ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Manuel de Falla’s aesthetic principles with a view to assessing the extent to which his specifically masculine identity influenced the conception of Atlantida. It focuses on thematic and musical world of the cantata and examines the 'modernist' recuperation of Hellenic themes and values. The chapter discusses the cultural meanings of a musical work that, within the context of Spanish modernismo, generates an atavistic vision of ideal masculinity as the basis for the continuing operation of hegemonic masculinity. The views of philosophers Maria Zambrano and Luce Irigaray will provide some useful insights for the reading of the idealized masculinity thematized in Atlantida. The chapter suggests that Atlantida deals with both Hellenism and some sense of the divine. It is in the devout humility of de Falla's compositorial subjectivity that his religiosity comes into focus. Manuel de Falla's music might be said to be an attempt to integrate Spanish national identity with an international modernist musical language.
