Manuel de falla biography composer
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Manuel de Falla
Spanish composer (1876–1946)
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Falla and the second or maternal family name is Matheu.
Manuel de Falla y Matheu (Spanish pronunciation:[maˈnweldeˈfaʎa], 23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. He has a claim to being Spain's greatest composer of the 20th century, although the number of pieces he composed was relatively modest.
Biography
[edit]Falla was born Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu in Cádiz. He was the son of José María Falla, a Valencian, and María Jesús Matheu, from Catalonia.
In 1889 he continued his piano lessons with Alejandro Odero and learned the techniques of harmony and counterpoint from Enrique Broca. At age 15 he became interested in literature and jo
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Manuel de Falla
Born in 1876 in Cadiz, the historical seaport town at the southern-most tip of Andalucia, Manuel de Falla is the greatest Spanish composer of this century. His formal musical education began with piano lessons, and when Falla was twenty his family moved to Madrid where he studied with the distinguished teacher José Tragó. He then went on to study composition with Felipe Pedrell, the teacher and scholar who led the revival of Spanish music which took place towards the end of the nineteenth century.
In 1904 Falla's one-act opera La vida breve (Life is Short) won the composition competition of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes and at the same time he was awarded a prestigious piano prize organised by the piano makers Ortiz y Cussó. In 1907 he achieved a long-held ambition of travelling to Paris and was welcomed there by Ravel, Debussy (with whom he had previously corresponded) and especially by Paul Dukas. He completed several chamber works and began work on Noche
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Biography
In the great flowering of Spanish classical music at the början of the 20th century, first Albéniz, then Granados and finally Falla brought international sophistication to a musical world on the fringe of Europe. They all spent crucial years in Paris, effectively the artistic capital of Latin Europe and the milieu of Debussy, Ravel and Dukas. And they had the genius to man thoroughly contemporary pieces out of distinctively Spanish ämne, giving the world a fresh perspective on their nation’s culture. Falla, although never an especially prolific composer, brought this achievement to a climax. Unlike his predecessors he was Andalucian, not Catalan. The character of southern Spanish music – flamenco and the type of Andalusian vocal människor music known as cante jondo – is integral to his creative spirit. Most dramatically it inspired El Amor brujo (‘Love, the Magician’, 1915), the powerful narrative of rom life which he first conceived as a theatre piece for flamenco singe