De FallaManuel

COLLECTION

Manuel de Falla 1876-1946Collection

EL AMOR BRUJO1. Introduccion y Escena 0’332. En la Cueva (La Noche) 1’593. Canción del amor dolido 1’414. El Aparecido 0’155. Danza del Terror 2’076. El Circulo Mágico

(Romance del Pescador) 2’327. A Media noche (Los Sortilegios) 0’388. Danza ritual del fuego (Para

ahuyentar los malos espíritus) 4’169. Escena 1’0010. Canción del Fuego fatuo 1’5311. Pantomima 4’0612. Danza del Juego de Amor 2’4513. Final: Las Campanas

del Amanecer 1’36

SIETE CANCIONES POPULARES ESPAÑOLASSeven Popular Spanish SongsOrch. Luciano Berio 14. El paño moruno 1’1715. Seguidilla musciana 1’2816. Asturiana 2’3017. Jota 2’5418. Nana 1’2319. Canción 1’0520. Polo 1’42

HOMENAJAS21. Fanfare (Sobre el nombre de Enrque

Fernández Arbós) (1933) 1’0422. á Claude Debussy

(Elegía de la guitarra) (1920) 3’2723. Rappel de la Fanfare (1941) 0’2324. á Paul Dukas

(Spes vitae) (1935) 3’4525. Pedrelliana (1938) 8’22

Marta Senn mezzo-sopranoFernando de La Mora tenor

Cecilia Angell mezzo-soprano

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela

Eduardo Mata conductor

Recording: July 1993, Aula Magna of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, CaracasProducer: David H. WaltersEngineers: Brain C. Peters, David H. WaltersEditor: David H. Waltersp 1995 Dorian Recordings, Licensed from Sono Luminus, LLC

EL RETABLO DE MAESE PEDROMaster Peter’s Puppet Show43. The Proclamation (1.2-1.2) 0’5444. Master Peter’s Symphony

(2.1-2.3) 3’0245. The Court of Charlemagne

(3.1-3.2) 1’5146. Entrance of Charlemagne

(4.1-4.2) 3’3147. Melisandra (5.1-5.6) 4’0448. The Moor’s Punishment

(6.1-6.2) 1’3149. The Pyrenees (7.1-7.2) 2’1050. The Escape (8.1-8.10) 4’1051. Finale (9.1-9.15) 5’06

52. Psyché 4’56

DANCES FROM THE THREE-CORNERED HAT Suite No.226. The Neighbour’s Dance

(Seguidillas) 3’2827. The Miller’s Dance (Farruca) 3’0728. Final Dance (Jota) 6’36

Marta Senn mezzo-soprano

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela

Eduardo Mata conductor

Recording: July 1994, Aula Magna of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, CaracasProducer: David H. WaltersEngineers: Brain C. Peters, David H. WaltersEditor: David H. Waltersp 1995 Dorian Recordings, Licensed from Sono Luminus, LLC

LA VIDA BREVEAct I29. 1st Tableau: Scene 1 7’3430. Scene 2 5’1531. Scene 3 4’2232. Scene 4 0’4833. Scene 5 2’5634. Scene 6 3’3235. 2nd Tableau: Intermezzo 6’22

Act II36. 1st tableau: Scene I 3’0337. Spanish Dance 3’1938. Scene 2 3’4939. Scene 3 3’3240. Orchestral Interlude 3’2041. 2nd Tableau: Dance 3’5142. Final Scene 5’54

Concerto for Harpsichord53. Allegro 3’3154. Lento 5’4455. Vivace 4’25

Solistas de MéxicoEduardo Mata conductor

with Julianne Baird soprano and Rafael Puyana harpsichord

Recording: October 1994, Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico CityProducer: David H. WaltersEngineers: Brain C. Peters, David H. Walters, Eliseo BollandEditor: David H. Waltersp 1995 Dorian Recordings, Licensed from Sono Luminus, LLC

DANCES FROM “EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS”56. Danza del Molinero 2’2857. Danza de la Molinera 3’5458. Danza de los Vecinos 3’3059. Danza de La Vida Breve 3’2960. Homenaje de Claude Debussy 3’2661. Serenata 4’0362. Mazurka 5’1063. Serenata Andaluza 5’4564. Nocturno 4’3665. Cancion 2’0966. Fantasia Baetica 13’46

Benita Meshulam piano

Recording: 15-17 January 2004, Doopsgezinde Remonstrantse Kerk Deventer, The NetherlandsProducer/engineer: Peter Arts, Arts Music Recording Rotterdamp 2009 Brilliant Classics

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)Spanish contemporary composer, considered one of the first and foremost figures of the Spanish modem school. He made his first musical studies in Cádiz, with his mother, and he later entered the Madrid Conservatory to study with Felipe Pedrell and José Trago. His first zarzuela, Los amores de Inés, was a failure, but two years later, in 1905, he secured the Academy of Fine Arts’ Prize with his opera La vida breve. Two years later he left for Paris, where he made contact with important figures in the art world, some of whom would be very influential on his musical style: Dukas, Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky. In 1911 he made his debut in London as a pianist, playing his Quatre piéces espagnoles (Four Spanish pieces) and in 1913 he had La vida breve premiered in Nice, after which the work was seen in some important European capitals. In 1915 he presented El amor brujo in Madrid and later he saw the premiere in London of El sombrero de tres picos (The three cornered hat), a piece which quickly became famous and is known the world over. In 1928 he wrote El retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Pedro’s puppet theatre) and had it premiered in Paris, where he started work on his great vocal score, La Atlántida on a text by Jacinto Verdaguer. In 1939 Falla settled in Argentina, where he died in 1946. His remains were taken to Spain and solemnly buried in his home town, Cádiz.

Falla’s works find inspiration in Castilian and Andalusian folklore, so his style is genuinely Spanish, although these national traits did not prevent the composer from following the latest developments of European modern music. His melodies are rich, intense and concentrated, though not ,always expansive, and through them Falla created numerous moments of great emotional impact. His orchestral technique is clearly influenced by the French modern school, since Falla had no precedent to follow in Spanish music. Nonetheless, his orchestration is highly individual and bears the unmistakable mark of genius.

