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Sacred Passions - The Life and Music of Manual de Falla (Paperback)
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Sacred Passions - The Life and Music of Manual de Falla (Paperback)
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The work of composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) ranges from
late-romantic salon pieces to evocations of flamenco to stark
neoclassicism. Yet his work has met with a variety of reactions,
depending on the audience. In his native Spain, he is considered a
leader in the avant-garde and the greatest composer in the Spanish
cultural renaissance that extended from the latter part of the
nineteenth century until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in
1936. In the United States his music was imported as part of the
"Latin" music craze of the 1930s and 40s and arranged by pop
artists and used in MGM musicals. Similarly enigmatic are the
details of Falla's life. He never sustained a lasting, intimate
relationship with a woman, yet he created compelling female roles
for the lyric stage. Although he became incensed when publishers
altered his music, he more than once tinkered with Chopin and
Debussy. Despite insisting that he was apolitical, he ultimately
took sides in the Spanish Civil War. All his life, his rigorous
brand of Roman Catholicism brought him both solace and agony in his
quest for spiritual and artistic perfection.
In Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla, Carol
Hess explores these contradictions and offers a fresh understanding
of the life and work of Manuel de Falla. Building on over a decade
of research on Spanish music, Hess examines his work in terms of
musical style and explores the cultural milieu in which he worked.
Biographical, historiographical, and cultural threads are explored
against the compelling backdrop of early twentieth-century Spain,
where Falla was a pivotal figure in a group that included not only
his Spanish contemporary Enrique Granados, but also composers
Dukas, Stravinsky, Ravel, and the group known as les Apaches, and
many other artists and writers. During this remarkable cultural
renaissance known as the "Silver Age," Lorca, Bunuel, Dali,
Unamuno--and de Falla--created some of their greatest works.
Hess explores a number of myths in earlier biographies, including
his life as an ascetic saint, his supposed misogynistic tendencies,
and the accusations of homosexuality. She also offers a balanced
view of his behavior during the Spanish Civil War, a wrenching
event for a Spaniard of his generation and which Falla biographers
have left largely unexamined. Hess also examines the notion of de
Falla as merely a high-class pop composer, the quintessentially
Spanish composer of colorful and exotic dances from The
Three-Cornered Hat and El amor brujo. She incorporates recent
research on de Falla, draws upon untapped sources in the Falla
archives, and reevaluates de Falla's work in terms of current
issues in musicology.
Ultimately, Hess places de Falla's appealing music, which straddles
popular and serious idioms, securely among the best of his
better-known European contemporaries. What emerges is a portrait of
a man whose lofty spiritual values inspired singular musical
utterances but were often at odds with the decidedly imperfect
wrold he inhabited."
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