Manuel de Falla

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Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla
Born November 23, 1876(1876-11-23)
Cádiz
Died November 14, 1946 (aged 69)
Alta Gracia, Argentina
Resting place Cádiz Cathedral, crypt
Residence Cádiz, 1890-1907, Madrid; 1907-1914, Paris; 1921-1939, Granada; 1939-1946, Argentina
Nationality Spaniard
Occupation Composer
Known for El amor brujo, El Sombrero de Tres Picos
Spouse(s) single
Parents José María Falla y Franco (1849-1919), María Jesús Matheu y Zabala (1850-1919)

Manuel de Falla y Matheu (November 23, 1876 – November 14, 1946) was a Spanish composer of classical music.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Manuel de Falla was born in Cádiz. His early teacher in music was his mother; at the age of 9 he was introduced to his first piano professor. Little is known of that period of his life, but his relationship with his teacher was likely conflicted. From the late 1890s he studied music in Madrid, piano with José Tragó and composition with Felipe Pedrell. In 1899 by unanimous vote he was awarded the first prize at the piano competition at his school of music, and around that year he started to use de with his first surname, making de Falla the name he became known as from that time on.

It was from Felipe Pedrell, during Madrid period, that de Falla became interested in native Spanish music, particularly Andalusian flamenco (specifically cante jondo), the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works. Among his early pieces are a number of zarzuelas, but his first important work was the one-act opera La vida breve (Life is Short, or The Brief Life, written in 1905, though revised before its premiere in 1913).

De Falla spent the years 1907 to 1914 in Paris, where he met a number of composers who had an influence on his style, including the impressionists Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Paul Dukas. He wrote little more music, however, until his return to Madrid at the beginning of World War I. While at no stage was he a prolific composer, it was then that he entered into his mature creative period.

Composer Manuel de Falla as depicted on a former currency note of Spain

In Madrid he composed several of his best known pieces, including:

From 1921 to 1939 Manuel de Falla lived in Granada, where he organized the Concurso de Cante Jondo in 1922. In Granada he wrote the puppet opera El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show, 1923) and a concerto for harpsichord and chamber ensemble (1926). The puppet opera marked the first time the harpsichord had entered the modern orchestra; and the concerto was the first for harpsichord written in the 20th Century. Both of these works were written with Wanda Landowska in mind. In these works, the Spanish folk influence is somewhat less apparent than a kind of Stravinskian neo-classicism.

Also in Granada, de Falla began work on the large-scale orchestral cantata Atlàntida (Atlantis) based on the Catalan text L'Atlàntida by Jacint Verdaguer, which he considered to be the most important of all his works. Verdaguer's text gives a mythological account of how the submersion of Atlantis created the Atlantic ocean, thus separating Spain and Latin America, and how later the Spanish discovery of America reunited what had always belonged together. De Falla continued work on the cantata after moving to Argentina in 1939. The orchestration of the piece remained incomplete at his death and was completed posthumously by Ernesto Halffter.

De Falla tried but failed to prevent the murder of his close friend the poet Federico García Lorca in 1936. Following Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War, de Falla left Spain for Argentina. He died in Alta Gracia, in the Argentine province of Córdoba. In 1947 his remains were brought back to Spain and entombed in the cathedral at Cádiz. One of the lasting honors to his memory is the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at Complutense University of Madrid. He never married and had no children.

[edit] List of works

Stage works
Opera, etc.
  • Los amores de la Inés ("Inés' loves") - zarzuela with 5 musical parts (1901-1902)
  • La vida breve (Life is Short, also translated as The Brief Life) - opera (lyric drama) (1904-1913)
    Interlude and Dance
  • Fuego fatuo - opera after themes by Chopin; unfinished (1918-1919)
  • El retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show) - puppet opera (1919-1923)
  • El gran teatro del mundo ("The great theatre of the world") - incidental music for a performance of Calderón de la Barca's play (1927)
  • Atlàntida (Atlantis) - scenic cantata for soloist, choir and orchestra (1927-1946); revised and completed by Ernesto Halffter (first perf. 1961)