NOCHES EN LOS JARDINES DE ESPAÑA G.49 Nights in the Garden of Spain67. En El Generalife

(in the Gerealife) 10’3968. Danza Lejana

(A Distant Dance) 5’0769. En los jardines de la Sierra

de Córdoba (In the Gardens of the Sierra

de Córdoba) 8’45

Jutta Czapski pianoBerliner Sinfonie-OrchesterGünther Herbig conductor

Recording: 1981, Christuskirche, Berlin, Germanyp 1983-1996 VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin Licensed from Edel Records GmbH

CUATRO PIEZAS ESPAÑOLAS70. Aragonesa 3’3671. Cubana 4’1772. Montanesa 5’1273. Andaluza 4’4074. Ritual Fire Dance

(from: El Amor Brujo) 3’4975. Cortejo de Gnomos 2’2076. Vals capricho 4’06

77. Allegro de concierto 10’4478. Canto de los remeros del Volga 4’1479. Pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas 4’08

Benita Meshulam piano

Recording: 15-17 January 2004, Doopsgezinde Remonstrantse Kerk Deventer, The NetherlandsProducer/engineer: Peter Arts, Arts Music Recording Rotterdamp 2009 Brilliant Classics

SUITE POPULAIRE ESPAGNOLE (after “Siete Canciones populares Españolas)80. El paño moruno 2’0981. Nana (Berceuse) 2’0982. Canción 1’3183. Polo 1’1684. Asturiana 2’1785. Jota 2’56

Timora Rosler celloKlára Würtz piano

Recording: 29/30 May 2001, Doopsgezinde Gemeente DeventerProducer & engineer: Arts Music Recording, Rotterdamp 2006 Brilliant Classics

Cover: Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, Hall of the Ambassadors, Alhambra, Granada, 1909 The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles© 2021 Brilliant Classics

28th, 1934, by a group of musicians from the Madrid Symphony Orchesta, conducted by Fernández Arbós.

In 1920 Falla received a commission from the Revue Musicale in Paris to write a small piece for a special issue dedicated to Claude Debussy, the great French composer who had died in 1918. Falla wrote a short guitar piece, Homenaje a Debussy, which was dedicated to the Catalonian guitarist

Miguel Llobet, who had long wanted Falla to write a piece for him. The piece carries a subtitle, The guitar’s elegy, and is conceived as a highly stylized habanera that includes, in its closing bars, a quotation from Debussy’s piece Soirée dans Grenade. In addition to the original guitar version and the orchestral version included in Homenajes, Falla made a piano version of The guitar’s elegy.

The piano piece titled Le tombeau de Paul Dukas was the result of another commission from the Revue Musicale, on the occasion of the French composer’s death in 1935, Falla responded to this commission with a special emotion, because Paul Dukas had been a close and generous friend of his during his stay in Paris. In this serious and solemn piece (Andante molto sostenuto) Falla quotes a short fragment of Dukas’ Sonata for piano (1901).

Particularly striking among them is the Ritual fire dance, the main purpose of which is to cast off evil spirits. It is evident that this musical exorcism performed by Falla has been more than effective, because in the closing pages of El amor brujo, the ghost of Candelas’ former lover disappears, leaving the young Gypsy girl free to fully accept Cannelo’s love.

At dawn, the bells toll and redemption arrives:Morning is breakingSing, oh bells, singMy glory is returned to me.

Part of that glory belongs to Manuel de Falla, who knew better than anyone how to join the thrilling world of cante jondo with the traditional forms of concert music, thus creating some of the summits of Spanish musical nationalism.

Few musicians throughout history have been so close to that fascinating form of popular musical utterance called canle jondo as Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). In fact, one of his most remarkable works, El amor brujo, was conceived and developed mainly on the basis of Falla’s perception of flamenco music or, to be more precise and to avoid the old controversy about what exactly is flamenco, Gypsy music. This fiery and passionate music inspired Falla not only the creation of many musical ideas of his own, but also moved him to write some of the most interesting texts ever written on cante jondo, the supreme expression of the Andalusian musical spirit.

Although El amor brujo (Love, the magician) is known mainly as a concert piece, it was born in the form of a ballet. And it was born, like many other things, through the inspiration of a woman. During the first years of the twentieth century, Pastora Imperio was one of the great figures in the world of cante jondo, and it was she who expressed the wish of performing a work with song and dance composed by Falla and written by the noted playwright and novelist Gregorio Martínez Sierra. El amor brujo was created under circumstances that leave no doubt about the authenticity of its sources, both musical and dramatic. Falla spent a considerable amount of time listening to the singing of Pastora Imperio and her mother, Rosario de la Mejorana, and making notes on the vocal inflections of both Gypsy women. At the same time, Martínez Sierra spent some afternoons sharing a drink with Doña Rosario and listening to the old Gypsy as she told ancient stories of love, hate, treachery, redemption ... and ghosts. The materials thus gleaned by the composer and the playwright soon became a chamber bailer.

The chronology of Homenajes speaks of a twenty-year period, during which it is possible to find stylistic and expressive differences that are a logical consequence of Falla’s own development as a composer.

Fanfare is Falla’s contribution to a collective work created by fourteen Spanish composers as a tribute to Enrique Fernández Arbós, conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. The thematic material of this brief piece is based on the musical equivalent, according to German notation, of Fernández Arbós surname. The Fanfare was originally written for four horns, three trumpets, two drums and timpani. The piece was premiered at Madrid’s Teatro Calderón on March

What Falla accomplished in these Seven Spanish popular songs is a fascinating work that seems to simultaneously inhabit the world of the lied and that of folk song. In these brief pieces, written on anonymous texts, Falla refers to the popular music of Murcia, Asturias, Aragón and Andalucía, and he does so not only with a deep knowledge of his sources, but also with the ability to preserve the popular spirit of the sound matter without losing sight of the expressive parameters of the concert song. In an article published on Música magazine in 1917. Falla himself had this to say about the apparently unsolvable conundrum:

“ I humbly think that in popular song the spirit is more important than the letter. Rhythm, modality and melodic intervals that determine their cadences and undulations are the very essence of these songs; the people themselves bear witness to this fact when they apply an infinite degree of variation to their songs’ purely melodic lines. I’ll say more: the rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment of a popular song is as important as the song itself. Therefore, inspiration must come directly from the people, and whoever does not understand this will only manage to create a work that is nothing more than a clever imitation of his original intentions.”

The Seven Spanish popular songs, dedicated by Falla to Madame Ida Godebska, were first performed at Madrid’s National Music Society by Josefina Revillo, with Falla himself at the piano. The songs were orchestrated by Italian composer Luciano Berio (1925) especially for his wife, the great American singer Cathy Berberian.

