Studies on Manuel De Falla

This collection of seventeen essays represents twelve-years of research into the music of one of Spain’s most important composers, Manuel de Falla. Michael Christoforidis is widely recognized as a leading expert on Falla and this volume brings together both new and previously published work, much of which is here made available in English for the first time. The book opens with an introductory essay which provides a biographical outline of the composer and examines the characterisation of both him and his music by commentators over the years. The essays which follow are divided into sections which deal with Falla’s interest in Debussy, in the evolution of an Hispanic musical style, issues of Spanish nationalism and identity in his music, and his use of traditional forms such as flamenco. Situating his discussion of these aspects of Falla’s music within a broader international context, Christoforidis provides a distinctive and original contribution to the study of Falla, but also to the wider fields of musical modernism, neoclassicism, and music and politics.