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Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of
Spain), Symphonic Impressions for Piano and Orchestra
El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat),
complete ballet
Manuel de Falla
A
s a teenager, Manuel de Falla y Matheu set
his sights on becoming an author, but by
the time he was 20 he acquiesced instead to a
consuming passion for music. His youthful
piano studies paid off, and he advanced quickly
through conservatory instruction, graduating in
1899 from the Madrid Conservatory with a first
prize in piano and a thorough education in
harmony, counterpoint, and composition.
Nonetheless, Falla’s first steps in his chosen profession were far from dynamic. Unable to scrape
together a living by composing serious music
and not quite a good enough pianist to find acclaim in the recital hall, he turned to the closest
enterprise that might prove commercially viable,
the composition of zarzuelas (peculiarly Spanish
stage works that might be described as a regional variety of operetta). He composed six
between 1900 and 1904; only one reached the
stage, and it left him no better off than before.
Still, those early experiences helped clarify
his goals, and in 1905 he won an important prize
for his first certifiable masterpiece, La vida
breve, a true opera. But plans to produce it fell
through, and Falla, recognizing that Spain was
too far off the beaten path of culture for his restless talent, left in 1907 for where the action was —
Paris. He would remain there until 1914, associating closely with Dukas, Debussy, and Ravel.
During those years he refined his craft as a musical impressionist without sacrificing the Spanish flavor that lay at the root of his inspiration.
The outbreak of World War I forced his return to
Spain, but this time Madrid proved more amenable to his talent. Further stage works rich in
Spanish flavor flowed from his pen, beginning
with El amor brujo (1915), and in 1916 Falla
heard the premiere of his first major symphonic
work, which had occupied him since 1909:
Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in
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the Gardens of Spain), a set of three “symphonic impressions” — his term — for piano and orchestra.
Most of his work on the piece had been
IN SHORT
Born: November 23, 1876, in Cádiz, Spain
Died: November 14, 1946, in Alta Gracia,
Argentina
Works composed and premiered: Nights in
the Gardens of Spain, composed from 1908 to
March 27, 1916; dedicated to the Catalan pianist
Ricardo Viñes; premiered April 9, 1916, at the
Teatro Real in Madrid, by the Orquesta Sinfónica
de Madrid, Enrique Fernández Arbós, conductor,
José Cubiles, soloist. The Three-Cornered Hat,
composed 1916–19; premiered July 22, 1919,
at the Alhambra Theatre in London, with Ernest
Ansermet conducting the premiere of the ballet
by the Ballets Russes
New York Philharmonic premieres and
most recent performances: Nights in the
Gardens of Spain, premiered January 17, 1926,
with Eugene Goossens conducting the New York
Symphony (a forebear of the New York Philharmonic), Walter Gieseking, soloist; most recently
performed October 18, 2003, Osmo Vänskä,
conductor, Alicia de Larrocha, soloist. The ThreeCornered Hat, complete ballet, premiered
October 17, 1975, Pierre Boulez, conductor, Jan
DeGaetani, soloist; most recently played,
January 28, 1992, Charles Dutoit, conductor,
Kathryn Weld, soloist
Estimated durations: Nights in the Gardens of
Spain, ca. 24 minutes; The Three-Cornered Hat,
ca. 38 minutes
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carried out in Paris, where composers were
swept up in a flurry of enthusiasm for sounds
evoking Spain. Debussy’s Ibéria, for example,
was premiered in Paris in 1910, and Falla, Debussy enthusiast that he was, was at the forefront of those who cheered its arrival. The
disposition of Falla’s musical forces in Noches en
los jardines de España also signals French precedents. Although the work is scored for piano
and orchestra, it is not a concerto in the traditional sense. Instead, the piano plays an obbligato role that is not overtly virtuosic. This is not
to imply that it is a simple piece for a pianist to
play when, in fact, its technical and interpretive
challenges are many. But rather than plumb the
opposition of soloist and orchestra, which is inherent in the traditional Romantic concerto,
Falla creates a scenario in which the piano slips
in and out of the symphonic texture with great
subtlety, adding important highlights to the overall timbre. In this regard, Noches en los jardines
de España might trace its ancestry to such French
models as Vincent d’Indy’s Symphonie sur un
chant montagnard français (1886) or Debussy’s
Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra (1889–96).