Homenajes (Hommages) is a suite comprising five brief pieces that were written by Falla at different stages of his creative development. The work’s title is derived from the fact that each of its parts was dedicated to an important person in Falla’s life. The five parts of the suite Homenajes are the following:

1. Fanfare (On Enrique Fernández Arbós’name) (1933)2. To Claude Debussy (The guitar’s elegy) (1920)3. Rappel de la Fanfare (1941)4. To Paul Dukas (Spes vitae) (1935)5. Pedrelliana (1938)

The year 1905 was indeed a good year regarding the public and academic recognition of Falla’s musical talent. In that year he won a prize for his ability as a pianist, which took him to Madrid as a piano teacher, and he also won a national opera competition with La vida breve. And although it is true that today we recognize in Falla the most Spanish of all Spanish composers of his time, it is also true that some of his works from this period show the influence of French music; this aspect of Falla’s work has a certain logic, considering the paramount importance of French music during the twentieth century’s first years. The fact is that a couple of years later, in 1907, Falla decided to get even closer to the sounds of France and moved to Paris, where he lived for seven years. During that time he was in close contact with Claude Debussy (1862-1918), who was very appreciative of his Spanish colleague’s music. and also with Paul Dukas (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). From the latter, Falla learned some important aspects of orchestration. Among the works written by Falla during this period we find the Cuatro piezas españolas (Four Spanish pieces) for piano (1907-1908), Trois melodies for voice and piano (1909) on texts by Gautier, Nights in the gardens of Spain for piano and orchestra (1909-1915) and the Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Spanish popular songs) for voice and piano (1914).

In his splendid book titled Manuel de Falla, published in Buenos Aires in 1961, the Argentinean composer and musicologist Rodolfo Arizaga wrote this:

“ While living in Paris, Falla received a commission to harmonize a few popular melodies for a Spanish singer that was scheduled to sing in the French capital. The idea appealed to him because it was an opportunity to deepen his knowledge of his country’s native musical language, which was at the core of his own musical thought. And indeed this work, maybe the only genuinely folkloric piece ever written by Falla, does contain an unmistakable documentary authenticity. The work’s premiere, originally planned for that occasion, did not take place because of the dubious seriousness of the scheduled concert. Thus, the work had to wait a few months in silence before its public baptism, after which it became an unqualified success.”

have been originally conceived as an orchestral piece. As is the case in the other pieces of the series, Falla quoted some materials from the composer he was paying homage to; in this case, he used a few themes from Pedrell’s opera La Celestina.

In 1939 Falla settled in Argentina, and one of his first important activities was his participation in a series of symphonic concerts dedicated to Spanish music, in which he shared the conductor’s podium with Juan José Castro. In the third of these concerts, which took place on November 18th of that year, Falla conducted the premiere of Homenajes, in a program that included some other works of his, such as Psyché, Soneto a Córdoba and the Concerto for harpsichord. Two years later, Homenajes was again performed in Buenos Aires, in a series of concerts broadcast through local radio. For this occasion, Falla added to the suite Homenajes the Rappel de la Fanfare, a brief reminiscence of the opening Fanfare, which he placed between the slow pieces dedicated to Debussy and Dukas, both as a contrasting element and as a unifying idea for the whole piece.

In March, 1833, Pedro Antonio de Alarcón was born in the town of Guadix, in the province of Granada, Spain; in time, he would become a famous writer. Towards 1857 his reputation as a poet and journalist was well established, but on that year his play El hijo pródigo (The prodigal son) was hissed off the stage and Alarcón decided to take a break from his career as a writer. To get away from the unruly audiences, he enlisted as a volunteer to fight in the campaign of Morocco in 1859-1860. From this experience he gleaned material for his highly interesting Diario de un testigo de la guerra en África (journal of a war witness in Africa). After returning to Spain, Alarcón resumed his work as a journalist and joined the liberal cause, but as time passed, the ideological ups and downs ruined his political career. As a novelist, Alarcón created such important works as El final de Norma (Norma’s end), El escándalo (The scandal), El niño de la bola (The boy with the ball) and La pródiga (The prodigal woman). Alarcón’s vivid and picturesque prose is now and then hampered by the rhetorical excesses typical of Spanish literary romanticism. Pedro Antonio de Alarcón died in Valdemoro, near Madrid, in 1891, and today he is chiefly remembered for his novel El sombrero de tres picos (The three-cornered hat), on which Manuel de Falla based one of his best musical works.

The chronology of Homenajes speaks of a twenty-year period, during which it is possible to find stylistic and expressive differences that are a logical consequence of Falla’s own development as a composer.

Fanfare is Falla’s contribution to a collective work created by fourteen Spanish composers as a tribute to Enrique Fernández Arbós, conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. The thematic material of this brief piece is based on the musical equivalent, according to German notation, of Fernández Arbós’ surname. The Fanfare was originally written for four horns, three trumpets, two drums and timpani. The piece was premiered at Madrid’s Teatro Calderón on March 28th, 1934, by a group of musicians from the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fernández Arbós.

In 1920 Falla received a commission from the Revue Musicale in Paris to write a small piece for a special issue dedicated to Claude Debussy, the great French composer who had died in 1918. Falla wrote a short guitar piece, Homenaje a Debussy, which was dedicated to the Catalonian guitarist Miguel Llobet, who had long wanted Falla to write a piece for him. The piece carries a subtitle, The guitar’s elegy, and is conceived as a highly stylized habanera that includes, in its closing bars, a quotation from Debussy’s piece Soirée dans Grenade. In addition to the original guitar version and the orchestral version included in Homenajes, Falla made a piano version of The guitar’s elegy.

The piano piece titled Le tombeau de Paul Dukas was the result of another commission from the Revue Musicale, on the occasion of the French composer’s death in 1935, Falla responded to this commission with a special emotion, because Paul Dukas had been a close and generous friend of his during his stay in Paris. In this serious and solemn piece (Andante molto sostenuto) Falla quotes a short fragment of Dukas’ Sonata for piano (1901).

