ABSTRACT
Manuel de Falla composed El amor brujo [Love the magician] shortly after his return to Madrid in 1914, and this gitanería, or gypsy scene, marks a transformation in his musical language. Although now viewed as a quintessential representation of Spanish gypsy-ness and a landmark of Hispanic musical nationalism, Falla’s contemporaries were perplexed by his primitivist conception of flamenco and modernist musical language. Unlike the familiar adoption of flamenco as local colour in Spanish opera and zarzuela, and its harmonic and rhythmic domestication in the cuplé and popular song styles of the early twentieth century, Falla’s new score was considered radical in terms of its orchestration, harmonic language and stylization of flamenco. It also differed markedly from his earlier Romantic and Impressionist translations of this popular genre of music and dance. In this chapter, I explore the roots of Falla’s stylistic transformation, arguing for the importance of his Parisian milieu, in particular the circle of the Apaches and composers associated with the Ballets Russes and his engagement with their interests in Orientalism and Primitivism. The defining influence was that of Igor Stravinsky, especially his The Rite of Spring, and Chapter 5 demonstrates how his and Falla’s pre-war friendship marked the beginning of Falla’s long artistic and personal engagement with the Russian composer.