Initially imagined as four nocturnes for
piano, Noches en los jardines de España evolved
over eight years into a three-movement symphonic form. Falla’s first direct inspiration for
this work seems to have been a book about Granada that he found at a Paris bookstore in 1910.
A native of Cádiz, he had never visited Granada
(160 miles to the east), and his musical impressions of that city’s Generalife Palace and Sierra
de Córdoba gardens therefore sprang from pictures and literary descriptions rather than from
firsthand experience, a curious state of affairs
one would never guess from the specificity with
which he portrays them in his music.
The genesis of El sombrero de tres picos (The
Three-Cornered Hat) was convoluted. Its title
In the Composer’s Words
Falla provided this comment on Noches en los jardines de España for the work’s premiere:
The author of these symphonic impressions for piano and orchestra considers that, if his aims have been
successful, the simple enunciation of their titles should be guidance enough for their listeners.
Even though the composer of this piece — as must occur with any work that legitimately aspires to be
musical — has followed a strict plan in terms of tonality, rhythm, and motifs, a detailed analysis of its purely
musical structure might perhaps divert us from the real reasons it was written, which were none other than
to evoke places, sensations, and feelings.
Let us merely point out that the second and third nocturnes are joined without interruption by a period
which scatters the notes from the beginning of the main theme of the Danza lejana like distant echoes
under a melodic tremolo at the violins’ upper register, bringing the period to an end with an ascending pattern of octaves on the piano, resolved in the tutti which begins the third and final nocturne: En los jardines
de la Sierra de Córdoba.
The thematic element of this work is based (as is generally the
case with this author’s compositions, La vida breve, El amor brujo,
etc.) on the rhythms, modalities, cadence, and ornamental factors
that characterize Andalusian folk songs, but that are rarely used in
their original form; and the instrumental work is often marked by certain effects unique to folk instruments.
Bear in mind that the music of these nocturnes does not try to be
descriptive, but rather simply expressive, and that something more
than the echoes of fiestas and dances has inspired these musical
evocations, in which pain and mystery also play a part.
Gardens of the Generalife, by Santiago Rusiñol, 1895;
Falla completed Nights in the Gardens of Spain while staying at
the artist’s home in Sitges, Spain
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comes from a famous novella published in 1874
by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón based on the popular romance El corregidor y la molinera (The
Magistrate and the Miller’s Wife). In 1905 it had
been one of three possibilities Falla and his librettist considered turning into an opera. The
three prospective subjects were written on pieces
of paper and the decision was left to the chance
of the draw. La vida breve was picked, and El
sombrero de tres picos went on the back burner.
Falla continued to harbor hopes of setting it
as an opera, but a problem arose: it turned out
that Alarcón’s will expressly forbade a musical
setting of the novella, although it seemed that a
staged version could pass legal muster so long
as no text was involved. Falla therefore composed his long-simmering score in 1916–17 and
the work was unveiled in Madrid in the latter year
as a staged pantomime, to a scenario by María
Martínez Sierra under the title El corregidor
y la molinera. The impresario Serge Diaghilev
happened to be in town with his Ballets Russes
and he attended numerous performances of El
corregidor, captivated by what he saw. He asked
Falla to expand the work into a full ballet for his
troupe. This involved quite a bit of work both in
creating some entirely new numbers and in expanding the instrumentation throughout, since
the pantomime version had been crafted for an
orchestra of 18 players.
The premiere, planned for 1917, was delayed
until the end of World War I. The eventual premiere in London, in 1919, was a starry affair
that brought Falla together with Ernest Ansermet as the conductor, Pablo Picasso as the designer of sets and costumes, and Léonide
Massine as the choreographer and as one of the
principal dancers, taking over the role after his
own Spanish flamenco coach withdrew. Being
Spanish, Picasso served as a sounding board
for the general ethnic flavor of the production.
While preparing the staging, for example, Diaghilev wrote to Falla in May 1919:
Picasso agrees that it would be very typical to
add voices to some of the dance numbers
such as the jota, the farruca, etc; he thinks it
is very Spanish.
