Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu was born on 23 November 1876 in Cádiz, a city and port in the autonomous community of Andalusia. His father José María Falla came from a family of merchants from Valencia, a province rich in Mediterranean influences and culture. His mother María Jesús Matheu came from the northern Catalan province, located along the Pyrenees mountains and the French border. Manuel was the oldest of five children, and he was essentially home-schooled. Scholars have suggested “since he had very little contact with other children during his developmental years, his shyness and a tendency to withdraw are possibly due, in part at least, to the lack of development of socials skills normally acquired during childhood.” Falla took first piano lessons with his mother, who was an accomplished pianist, and from the local teacher Eloisa Galluzzo. Falla writes, “Eloisa Galluzzo, a friend of my dear mother and more-over an excellent pianist, took charge of my musical initiation.”
Manuel de Falla: Serenata andaluza
Manuel de Falla had a strong interest in literature and journalism and initially decided to become a writer. As he wrote to Roland-Manuel, “my vocation, despite my love for some music (not all!) always inclined towards the literary side (prose, not verse)”. He wrote a number of short stories and crafted two handwritten magazines El Burlón and El Cascabel, which he created with friends between 1889 and 1891. He imagined a utopian world, which he populated and governed while defending it from the world outside. Falla’s biographer relates, “for six years Manuel carried out the various duties involved in governing his metropolis. The municipal council, the newspaper editors, the academicians and the administrators of societies entered his Eden by the wardrobe door. Musicians too, for there was a magnificent theatre in Colón, where the triumph of the day was El Conde de Villamediana, an opera seria of which Manuel de Falla was both the celebrated composer and the acclaimed conductor.”
Manuel de Falla: “Tus ojillos negros” (Your little black eyes) (Montserrat Torruella, mezzo-soprano; Manuel Garcia Morante, piano)
When his family moved to the capital city of Madrid, Falla became an external student at the Madrid Conservatoire. At the age of seventeen, he decided to become a composer. He writes, “from that moment, a kind of conviction—both timid and profound—urged me to leave everything in order to dedicate myself entirely to the study of composition. And that conviction became so strong that I was even afraid of it, for the illusions it awoke within me were well above what I felt capable of doing. I say that not from a purely technical point of view […] but [with regard to] INSPIRATION, in the true and highest sense of the word: that mysterious force without which… nothing genuinely useful can be achieved, and of which I felt incapable.” He studied the piano with José Tragó, a student of Georges Mathias, and he began to perform his own music in public, both in Cádiz and in the prestigious Madrid Athenaeum.
Manuel de Falla: Allegro de concierto (Miguel Baselga, piano)
Falla soon became aware that he would not be able to make a living by composing and performing salon music. Although he was a skilled pianist, he never achieved the virtuoso status of Granados, Albéniz or Viñes. During his days at the Madrid Conservatory, Falla took composition classes with Felip Pedrell, a music scholar who had earlier pointed Isaac Albéniz towards Spanish folk music. Pedrell was not particularly successful as a composer, but as a writer, editor, historian and teacher he made it his life’s work to “rehabilitate Spanish music by resurrecting the double aspect of folk song and artistic tradition.” Pedrell wrote, “the character of any music which is truly national is to be met with not only in folk song and in the instinctive music of primitive epochs, but also in works of genius and in the masterpieces of the great periods of art.” His manifesto For our Music was published in Barcelona in 1891, in which he set forth his theories on national music. The publication was widely read throughout Europe in a French translation, and under the influence of Pedrell’s teaching, Falla decided to double his efforts in composition.