One of Falla’s main teachers during his first years of musical apprenticeship was the Spanish composer and musicologist Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), of whom Falla always kept a fond and grateful memory. In 1938, already living in Granada, Falla continued to create the series of musical tributes he had started back in 1920 and wrote his Pedrelliana in memory of his teacher. This is the only one among the four Homenajes to

Suite No.1: Introduction – Dusk Dance of the miller’s wife – Fandangop The Corregidor The grapes

Suite No.2: The neighbour’s dance – Seguidilla The miller’s dance – Farruca Final dance - Jota

As he did in other works of his, Falla took some popular dance rhythms as models for his ballet pieces. In the Second suite he refers to three highly individual dance forms. In The neighbour’s dance, the model is the seguidilla, a specifically Gypsy dance that can be found in several regional versions such as the seguidilla murciana (from Murcia) and the seguidilla manchega (from La Mancha) and that is closely related to the rhythm of the sevillanas. In its original form, the seguidilla is preceded by four introductory guitar chords and is built on melodic phrases that usually begin on the fourth quaver of a 3/4 bar. The miller’s dance is based on the farruca, a form originating in northern Spain that reached Andalucía through migrant laborers travelling south to work as cooks and tavern keepers. The farruca is laid out in a four-beat rhythmic pattern similar to that of the soleá, which usually moves in twelve-beat phrases. The farruca was originally danced only by men, later becoming more generalized. Of Celtic roots and a strong folk flavour, the farruca is a solemn, slow and ceremonious dance that has lately become disused. The jota used by Falla as a source for the Final dance is a form typical of Aragón, but it can also be found in Castille, Valencia, Galicia and Andalucía. It is a quick dance in triple time that moves in four-bar phrases.

Besides using these popular dances as the foundation for the score of The three-cornered hat, Falla also used various folk melodies in this work, achieving through them very good descriptions of the ballet’s characters and situations, assigning each of them a leitmotiv very much in the manner of

Richard Wagner. In an article published in Havana in 1930, the writer and music critic Alejo Carpentier wrote the following:

After hearing the evocative score of Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the gardens of Spain), the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev suggested that Falla write a ballet on this work. Instead, Falla came up with a different proposal: to write a score especially for Diaghilev’s stage project. Having been long attracted to Alarcón’s novel, Falla commissioned the ballet’s libretto from Gregorio Martínez Sierra. The work, originally conceived as a pantomime, had a working title, El Corregidor y la molinera (The Corregidor and the millers wife), but when Falla and Martínez Sierra transformed their work into a ballet, they decided to keep Alarcón’s original title. In the process of turning the pantomime into a ballet, Falla also transformed his original chamber group into a symphony orchestra and added a few pieces that were not a part of the pantomime. The ballet’s libretto, very respectful of the literary work, tells of a grumpy and abusive magistrate, the Corregidor, who sees himself as an irresistible ladies’ man, and who is trying to win the beautiful miller’s wife favours. Nevertheless, his efforts are thwarted by the ballet’s other characters. After the miller’s wife performs a sensuous dance with a bunch of grapes to tempt the Corregidor, the miller and the neighbours perform their own dances and, at the conclusion of a series of very funny sketches, the Corregidor is thrown into the river to cool off his ardour.

The music of The three-cornered hat was first performed at Madrid’s Teatro Eslava on April 7th, 1917, and as a ballet, Falla’s score was danced for the first time at London’s Alhambra Theatre on July 22nd, 1919, under Ernest Ansermet’s baton. As was the case with Stravinsky’s ballets. The three-cornered hat was premiered by an all-star cast. The designs were made by Pablo Picasso, the choreography was by Leonid Massine and the ballet’s main roles were danced by Massine himself and Tamara Karsavina. The ballet’s premiere was very successful and Diaghilev’s troupe took the work on tour to Madrid, Paris and Berlin, where The three-cornered hat was well received by audiences and critics alike. From his original score, Falla made two concert suites grouping together several of the ballet’s dance numbers:

vast Spanish countryside. Falla’s knowledge of Spain’s popular music was as deep as that of Bela Bartok (1881-1945) concerning Central Europe’s folklore. There can be no doubt that the authenticity of Falla’s music is firmly anchored in the composer’s close contact with the living expressions of the people’s music. In particular, Falla’s music is very close to the Gypsy spirit, and La vida breve is probably the outstanding example of Gypsy music conveyed through a traditional form, the opera in this case. It must be remembered that Falla himself wrote frequently and in depth on the subject of various aspects of Andalucía’s Gypsy music, particularly on cante jondo.

It is indeed remarkable that Falla having been so close to everything Gypsy, the expression of which is always fiery, passionate and violent, the composer himself showed signs of a well-balanced personality and equanimity of character. Proof of this can be found on a letter addressed by Falla to Carlos Fernández Shaw, author of the libretto for La vida breve. In this letter, the composer expressed his feelings while waiting in France for news on his opera’s premiere. Wrote Falla:

“ Perhaps you’ll find strange my calm while pursuing this matter, considering that I used to eagerly await the premiere. It happens that this calm, insofar as it’s related to the world of art, has come to me through the example of the great masters. In everything musical I do I just try to put forth or translate my feelings with the utmost sincerity, and the musical means that I use have no other end.”

If a certain fatalism can be detected in Falla’s letter, it may well bear a relationship with his particular view of the world, anchored in religious principles, and at times almost superstitious. This kind of fatalism is clearly expressed, the Gypsy way, at the outset of La vida breve, when we hear distant voices singing:

Oh, woe, to be born an anvilInstead of being born a hammer...

Act I, Tableaux I. The yard of a Gypsy house in the Albaicín, Granada’s traditional Gypsy quarter. Voices come from the street and from a nearby forge; the blacksmiths’ chant mingles with the calls of street vendors. In the yard, the grandmother is tending a

“After Nights in the gardens of Spain and El amor brujo, works still full of impressionism, Manuel de Falla managed to give us the sharp, nervous and highly personal Three-cornered hat, showing us his capacity to smile and to be a profound humourist.”

By the way, it is a fact that the original humour in Alarcón’s novel attracted the attention of more than one composer. In 1896, more than twenty years before the premiere of Falla’s ballet, the city of Mannheim witnessed the first performance of an opera by Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), Der Corregidor; based on the same text as the Spanish composer’s ballet.© Juan Arturo Brennan

LA VIDA BREVEIt is true that the stories told by many operas are utterly ridiculous, but it is also true that many facts surrounding the history of opera are equally ridiculous. We can mention among them the fact that Manuel de Falla’s opera La vida breve, one of Spain’s paramount works of the twentieth century, was premiered in Paris, and in a French translation. Maybe the idea was still around that Spanish was not a good language for opera? Whatever the reason for the work’s early exile, the fact is that La vida breve encountered its share of trouble from the moment of its inception. Manuel de Falla wrote La vida breve on a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw and submitted the work to a composers’ competition sponsored by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernándo. Falla’s opera won the contest, and it was only logical that part of the prize should include securing the work’s prompt premiere. Nevertheless, after many obstacles and delays, the premiere had to be given at the Municipal Casino’s Theatre in Nice, on April 1st 1913, in Paul Milliet’s French translation. It was not until November 1914 that La vida breve was first heard in Madrid, in its original version.

