that never, or almost never appear for sale anywhere. I at least
never saw it in offer, and I know nobody who has it.

Yes, I especially like the Three cornered Hat - not very well known the story behind it, but during the enlightenment some guy tried to force a law in which everyone had to wear a three cornered hat. It tore the country apart, some disagreeing and others agreeing with him, very violently.

His little harpsichord concerto is amazing. A truly great composer.

Absolutely, I wished he composed more music. He only composed 25 works. A real shame. He had a very unique style.

Falla was one of Ifukube's fav composers and was very influential to him. I can hear very "Ifukube-sounding" passgaes in Falla, so the influence was very real.

Or you mean you can hear very "Falla-sounding" passages in Ifukube? Ifukube didn't influence Falla, he influenced Ifukube.

Of course Ifukube did not influence Falla. What I am saying is that I can hear passges in Falla that were obviously an influence on Ifukube. I guess I should have worded my original post better.

Yes, you should have worded it better.

One of the first recordings I bought was Arthur Rubenstein playing Nights In The Gardens of Spain- and, in fact, it was one of the recordings that got me passionate about classical music. Nights is still my favorite Falla piece (especially as I play piano), but the El Sombrero de Tres Picos grows on me every time I play it.

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Take a look at the Bandit's blog, Americana Avenue.

Yes, "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" is a beautiful piece of music. It has some great moments.

"El Sombrero de Tres Picos" is a great piece too. I dig it every time I hear it.

I have a cd, which among other things, has extracts from Falla's La vida breve, el amor brujo, el sombrero de tres picos. It's music that has a clear beat, very dynamic and full of energy.

I also admire De Falla on a political level, as he got out of Spain after Franco took over. The man had integrity, he simply wasn't willing to compromise & bow down to that horrid regime. That's more than could be said for other composers, not only in Franco's Spain, but elsewhere as well.