Ballet and dance
Orchestral works
  • Nights in the Gardens of Spain - piano and orchestra (c. 1909-1916)
  • Homenajes ("Homages") - orchestra (1938-1939)
    Sections: I. "Fanfare sobre el nombre de E. F. Arbós" - II. "À Claude Debussy (Elegía de la guitarra)" - Rappel de la Fanfare - III. "À Paul Dukas (Spes Vitae)" - IV. "Pedrelliana".
Choral works
  • Balada de Mallorca ("Ballad of Majorca") - for choir (1933)
Works for chamber ensembles and solo instruments
  • Melodía para violonchelo y piano - for piano and cello (1897)
  • Pieza en Do mayor and Romanza - for cello and piano (1898)
  • Fanfare pour une fête ("Fanfare for a feast") - for two trumpets, timpani and side-drum (1921)
  • Concerto for harpsichord, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello - dedicated to Wanda Landowska (c. 1923-1926)
  • Fanfare sobre el nombre de Arbós ("Fanfare on the name of Arbós") - for trumpets, horns and drums (1934); orchestrated as a section of Homenajes.
Vocal works
  • Preludios ("Preludes") - voice and piano, text ("Madre todas las noches") by Antonio de Trueba (c. 1900)
  • Rima ("Rime") - voice and piano, text ("Olas gigantes") by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (c. 1900)
  • Dios mío, qué solos se quedan los muertos - voice and piano, text by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (c. 1900)
  • Tus ojillos negros ("Your small black eyes") - voice and piano, text by Cristóbal de Castro (1902-1903)
  • Cantares de Nochebuena "Songs of Christmas Eve" - nine popular songs for voice, guitar and (at least in the case of the first two songs) zambomba and rebec or chicharra (1903-1904)
  • Trois mélodies - voice and piano, words by Théophile Gautier (1909-1910)
  • Siete canciones populares españolas ("Seven Spanish Folksongs") - for voice and piano, dedicated to Madame Ida Godebska (1914)
  • Oración de las madres que tienen sus hijos en sus brazos ("Prayer of the mothers embracing their children" - voice and piano, words by Gregorio Martínez Sierra (1914)
  • El pan de Ronda que sabe a verdad ("The bread of Ronda has a taste of truth") - voice and piano, by G. Martínez Sierra (1915)
  • Psyché - for woman voice, flute, harp, violin and cello (1924)
  • Soneto a Córdoba ("Sonnet to Cordoba") - for soprano voice and harp (or piano), text by Luis de Góngora (1927)
Instrumental works
Piano
  • Nocturne (1896)
  • Mazurka en Do menor (1899)
  • Serenata andaluza ("Andalusian serenade") (1900)
  • Canción ("Song") (1900)
  • Vals capricho (1900)
  • Cortejo de gnomos("Procession of gnomes") (1901)
  • Allegro de concierto (1903-1904)
  • Cuatro piezas españolas, Pièces espagnoles ("Four Spanish Pieces") - for piano, dedicated to Isaac Albéniz (c. 1906-1909)
  • Fantasía bética - for piano, dedicated to Artur Rubinstein (1919)
  • Canto de los remeros del Volga (del cancionero musical ruso) ("Song of the Volga boatmen") (1922)
  • Pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas (1935) - piano (1935); orchestrated as the third part of Homenajes
Guitar
  • Pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy - for guitar; arranged for piano (1920); orchestrated as the second section of Homenajes


Versions and arrangements of other authors' works
  • Cançó de nadal (1922)
  • Debussy - Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune (1924)
  • Preludio (1924)
  • Rossini - Overture to The Barber of Seville (1924-1925)
  • Ave María (1932)
  • L´amfiparnaso (Palma de Mallorca, 1934)
  • Invocatio ad individuam trinitatem (Granada, 1935)
  • Himno marcial (Granada, 1937)
  • Emendemus in melius (Granada, 1939)
  • Madrigal: prado verde y florido (Granada, 1939)
  • Romance de Granada: qué es de ti, desconsolado (Granada, 1939)
  • Tan buen ganadico (Granada, 1939)
  • ¡Ora, sus! (Granada, 1939)
  • O magnum mysterium (in circuncisione Domini) (Villa del Lago, 1940-1942)
  • Tenebrae factae sunt (responsorium) (Villa del Lago, 1940-1942)
  • Miserere mei Deus (salmo 50) (Villa del Lago, 1940-1942)
  • In festo Sancti Jacobi (o Lux et decus Hispaniae) (Villa del Lago, 1940-1942)
  • Benedictus (de la misa "Vidi speciosam") (Villa del Lago, 1940-1942)
  • Gloria (de la misa "Vidi speciosam") (Villa del Lago, 1940-1942)
  • Cançó de l´estrella (Villa del Lago, 1941-1942)
  • Romance de Don Joan y Don Ramón (Villa del Lago, 1941-1942)

[edit] Media
Spanish Dance
Performed by Carrie Rehkopf
Popular Spanish Suite #1
Performed by John Michel
Popular Spanish Suite #5
Performed live by John Michel
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

[edit] References

  • Manuel de Falla and the Spanish Musical Renaissance by Burnett James (Gollancz, London, 1979)
  • Manuel de Falla by Nancy Lee Harper (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998)
  • Manuel De Falla and Modernism in Spain by Carol A Hess (University of Chicago Press, 2001)
  • Falla by Manuel Orozco Diaz (Barcelona: Salvat 1985)

[edit] External links


Ballet portal

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_de_Falla"
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