Page 225 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 223
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
20th-century Spanish
music
BEFORE
1897 Ruperto Chapí’s La
revoltosa (The Troublemaker)
is one of the most popular
zarzuelas of the decades
before World War I.
1911 In Barcelona, Enrique
Granados premieres the first
part of his piano suite
Goyescas, inspired by the
paintings of Francisco Goya.
AFTER
1920 Igor Stravinsky’s ballet
Pulcinella is premiered in Paris
by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes,
choreographed by Massine,
with sets by Picasso.
1961 Catalan musician
Eduard Toldrà conducts a
concert version of de Falla’s
unfinished work Atlántida at
the Liceu in Barcelona.
US_222-223_Albeniz_deFalla.indd 223
A WONDERFUL MAZE
OF RHYTHMICAL
DEXTERITIES
EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS (1919)
MANUEL DE FALLA
he ballet El sombrero
de tres picos (The Three-
T Cornered Hat), with music
by the composer Manuel de Falla,
was first performed by Sergei
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in
London’s Alhambra Theatre. Based
on a novella by Pedro Antonio de
Alarcón, it is a comedy about the
magistrate of a small Andalusian
town, who falls in love with the
wife of the local miller. The ballet
was choreographed by the Russian
Léonide Massine, who also danced
the part of the miller, with sets and
costumes by Pablo Picasso.
Falla grew up in the port city Manuel de Falla composes at the
of Cádiz in Spain’s far south but piano in this 1925 portrait by Daniel
studied at the Madrid Conservatory Vázquez Díaz, who painted the most
where, like many composers of his famous and influential Spanish
generation, he was influenced by figures of his time.
Felipe Pedrell’s explorations of the
country’s traditional music. Falla de tres picos. Its success in Madrid
made his name with an opera, La brought it to the attention of Sergei
vida breve (“Life is short”), inspired Diaghilev, who then commissioned
by the cante jondo (“deep song”) of de Falla to compose the music
his native Andalusia. In 1917, Falla for an expanded version with full
and the impresarios María and orchestra. Like La vida breve, it
Gregorio Martínez Sierra created an uses Andalusian melodies and
early, shorter version of El sombrero also contains cante jondo songs. ■
See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■
Finlandia 220–221 ■ Iberia 222 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287
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