Composed 1914; 13 minutes 

Although based on various printed sources, Manuel de Falla believed that “in popular song, the spirit is more important than the letter.” His Seven Popular Spanish Songs premièred in Madrid after World War I forced him to end a seven-year stay in France. According to legend, he sold the rights to a Paris publisher for less than the cost of a bottle of champagne. The songs quickly became the most frequently performed in the Spanish repertoire and were widely arranged for different instruments—beginning in 1925, when violinist Paul Kochanski adapted six of them as the Suite populaire espagnole, followed by a cello version the next year. Falla intended the cycle to present authentic folksongs while capturing the diverse regional styles and idioms of Spain. Their composition and success likely inspired his deeper engagement with Spanish folk traditions and flamenco, and his later efforts to preserve the musical heritage of Andalusia.

El paño moruno (“The Moorish Cloth”), from Murcia, is a sly, innuendo-laced song with flamenco-flavored accompaniment and an Andalusian scale. Also from Murcia, Seguidilla murciana is a vibrant piece that Falla said he wanted “to free from the prison of past formality...like a bird from its cage.” Asturiana is a sorrowful northern lament over lost love, while Jota, from Aragon, is a spirited and widely recognized Spanish dance-song. Nana, an Andalusian lullaby, draws on Arabic musical sources and, according to Falla, traces its origins to India. Canción is a bittersweet, resigned love song with a gentle, rocking motion. The final song, Polo, is a fiery flamenco outcry against love itself, marked by anguished cries of “Ay,” fierce rhythms, and biting dissonances.