| Falla can accurately be characterized as one of Spain’s most important composers. He studied composition with Felipe Pedrell (whose other students to gain renown include Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados.) Falla felt he owed so much to Pedrell’s tutelage that he many years later dedicated one of his Homenajes (Homage’s) to Pedrell; the fourth movement, Pedrelliana. |
| Falla’s first work to bring him fame was his opera La Vida breve, (“The short Life”) in 1905. Falla was also a skilled pianist, and he won a number of prizes for his playing until he focused on writing his own music. Like so many other young musicians of Falla’s era, he traveled, in 1907, to the center of art and culture of the day, Paris. There he met and gained the friendship and respect of Maurice Ravel, Paul Dukas and Claude Debussy. He even went so far as to assimilate some of the impressionist’s approach to composition. But Falla’s own musical “voice” and the music of Spain played a far greater role in the direction he was moving. |
| Falla stayed in Paris for 7 years and then returned to Spain, where he remained until the end of the Spanish Civil War, all the while writing his music which, with its often folk inspired qualities, served to strengthen the respect felt for him in the western world. He spent the last years of his life in Argentina in relative seclusion. |
| Falla’s best-known works include El Retablo de Maesa Pedro (“Master Peter’s Puppet Show”), for harpsichordist Wanda Landowska; El Amor Brujo (“Love the Magician”) and El Sombrero de tres picos (“The Three Cornered Hat”), the concert version of which calls for the string sections of the orchestra to interact with the percussion and brass sections at one point by rhythmically clapping their hands and shouting “Ole” ! Falla’s evocative Noches en los jardines de Espana (“Nights in the Gardens of Spain”) for Piano & Orchestra has been championed by Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha, and is also one of his most highly regarded pieces. |