The ballet score accordingly includes two
songs, enough to intensify the folk flavor without going so far as to get into trouble with the
The Birth of a Ballet
María Martínez Sierra, who created the scenarios for both the pantomime El corregidor y la molinera and its
revision as the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, provided an interesting reminiscence about the genesis of the
ballet in her 1953 memoir, Gregorio y yo:
The choice of a story was always the most difficult part of working with Falla, who did not allow even the slightest shadow of doubt to fall over the sixth commandment and who had decided — unhappy dreamer — never
to write a single note which paid service to sensual sin. … The Madrid audience [for El corregidor] were
amused and entertained by it, but at the same time Diaghilev was passing through Madrid with his Ballets
Russes on their first visit to the Spanish capital.
Diaghilev, wise and great admirer, attended a number of performances of our drama and realized the enormous success that it
could achieve in ballet form. Diaghilev was stubborn and impatient.
Driven by his imperious will, both composer and librettist began working once more. The libretto had to be modified somewhat to bring
choreographed ensemble dances into the picture and to provide the
principal dancer — on that occasion Léonide Massine — with the “love
dance” which every vedette of Terpsichorean art needs to shine. Falla
had to arrange the piece for a full-size orchestra, add the “Farruca”
so wonderfully performed by Massine, and to compose the splendid
finale, a mosaic of folk theme crowned by a triumphant jota.
Léonide Massine and Tamara Karsavina in The Three-Cornered Hat, 1919
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Alarcón estate. Massine also embraced the Iberian flavor with enthusiasm. That same letter
from Diaghilev concludes with a postscript:
P.S. Massine asks me if you can bring him 30
pairs of castanets, 15 first class ones and 15 ordinary ones. Tell me how much they cost you.
The premiere was a resounding triumph.
Sierra summed it up:
There is no need to mention the success of
The Three-Cornered Hat which was choreographed and danced by Massine — who
studied Flamenco dances in depth and who
admits to having found many beautiful
poses in bullfighting — and designed and
costumed by Picasso. Anyone interested in
theatrical music will know that within a few
months the work had earned the category of
a “classic” and since then has been placed
in the annals of great ballets such as Petrushka and Schéhérazade.
Instrumentation: Nights in the Gardens of
Spain calls for three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets,
three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, harp, celeste, and strings, plus the solo
piano. The Three-Cornered Hat employs three
flutes (two doubling piccolo), three oboes (one
doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, cymbals,
bells, snare drum, triangle, bass drum, castanets, tam-tam, harp, piano, celeste, and
strings, in addition to the solo voice.
The Story at a Glance
The action of The Three-Cornered Hat ballet involves three principal characters in an Andalusian village: the
Miller and his Wife, who love each other so deeply that they normally have no problem with one another’s flirtations, and an old Magistrate (the Corregidor) who wears a tricorn hat as a mark of his authority. The Magistrate takes a fancy to the Miller’s wife, who flirtatiously dances a fandango. The Magistrate and his entourage
move on, but he soon returns, formal and pompous in his tricorn hat, to woo her.
The Wife responds with feigned movements of seduction, enticing him with a bunch of grapes as her husband watches from a concealed spot. Finally, the Miller emerges and chases the Magistrate away. That night
the neighbors gather at the Miller’s home to celebrate the Feast of St. John. The Magistrate’s police knock at
the door. (Here Falla quotes the opening motif of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, famously described as “Fate
knocking at the door,” followed by a desperate two-second compression of the first movement of Beethoven’s
symphony.) The Miller is arrested and taken away. The Magistrate returns to renew his pursuit of the Miller’s
Wife, but on the way he loses his footing and tumbles into the mill stream. He continues to her home, but finding nobody there he removes his wet clothes, lays them out to dry (with his tricorn hat prominent), puts on the
Miller’s nightshirt, and falls asleep.
The Miller escapes his captors and returns home to find the
Magistrate’s clothing spread out. Assuming that his Wife has actually given in to her suitor, the Miller decides to take revenge by
courting the Magistrate’s wife, and to this end he dresses himself in the Magistrate’s clothes. After he leaves on this mission,
the Magistrate puts on the Miller’s outfit. Policemen enter in
search of the Miller and try to arrest the figure in his clothes —
who, of course, is the Magistrate. The Miller, his Wife, and the
neighbors enter and gradually sort out the confusion, and in the
end everyone dances a jota, punishing the Magistrate by tossing
him — or perhaps his effigy — in a blanket.
Picasso’s Le Tricorne was painted as the stage curtain for the Ballet
Russes production of The Three-Cornered Hat. It hung as a tapestry
in the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City from 1959 to 2014,
when it was moved to the New York Historical Society.
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