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Matthew Rosenthal Manuel de Falla: Two Works of the Great Spanish Composer

Manuel de Falla, born in 1876, was one of the great contemporary composers of the 20th century. Hailing from Spain, de Falla is considered by many the “Spanish Debussy”; in his music can be heard the heavenly chord movements and dissonant tones that Debussy loved so much. There are so many wonderful pieces written by Manuel de Falla, but the purpose of this analysis, we will take a look at two of his works, “Homenaje pour Le Tombeau de Debussy,” and his great orchestral work, “Nights in the Gardens of Spain.” “Homenaje pour Le Tombeau de Debussy” is probably one of de Falla’s most enigmatic works, as well as a very artistically demanding piece. The translation of the title is “Homage for the Grave of Debussy,” and the piece unquestionably sounds the part. The piece was commissioned in 1920, two years after the great composer Claude Debussy died. Manuel de Falla worked on the piece originally for piano, but he worked with renowned guitarist Miguel Llobet to create a version for the guitar. The piece very much lends itself to the guitar’s Spanish sound. “Homenaje” opens with a minor 6th, to a perfect 5th ,and then back to a minor 6th: fa, mi, fa, which is a very heavy melody. One of the first things we notice is how many musical indications there are on the page. The first pick-up chord is piano and slurred into the first measure chord, which is arpeggiated from the bottom and is played forte. (Ex 1)

Ex 1

The “X” over the two chords at the end of this first measure is an indication that de Falla wrote: “Le sons marques du signe x doivent etre accentues, d’apres les nuances, et tres legerement retenus,” which translated means that the chords with “x’s” above them should be played heavy, accentuated yet held back. The piece uses very Spanish sounding melodies and chords. For example, the chord in the second measure is, from the bottom up, E-A-F-A-B-E, a chord that is used a lot in Flamenco style playing. De Falla also uses a lot of minor second melodic lines, like the one in example 2. Ex 2

“Homenaje” has a lot of idiomatic guitar techniques, like artificial harmonics, string slurs, and arpeggios. Another thing to notice is the “Habanera” rhythm that is present throughout the whole piece. Sometimes we see the Habanera rhythm is a more traditional dotted eigth, sixteenth, eight, eight, notation, such as in the previous example 1. Del Falla, however, also masterfully crafted his triplet lines to incorporate the Habanera rhythm as well, such as in example 3. Ex 3

The bass melody, “La, Fa, La Mi” outlines the triplet “version” of the Habanera rhythm. It is quite interesting, the use of the Habanera in such a heavy, solemn, piece. The Habanera is usually associated with joy, fun, life, not death. This twisted use of the Habanera gives a lot of incite into Maneul de Falla’s idea of death, his unwillingness to accept the loss of a great contemporary (Debussy), and maybe even denial of death itself. Finally, we will look at the quote at the end of “Homenaje” from Debussy’s “Estampes: La Soiree de Granade,” or “The Evening in Granada.”