Manuel de Falla (y Matheu ) was born November 23, 1876 in Cádiz, Spain and died November 14, 1946 in Alta Garcia, Argentina. His ballet, El amor brujo, was composed in three stages. The first iteration dates from 1914-15 as a gitanería, or choreographed gypsy dance. Falla modified and enlarged the work the next year. Its final version emerged between 1921-24 as a ballet pantomimico, complete with three songs. It is scored for contralto voice, 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), oboes (doubling English horn), 2 clarinets,bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets,timpani, bells, piano, and strings.
Falla emerged in the first half of the twentieth century to become Spain’s most prominent composer. Fully immersed in his native culture, the composer moved to Paris in 1907, where he mingled with the likes of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Paul Dukas, Igor Stravinsky, and his fellow countryman Albéniz. He remained there until the outbreak of the First World War. Upon his return to Spain, Falla consolidated his preeminence among Spanish composers as well as establishing his international reputation with works such as El amor brujo (Love the Magician), La vida breve, Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) and his most popular work, the ballet El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat). He composed very little after 1926, at which time he moved to Mallorca. In 1939 he moved to Argentina, where he remained the rest of his life.
El amor brujo tells the story of the Andalusian gypsy, Candela, who is in love with a young man, Carmelo. As a young girl, however, she had been promised to marry another man. Many years later her husband is murdered by the husband of another woman named Lucía. Despite his death, her husband’s ghost continues to haunt Candela by forcing her to dance with him every night. Candela learns from the women of her village that her husband had been unfaithful and had taken Lucia as his lover. She and Carmelo are told that they needed to perform a ritual dance to exorcise her husband’s ghost. That having failed, Candela tricks Lucía into visiting her that night. As she dances with her husband’s ghost, she separates herself from him and Lucía is taken away by her dead lover. As dawn breaks, Candela and Carmelo are now free to be together.
The music comprises 13 short movements, much of which was derived from Falla’s interest in Andalusian folk idiom known as cante jondo (deep song). As is the case with much Spanish music, its soul lies in the guitar. The order of the movements are as follows:
The best-known excerpt of El amor brujo is the Ritual fire dance. Jazz enthusiasts may recognize Gil Evans’ arrangement of the Song of the will-o’-the wisp, which forms part of Miles Davis’ classic album, Sketches of Spain (1960).
Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2025