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Manuel de Falla: La vida breve (Life is Short)
Manuel de los Dolores Falla y Mateo alizaliwa tarehe 23 Novemba 1876 katika mji wa Cádiz, katika jumuiya ya Andalusia. Baba yake José María Falla alitoka katika familia ya wafanyabiashara kutoka Valencia, mkoa wenye uvutano na utamaduni mwingi wa Mediterania. Mama yake, María Jesús Matheu, alitoka mkoa wa kaskazini mwa Katalani, ulio kwenye milima ya Pyrenees na mpaka wa Ufaransa. Manuel alikuwa mzaliwa wa kwanza kati ya watoto watano, na kwa kawaida alifundishwa nyumbani. "Wanasayansi wamedokeza kwamba ""kwa kuwa alikuwa na mawasiliano machache sana na watoto wengine wakati wa miaka yake ya ukuaji, aibu yake na mwelekeo wa kujiondoa labda ni kwa sababu, angalau kwa sehemu, ya ukosefu wa maendeleo ya ujuzi wa kijamii ambao kwa kawaida hupatikana wakati wa utoto. ""Falla alichukua masomo ya kwanza ya piano na mama yake, ambaye alikuwa mwanamuziki wa piano, na kutoka kwa mwalimu wa eneo hilo Eloisa Galluzzo." "Falla anaandika, ""Eloisa Galluzzo, rafiki wa mama yangu mpendwa na zaidi ya pianist bora, alichukua jukumu la uanzishaji wangu wa muziki. "" Manuel de Falla: Serenata andaluza Manuel de Falla alikuwa na maslahi makubwa katika fasihi na uandishi wa habari na awali aliamua kuwa mwandishi." Kama alivyoandika kwa Roland-Manuel, <unk>mwito wangu, licha ya upendo wangu kwa baadhi ya muziki (si wote!) daima nia kuelekea upande wa fasihi (prose, si mstari) <unk>. Alitengeneza magazeti mawili ya maandishi ya mikono, El Burlón na El Cascabel, ambayo aliunda na marafiki kati ya 1889 na 1891. Alidhani ulimwengu wa utopian, ambayo yeye watu na kutawala wakati kutetea kutoka kwa ulimwengu wa nje. Mwandishi wa maisha ya Falla anasema, "Kwa miaka sita Manuel alitimiza majukumu mbalimbali yanayohusika katika kutawala jiji lake kubwa. Halmashauri ya manispaa, wahariri wa magazeti, wasomi na wasimamizi wa mashirika waliingia katika Edeni yake kupitia mlango wa kabati la nguo. "Mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1800, katika opera ya ""El Conde de Villamediana"" ya Madrid, Manuel de Falla aliandika wimbo wa ""Tus ojos negros"" (Mazazi yako madogo meusi) na ""Monserrat Torruella"" (Monserrat Torruella, mezzo-soprano) na ""Monserrat Morante"" (Monserrat Morante, piano)." Alipokuwa na umri wa miaka kumi na saba, aliamua kuwa mtunzi wa muziki. Anaandika, "Kuanzia wakati huo, aina ya usadikisho - wote wenye woga na wenye kina kirefu - ulinihimiza kuacha kila kitu ili kujitolea kabisa kwa utafiti wa utungaji. Na imani hiyo ikawa na nguvu sana hivi kwamba hata niliogopa, kwa sababu udanganyifu uliosababisha ndani yangu ulikuwa juu sana ya kile nilichohisi kuwa na uwezo wa kufanya. "Hakuna kitu cha kushangaza kuhusu ""MIMI"" - ni nguvu ya ajabu ambayo bila yake hakuna kitu cha kweli kinachoweza kupatikana, na ambayo nilijisikia kuwa na uwezo wa kufanya. - Alijifunza piano na José Trago, mwanafunzi wa Georges Mathias, na alianza kufanya muziki wake mwenyewe hadharani, katika Cádiz na katika Athenaeum ya Madrid." Allegro de Concierto (Miguel Baselga, piano) Falla alijua kwamba hakuweza kupata riziki kwa kutunga na kufanya muziki wa saluni. Ingawa alikuwa mwanamuziki stadi wa piano, hakuwahi kufikia cheo cha Granados, Albéniz au Viñes. Alipokuwa akisoma katika Chuo cha Muziki cha Madrid, Falla alisomea muziki na Felip Pedrel, msomi wa muziki ambaye alikuwa amemweleza Isaac Albéniz kuhusu muziki wa kitamaduni wa Hispania. "Pedro, ambaye alikuwa na mafanikio ya kwanza katika muziki wa muziki wa kiingereza, aliandika katika kitabu chake cha ""Manifesto ya Muziki wetu"" cha mwaka 1891 katika Barcelona, ambapo alielezea nadharia zake kuhusu muziki wa kitaifa." Uchapishaji huo ulisomwa sana kote Ulaya katika tafsiri ya Kifaransa, na chini ya ushawishi wa mafundisho ya Pedrell, Falla aliamua kuongeza juhudi zake katika uundaji. Kwa zaidi ya bora katika muziki wa kawaida, kujiandikisha kwa yetu E-Newsletter Manuel de Falla: La vida breve (Maisha ni mfupi)