To speak of the work’s distinct Spanish national flavor is simply to acknowledge the singular sound of Falla’s whole output. This unmistakable Spanish imprint was born from the composer’s thorough knowledge of authentic folklore, deeply rooted in the

La vida breve, written between 1904 and 1905 by a 28 year old composer, is without doubt Manuel de Falla’s first mature work. Before starting on this project, the composer had written only a few songs, some chamber pieces and a handful of zarzuelas. In fact, some musicologists maintain that on approaching Fernández Shaw’s libretto Falla’s intention was to write a zarzuela, but because of its language and its scope, it seems beyond doubt that La vida breve belongs squarely in the realm of opera. Among the influences present in this, Falla’s first mature work, the most evident is that of his teacher Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922) a Catalonian musician who exerted great power over his students, instilling in them a passion for writing music that was truly Spanish. Thus, Falla incorporated in La vida breve many elements of Andalusian popular music, discreetly shaded by the echoes of the French modern school as represented by composers such as Debussy, D’lndy and Dukas. All of these elements were complemented by Falla with some interesting explorations into a kind of Wagnerian chromaticism which played a very important expressive role in La vida breve, but was later discarded when Falla’s music reached full maturity. From the dramatic standpoint, although La vida breve is a relatively short opera, Falla takes full advantage of the time element and manages solid portraits of his characters by way of a few bold, brilliant musical strokes. In fact, Gilbert Chase has said that in the realm of opera, the prototype of the Spanish nationalism, is not Bizet’s Carmen, but Falla’s Salud. Be that as it may, the fact is that by a well-balanced combination of Spanish nationalism, Gypsy soul, Wagnerian harmonic adventures and French influence, Falla managed to create in La vida breve a solid ,and attractive work possessing a rare expressive power, at the centre of which stands the anguished and intense utterance of the cante jondo, sad, deeply felt, full of an ancient sort of pessimism, firmly rooted in history and culture...

Oh, woe, to be born an anvilInstead of being born a hammer…

© Juan Arturo Brennan

sick bird, whose illness reminds the old woman of her grand-daughter Salud, who suffers the absence of her boyfriend Paco. The young woman foresees a tragic denouement, the meaning of which is beyond her grasp. Salud’s fears are dissipated by Paco’s arrival. Through the grapevine, her uncle Sarvaor has heard that Paco has returned to marry another girl, Carmela, and that the wedding will take place shortly. The grandmother intervenes to keep the truth from Salud, so she can still enjoy a few moments with the man she loves.

Act I, Tableaux II. lntemezzo. A panoramic view of Granada in full light. This is a brief and evocative tableaux of Granada’s cityscape, dominated by the towers of the Alhambra. There are echoes of distant voices as the afternoon fades away. Paco and Salud emerge from the house and walk towards the path leading to the city. There they bid each other farewell, as night falls and the voices become more and more distant. Out of the forge come the grandmother and uncle Sarvaor; the old woman bids the man to withhold his threats, so as not to be heard by Salud. Night has come, and the distant voices fall silent.

Act II, Tableaux I. A street in Granada. Paco and Carmela are being married in the courtyard of a nearby house. Through the window the merrymaking can be seen and heard. Salud comes walking down the street and, arriving outside the house, discovers the truth, giving way to a grieving lament. Grandmother arrives, with uncle Sarvaor, who curses Paco amid the strumming sound of guitars and the wedding songs. They both go into the house.

Act II, Tableaux II. The patio of the house Carmela shares with her brother Manuel. Salud and uncle SaIvaor arrive at the wedding party. The girl confronts Paco with his treachery and begs him to finish her off, accusing him in front of the guests. Paco reacts cowardly, and violently dismisses Salud. The girl, deeply hurt, falls dead before everyone’s astonished eyes. Thus ends her wounds of unrequited love.

insurance: a guarantee to himself that wherever La vida breve would be performed, the flamenco could be realized with relative facility and a modicum of stylistic accuracy.

With the improvisatory approach, I think we serve Manuel de Falla’s musical spirit much better, while keeping the integrity and dramatic effect of the “cante jondo”.© Eduardo Mala

A Note on the RecordingManuel de Falla’s opera La lida breve was recorded at the Aula Magna of the Universidad Central de

Venezuela, Caracas, in July of 1993. From a technical standpoint, Dorian’s goal was to create an aurally staged production of the opera, in which the wide variety of instrumental and vocal colours and textures would be presented with timbral fidelity, and also With a convincing illusion of the spatial location of each soloist or group within tile soundstage (e.g., the stage-off male chorus with anvils at the opening of the opera should seem to come from an unseen group in the distance, and the flamenco artists should occupy a specific location together, to dramatize the festive group of wedding celebrants that they represent in the action). Dorian sought to achieve these results Without recourse to the more standard multi-miked, post-session mixed approach, and instead to use the more natural, minimal-microphone technique employed in Dorian’s solo, chamber and orchestral recordings. This was especially challenging because of the quick succession of brief tableaux of which this opera consists.

The standard set-up for this recording employed an array of four main microphones which were used for all of the scenes with soloists, orchestra, and smaller choruses. All changes in balance required for the soloists or special performing forces in specific scenes were achieved by moving the artists’ position in relation to the microphones. Only for the scenes with full chorus and orchestra an additional pair of microphones was used to bring the sound of the chorus into clear focus and correct balance with the other performing forces. These microphones were placed facing the chorus, which was in turn placed in the audience section of the Hall facing towards the orchestra (rather than

Conductor’s NoteThe “cante jondo” (flamenco singing) heard on this recording is an improvisation from the “cantaor” and the guitarists.

In the score of La vida breve Falla wrote the “cante jondo” line with a very simple guitar accompaniment consisting of a uniform three quavers of strumming in a 3/8 meter.

The interpretation of Falla’s original text does not require an outstanding expertise on the part of the singer (“cantaor”) or the guitarists (simply an ability to read music.)

