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Program Notes Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician) Manuel De Falla Born 1876 in Cádiz, Spain Died 1946 in Alta Gracia, Córdoba, Argentina Manuel de Falla composed his ballet El Amor Brujo in 1914-15, and it was first performed in Madrid in 1915 under the direction of Moreno Ballesteros. Falla substantially revised the score and created both a ballet and an orchestral suite that was first performed in 1916 by the Madrid Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Bartolomé Pérez-Casas. The score calls for 2 flutes, piccolo, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, piano, and strings. Manuel de Falla was born in Cádiz, Spain, and studied composition and piano in Madrid. During the years 1907-1914 he lived in Paris, where he met and befriended Debussy and Ravel; his music has some of their influence, balanced by his extensive knowledge and love of Spanish folk art. After the Spanish Civil War Falla moved to Argentina, where he composed very little. His last years were spent working on a huge cantata about Columbus called L’Atlántida that he never completed. Today he is best remembered for his works for the stage, including the puppet opera Master Peter’s Puppet Show and the ballets The Three Cornered Hat and El Amor Brujo. Falla first composed El Amor Brujo as a stage work with singing, dancing, narration and dialog, using a pit orchestra of just fifteen players. He later created a concert suite from the music using an expanded orchestra; he also created a ballet version with the same orchestral forces, compressing the two acts into one while eliminating all of the spoken word and much of the singing. Both of these versions retain a part for mezzo-soprano. The story of the ballet revolves around Candelas, a young girl whose dead lover has returned to haunt her as a ghost. The ghost, a jealous man in life, seeks to prevent her from taking a new lover. Candelas attempts to break his spell with the Ritual Fire Dance, but to no avail. Eventually she sets a friend out as a decoy for the ghost; when the ghost is thus distracted, Candelas is able to kiss her new lover and break the spell with the magic of love. Une barque sur l’océan Maurice Ravel Born 1875 in Cibourne, France Died 1937 in Paris, France Maurice Ravel originally composed this work for piano in 1904-1905 and orchestrated it a few months later. The piano version was premiered in Paris by Ricardo Viñes in 1906. The orchestrated version was first performed in Paris in 1907, but Ravel was dissatisfied with it and withdrew the work. The score calls for 3 flutes, 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celeste, 2 harps, and strings. Ravel composed his Miroirs (Mirrors) as a suite of five pieces for the piano, each having a descriptive title: Noctuelles (Night Moths), Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds), Une barque sur l’océan (A Boat on the Ocean), Alborado del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester), and La valée des cloches (The Valley of the Bells). Ravel orchestrated two of these (Alborado del gracioso and Une barque sur l’océan), while a number of other composers and arrangers have tried their hand at orchestrating the rest. continued next page 75


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