The problem one faces in the interpretation of the “cante jondo” is a conceptual one. Flamenco is, fundamentally, an improvisatory art, like jazz. Its success is judged by the “duende” of the interpreters (a combination of charisma, inspiration and a certain magical element), by their emotional involvement, by their improvisatory dexterity and, most importantly, by the command of a style that cannot be written. Most flamenco musicians do not read music and are not in the least interested in doing so.

The choices for a plausible interpretation of tile flamenco component of La vida breve are obvious.

One can use singers and guitarists that are able to read the original text with exacting precision. This has been, so far, the only solution found in available recordings. One has to remember, though, that flamenco music from the beginning of the century was considerably different in its harmonic and rhythmic outlook than flamenco today. Thus the improvisational “translation” written by Don Manuel, reflects performing practices of the period, but does not leave room for the spontaneity or drama which cannot be written; but are, and have always been, inherent to authentic flamenco.

The second solution is to “leave alone” the flamenco group and let them improvise with the lyrics and in the tonality preset by the composer. In this recording the “soleares” are improvised by the “cantaor” and the guitarists.

The background of my decision has to do also with the performances I have done of the work in the last few years. In the staging of these performances the dramatic action takes place in our time.

I am convinced that Don Manuel wrote the line of “cante jondo” as a kind of

project, he already had an important antecedent for it: while living in Granada he had met the great poet Federico Garcia Lorca, with whom he collaborated on the staging of several puppet shows. With this experience behind him, Falla found it relatively easy to create this music for puppets which is neither an opera, nor an

oratorio, nor a cantata, but a unique blend of musical and theatrical elements. The libretto for the piece, written by Falla himself, is based on chapters XXV and XXVI of the second part of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and it tells the story of the knight Don Gayferos and his beloved, princess Melisendra.

At the stable of an inn, Master Peter is about to give a performance of his puppet show, and calls on the spectators to approach. His assistant, a young boy known as the Trujamán, is in charge of narrating the puppets’ actions. Prodded by the Emperor Charlemagne, Don Gayferos rides to the city of Sansueña to free his wife Melisendra, a captive in the hands of Moors. Having rescued the lady and riding with her towards Paris, Don Gayferos is pursued by King Marsilio’s soldiers on horseback. Don Quixote, who is among the audience at the stable, suffers one of his many hallucinations and, to save Don Gayferos and Melisendra from their Moorish pursuers, he draws his sword and attacks the puppets, to the horror of Master Peter and the rest of the spectators. Once he has saved Don Gayferos and his beloved, Don Quixote sings the praise of the knights errant.

Using this simple and amusing story, Falla built a very interesting premise, based on the concept of theatre within the theatre, because in addition to the puppets representing Charlemagne, Don Gayferos, Melisendra and the other characters in the tale, Don Quixote, Sancho and those watching the puppet show are also puppets, and so we are constantly confronted with two dramatic planes.

As he did in other works of his, Falla used in Master Peter’s Puppet Show some elements of ancient Spanish music, especially the type of popular song clearly reflected in the modal singing of the Trujamán, similar to the songs of the old wandering minstrels. Moreover, the composer included in the score a set of specific instructions on the style of singing adequate for this work.

behind the orchestra, on stage, as is the more traditional deployment).At the session, Dorian’s custom 20-bit Analog-to-Digital converter was located at the

bottom of the microphone stands in the Hall to minimize analog cable runs. Fiber-optic links conveyed the digitized signal to the control room for storage on the Nagra-D 24-bit, digital tape recorder. Throughout post-production, the original, 20-bit signal was preserved. Only at the last stage, after digital editing before mastering, was the signal transcoded to 16-bits.

Please note that this recording was produced with unswerving attention to preserving the natural ambiance, timbre and dynamic characteristics of the music. The listener may need to turn up the volume to a higher level than usual, not because it was recorded at a lower level, but because this recording was produced with absolutely no dynamic-range compression. This means that the spread between the levels in the music is as wide as in the actual performance at the Aula Magna. When played back at proper levels, this recording will present a more natural, more detailed and “true-to-life” sound than recordings produced with dynamic-range compression.

MASTER PETER’S PUPPET SHOWOne of the most famous salons of the French capital in the second decade of the twentieth century was that of the Princesse Edmond de Polignac (née Winnaretta Singer), where outstanding artists and intellectuals gathered frequently. The Princesse De Polignac was a generous patroness of the arts, contributing important sums of money towards all kinds of musical, stage and dance projects, and commissioning works from the most important composers of her time. Many of these works received their first performances at the Princesse’s salon, including Les malheurs d’Orphée by Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), Renard by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Master Peter’s Puppet Show by Manuel de Falla (1876-1946).

When the Princesse Edmond de Polignac asked Falla to write Master Peter’s Puppet Show, the First World War was raging through Europe, and the Spanish composer had to wait for more favourable circumstances. When Falla finally started work on this

evident is Falla’s tendency to the use of modal melodic lines, enhanced by the composer’s ability to create a perfect balance among the members of the small chamber ensemble that accompanies the solo voice. The first performance of Psyché took place in Barcelona in December, 1924, and the soloist was Conxita Badia de Agustí, a friend of Falla’s and a favourite pupil of Enrique Granados.

It was the great harpsichordist Wanda Landowska herself who commissioned Falla’s Concerto for harpsichord. Written between 1923 and 1926 this concerto has been the object of much controversy, because several musicologists have pointed out that the work is not exactly a concerto for a solo instrument and an accompanying ensemble, but a piece for six concertante instruments, a dialogue among that, evidently, does not coincide with the idea of the virtuoso to which Wanda Landowska was used to. Falla himself wrote on the score a brief text in which he clarifies his intentions:

“ The harpsichord must be as sonorous as possible. It must be placed in the foreground, with the strings and winds in the background. The six soloists must therefore be in full view of the audience. The dynamics written for the wind and stringed instruments should be regulated according to the harpsichord’s sonority so as not to cover it but, let this be clear, in keeping with what is indicated on the score regarding volume and expression. The harpsichordist must, on the other hand, enhance the dynamic markings by one degree, using during most of the work the full sound of the instrument. In performances with piano it will suffice to follow exactly the dynamic markings. The pianist must therefore obtain, through his mechanism, a sound quality similar to that of the harpsichord (insofar as this can be attained), for this is the instrument for which the work has been conceived. The string players are always soloists. Under no circumstance must their number be increased.”

Elsewhere, Falla states that because of its style and character, the music of his Concerto for harpsichord is derived from old Spanish melodies of religious, popular and courtly origin. Regarding the mention of religion, it must be noted that at the end of the Concerto’s second movement Falla wrote the following note: “A Dom. MCMXXVI. In Festo Corporis Christi.”

Master Peters Puppet Show was written by Falla between 1919 and 1922, and the score carries this dedication:

“ This work has been composed as a devout homage to the glory of Miguel de Cervantes, and the author dedicates it to Madame la Princesse Ed. de Polignac.”

The work was premiered, in concert form, on March 23rd, 1923, at the Concert Society of Seville, conducted by Falla himself. The stage version was first performed in private, on June 25th of the same year, at the Parisian salon of the Princesse De Polignac, under Vladimir Golschmann’s baton and with Wanda Landowska at the harpsichord.

In 1924 Falla briefly interrupted work on the Concerto for harpsichord in order to write Psyché, a poem for mezzo-soprano, flute, harp, violin, viola and violoncello. On approaching this work, Falla was responding to the entreaties of his friend, G. Jean-Aubry, who had repeatedly expressed his wish of having one of his poems set to music by Falla. The score of this piece carries a lengthy dedication to Madame Alvar, a keen promoter of Falla’s music. In this dedication, the Andalusian composer harks back to the middle of the eighteenth century, and mentions that around 1730 King Phillip V and his wife, Isabella Farnese, had briefly lived at the Palace in the Alhambra. Falla goes on to write that on composing Psyché he had imagined a small courtly concert held at the Queen’s Boudoir, on one of the Palace’s high towers, in which the queen and her ladies played and sung on a widely known mythological subject, the story of Eros and Psyché.

Psyché is not only the Greek word for soul, but also the name of the heroine in the complex story of Eros (Cupid) and Psyché, narrated by the Latin author Apuleius in his Metamorphoses. The singular beauty of the princess Psyché arouses the jealousy of Venus, who commands her son Eros to instill in her the love for the most despicable of men. Instead, Eros falls in love with Psyché and, after very complicated developments, typical of classical mythology, Eros convinces Jupiter to grant Psyché immortal status and give her to him in marriage, while the proud Venus’ beauty withers away.

On setting Aubry’s poem to music, Falla again took recourse to the sources of old Spanish music, using several stylistic and expressive traits of what he called “the true music of the eighteenth-century Spanish court,” although it is possible to find in the piece numerous references to French impressionism. Among those traits, one of the most

be found in other works of his, such as his String Quartet (1951) and the Tres versions sinfónicas (1953). As in other works of his, here we can find a series of very refined references to the world of ancient music, enhanced in a most fascinating way by his own Latin American temperament. And as an outstanding feature, there is a singular expressive intensity, of great inner tension, always under control.

Himnus ad Galli Cantum was written in 1956 on a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation and was first performed at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood under Carlos Surinach’s baton.

AIfonso X (1221-1284), known as The Wise, reached the throne of Castille and León in 1252 and distinguished himself as a great patron of the arts, science and culture. Moreover, he was an important reformer in social, educational and judiciary matters, and wrote many texts on history, the law, astronomy and poetry. The famous Cantigas de Santa María are attributed to him, although historic evidence points to the fact that Alfonso X was more of an editor and a compiler of the collection, and that he may have been the author of texts and melodies for a few of the cantigas.

A cantiga is a Mediaeval monophonic song with close links to the virelai and the villancico, and whose origin can be traced to Portugal and the north of Spain. The Cantigas attributed to Alfonso The Wise number more than four hundred and are preserved in three different sources, manuscripts in which the miniatures offer fascinating insights on the instruments that were used to accompany them. All the Cantigas in this collection refer to the Virgin Mary, and while some narrate her miracles (cantigas de milargo), others are songs of praise (cantigas de loor). There are other collections that include other types of cantigas, such as the cantigas de amigo (friendship songs) cantigas de gesta (epic songs) and cantigas de escarnio (satirical songs). Historical sources indicate that the Cantigas de Santa María were compiled between 1250 and 1280, The texts are written in an ancient tongue, Galician-Portuguese, and the fact that they were not written in Spanish points to the fact that in the Middle Ages Galician-Portuguese was thought to be better suited for lyrical poetry. From the textual standpoint, the poems are almost invariably written according to the called zéjel and as far as melody is concerned, the Dorian and Mixolydian modes predominate throughout.

Some analysts have found in this work a direct relationship to the sound world of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), but it is more probable that Falla’s model was closer to the keyboard music of Father Antonio Soler (1729-1783).

History has clearly proved that the section of the text quoted above where Falla mentions the six soloists did not sit well with Wanda Landowska, who undoubtedly expected from Falla a concerto conceived in the traditional manner, with ample opportunity to display her virtuoso playing. Manuel de Falla’s Concerto for harpsichord was first performed on November 5th, 1926, at the Chamber Music Association in Barcelona, with Wanda Landowska as soloist and members of the Pau Casals Orchestra, conducted by the composer. After the premiere, the famous harpsichordist played the work only a couple more times, and then quickly forgot it.

For the composition of the Himnus ad Galli Cantum (Hymn to the rooster’s song), Julián Orbón (1925-1991) chose a poetic text of great refinement. A composer deeply interested in literature and poetry, and with a vast knowledge of many ancient artistic forms of expression, Orbón chose for this work a text by Aurelius Prudentius (348-c.405).

A Latin poet of Spanish origin (he was probably a native of Zaragoza), Aurelius Prudentius dedicated the bulk of his work to the exposition of Christian doctrine through forms derived from classical literary tradition. His transcended his own time and became very influential during the Ages. It is possible to detect in his works the echo of writers such as Virgil, Horace, Seneca and his countryman Lucan. The poetry of Aurelius Prudentius is marked by a very refined use of metrics and for his complete command of the techniques of classical rhetoric. The Himnus ad Galli Cantum is the first of the twelve hymns in his Cathemerinon Liber (Book of hours) , a collection of lyrical poems on the various times of day and on church festivals, The constant in this work is Aurelius Prudentius’ use of the symbolism of light and darkness.

Flute, oboe, harp and string quartet is the instrumental ensemble that joins the solo voice in the Himnmus ad Galli Cantum. The work, of great transparency and remarkable balance, is dominated by a sound environment in which Orbón’s characteristic traits are unmistakable; it is possible to find in the Himnus many musical gestures that can also

to be the provenance of French composers across the borders such as Bizet, Chabrier, Ravel and Debussy. This small but very significant school of musicians from the real Spain was part of a nationalist tendency which could also be found in England, Hungary and other parts of central Europe and was set to put a particularly typical form of exotic rhythms and melodies into the Spanish classics.

Born at Cadiz in the south of the country in November 1876, Falla was, despite his relatively limited output, the Iynchpin of this group of composers. Born into a prosperous family he was encouraged from the outset 10 immerse himself in music. He received piano lessons from his mother and then from other teachers as well as considering a career as a writer in his early years, but by 1898 he had joined the Madrid Conservatory, where he became a student of Felipe Pedrell, former teacher of Albeniz and Granados. Here he learnt the techniques of integrating Spanish folk music into a wider classical framework; whilst avoiding the temptation to merely insert popular music into his works, he concentrated on a distillation of that style into his own creation.

Whilst studying at the Conservatory, Falla tried his hand at composing a set of three piano pieces - the “Tres Obras de Juventud” consisting of an Andalucian Serenade, a Nocturne and a Vals-Capricho. Generally speaking these are apprentice works which owe much to Granados or indeed to the French style but the later Spanish styled works find their origins here too in the opening Serenade.

In 1905 Falla decided to enter a competition for anew Spanish opera organised by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. This he won but despite its success, the opera found no production in Spain and in 1907, Falla to try his luck in France and moved to Paris where he was to stay for the next seven years.

Staying in Paris at the time meant that Falla was able to meet and befriend several of the leading composers of the day such as Debussy, Dukas, Ravel and Stravinsky, all of whom would have influence on his future development. The early days also saw the composition of his Obras Españolas dedicated to Albeniz and consisting of lour piano works based on Spanish and even Cuban rhythms. Each of the pieces is remarkable in lading away to a final pianissimo and are able to blend the spirit of the prevalent French Impressionist style with the rhythms of Iberian folk music.

It is indeed possible that some of the Cantigas de Santa María were set to original music, but in many of them we find secular tunes from different points in Europe, adapted to the specific needs of the texts. Many of the poems in the Cantigas de Santa María refer to incidents that happened outside Spain, a clear indication of King Alfonso’s open and universal outlook.

In 1960, Julián Orbón chose three of the Cantigas de Santa María by Alfonso X (those numbered 65, 133 and 134) and set them to his own original music for solo voice, harpsichord and string quartet, with a subtle touch of percussion added to the last of the three cantigas. With his profound knowledge of Spain’s ancient music, Orbón managed to surround these cantigas with a very special sound environment in which he combined some elements of his unmistakable personal language with clear references to the sound of another era. In the first of the Tres cantigas del rey (Three of the king’s cantigas), the harpsichord moves in an environment that is close to early Baroque, while in the second one the instrument plays a more modern, expressive utterance, harmonically more austere and with a heavier texture. In the last cantiga, Orbón paints a festive sound-picture of minstrels, discreetly enhanced by the percussion instruments. The vocal treatment is in itself austere and transparent, and is very close to the expressive parameters used by Orbón in his Himnus ad Galli Cantum, written four years before the cantigas.

The Tres cantigas del rey were written in 1960 on a commission from Andrés Segovia, while Orbón was living in New York on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The work’s first performance occurred the next year at the Santiago de Compostela Festival in Spain, and the score was dedicated by Orbón to the harpsichordist Rafael Puyana.© Juan Arturo Brennan

PIANO MUSICSpanish music fell into decline after the Renaissance composers of the great Golden Age until the emergence of a group of musicians at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries which included Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909), Enrique Granados (1867-1916) and Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). Indeed Spanish music had almost seemed

away from the Iberian rhythms of many of the other pieces.Falla had returned to Spain in 1920 and began work with the poet Federico Garcia

Lorca on an attempt to create a national Flamenco festival. Apart from the rather quirky harpsichord concerto of 1926, the final years of composition were devoted to the composer’s most ambitious project – a scenic cantata “Atlantida” for huge forces which takes in subjects such as Hercules’ labours in Spain and Columbus’ discovery of the New World. Following the horrors of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the murder of Lorca, Falla left Spain and settled in Argentina where he died after a long period of ill health in 1946 just before his seventieth birthday. Not necessarily a “short life” nor a particularly full career of compositions but one which saw not a few masterworks and a serious revival and creation of a true Spanish style.© Dr. David Doughty

Around the same time, Falla began one of his best known works - the Nights in the gardens of Spain (1909-1915). This is a triptych of nocturnes for piano and orchestra, heavy with the atmosphere of Spain, but immersed also in the style of French impressionism, with a piano part that avoids any of the histrionic or dramatic, conventional gestures of a concerto, but blends rather with the orchestral colours. Afar more truly Spanish experience is provided by the Seven Spanish Popular Songs composed in 1914 and based on actual Spanish folk melodies where the piano takes on a role imitating a typical guitar-accompaniment.

To pick out Falla’s two finest masterworks is relatively easy – they are the two ballets that followed in the wartime years - El Amor Brujo (Love the Magician) and El Sombrero de tres Picos (The three-cornered Hat). The former is a short ballet based on gypsy superstition and scored originally lor chamber orchestra and flamenco-styled vocal part; again there are echoes of Impressionism but there is something raw about the Spanish influences from the Moorish vocals to the primitive Ritual Fire Dance – the best known number of the score. Falla re-orchestrated the piece lor larger orchestra and also made piano arrangements of five of the principal sections. The latter work began life as “The Corregidor and the Miller’s Wife”, a story also used by Hugo Wolf in his opera “Der Corregidor”. Falla’s technique is here at its finest with subtle orchestration and folk rhythms punctuated by castanets and shouts of “Ole” from the chorus it has become a justifiable success both as a short ballet (revised for the great Russian impresario Diaghilev) and a suite of dances. Again there is a chamber version and a selection of three of the dances arranged for piano solo.

A more advanced and contemporary style appears in Falla’s major work for solo piano - the “Fantasia Betica” of 1919. Baetica was the Roman name for Andalucia and the piece contains imitations of guitar configurations, dance rhythms, a central dreamlike nocturne as well as aspects of polytonality.

Claude Debussy, one of the Impressionist influences on Falla, had died in 1918 and two years later Falla composed a short tribute to him in the “Tombeau de Claude Debussy” a gesture he was to repeat in 1935 with a similarly titled tribute to Paul Dukas who had died that year in Paris. Both works are short piano solo elegies some distance Sung texts are available