Spanish composerManuel de Falla'sConcerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Cello was written in 1923–26 forWanda Landowska, who participated in its premiere.
Falla had met the dedicatee on several occasions in the early 1920s, and by the time she participated in the Paris premiere of Falla'sEl retablo de maese Pedro in June 1923, he had already decided to write a concerto for her. Although there was never a formal commission, composition began in October 1923 but work proceeded slowly. Landowska first planned to perform the work in the 1923–24 season. When Falla found it impossible to meet that deadline, Landowska discussed withLeopold Stokowski a performance as part of thePhiladelphia Orchestra's 1924–25 season, but again Falla could not finish the work in time. The premiere finally took place in Barcelona on 5 November 1926, with further performances in New York and Boston.[1]
The Concerto was the last lengthy work Falla completed. Although there are several subsequent pieces in his catalogue that are important for their content, none of them lasts more than ten minutes, and his final, monumental project, the opera-oratorioAtlántida, on which he worked for twenty years, remained unfinished at his death.[2]
It is commonly regarded as a model example of bothmysticism (of a sort originating in Spanish religious tradition) and a severe and ascetic form ofneoclassicism (as opposed to the "frivolous" neoclassicism ofIgor Stravinsky).[3]
An abundance of surviving documents facilitates an understanding of both the slow, meticulous creative evolution and also the structure of the work. On the one hand, there is the extensive correspondence between Wanda Landowska and Falla from the period 1922 to 1930, and on the other hand numeroussketches, drafts, and intermediate stages of the score that are preserved in the Manuel de Falla Archive and the Archive Valentín Ruiz-Aznar, both located in Granada.[4]
The second movement is inscribed at the end "A. Do. MCMXXVI—Infesto Corporis Christi", though the composer said the date was "a matter of pure chance".[5]
Hess, Carol A. 2001.Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898–1936. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-33038-9.
Hess, Carol A. 2004.Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-972428-4.
Nommick, Yvan (1998a). "Un ejemplo de ambigüedad formal: el 'Allegro' del Concerto de Manuel de Falla".Revista de Musicología (in Spanish).21 (1):11–35.doi:10.2307/20797487.JSTOR20797487.
Christoforidis, Michael. 1997a. "Aspects of the Creative Process in Manuel de Falla'sEl retablo de maese pedro and Concerto", 2 vols. PhD diss. Melbourne: University of Melbourne.
Christoforidis, Michael. 1997b. "El peso de la vanguardia en el proceso creativo del Concerto de Manuel de Falla".Revista de Musicología 20, no. 1, Actas del IV Congreso de la Sociedad Espanolade Musicoligía: La investigación musical en España: Estado de la cuestión y aportaciones I (January–December): 669–682.
Collins, Chris. 2013. "Principios rotacionales y forma teleológica en el Concerto de Falla".Quodlibet: Revista de especialización musical, no. 53 (May–August): 26-44.
Hoffelé, Jean-Christophe. 1992.Manuel de Falla. Paris: Fayard.
Kassel, Matthias. 1996. "Manuel de Falla: Concerto for Harpsichord (or Piano) and Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Violoncello, 1923–26". InCanto d'amore: Classicism in Modern Art and Music, 1914–1935, edited byUlrich Mosch,Gottfried Boehm, andKatharina Schmidt [de], 202–205. Basel: Paul Sacher Stiftung.ISBN9781858940359.
Lassus, Marie-Pierre. 1999. "Ombre et lumière dans le Concerto". InManuel de Falla: Latinité et universalité, edited by Louis Jambou, 251–260. Musiques/Écritures: Série études. Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne.ISBN2-84050-142-2.
Nommick, Yvan. 1998b. "Manuel de Falla: œuvre et évolution du langage musical". PhD thesis. Paris: Université de Paris-Sorbonne.
Piquer Sanclemente, Ruth. 2013. "Influencias del cubismo en la configuración de la vanguardia musical española: Concerto de Manuel de Falla (1923–1926)". InMusicología global, musicología local, edited by Javier Marín López, Germán Gan Quesada, Elena Torres Clemente, and Pilar Ramos López, 21–38. Madrid: Sociedad Española de Musicología.ISBN978-84-86878-31-3; 84-86878-31-4.
Pizà, Antoni. 1996. "Els escrits de Joan Maria Thomàs perThe Chesterian". InIII Simpòsium sobre els orgues històrics de Mallorca; III Trobada de documentalistes musicals; III Jornades musicals Capvuitada de Pasqua, preface by Miquel Ferrer i Viver, 59–84. Estudis musicals 3. Búger, Spain: Fundació Àrea Creació Acústica (Centre de Recerca i Documentació Històrico-Musical de Mallorca).
Rigoni, Michel. 1990. "De Falla: Concerto pour clavecin".Analyse musicale, no. 21 (November): 55–64.
Rigoni, Michel. 1992. "Manuel de Falla: Concerto pour clavecin".Analyse musicale, no. 26 (February): 55–57.
Russomanno, Stefano. 2000. "La música ante la historia: Dinámicas del tiempo en el Concerto de Falla y en la Sonata da camera de Petrassi". InManuel de Falla e Italia: Estudios, edited by Yvan Nommick, 124–143. Colección estudios: Serie música, No. 3. Granada, Spain: Fundación Archivo Manuel de Falla.ISBN84-922852-7-3.
Vinay, Gianfranco. 1989. "La lezione di Scarlatti e di Stravinsky nel Concerto per clavicembalo di Falla". InManuel de Falla tra la Spagna e l'Europa: Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Venezia, 15-17 maggio 1987), edited by Paolo Pinamonti, 179–188. Quaderni dellaRivista italiana di musicologia, No. 21. Florence: Leo S. Olschki.ISBN88-222-3644-0.
Walsh, Craig T. 1998. "Multiple Perspectives on Form in the First Movement of Manuel de Falla's Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, and Violincello [sic] (and)Pipeline Burst Cache for Cello and Tape (Original Composition)". PhD diss. Waltham: Brandeis University.
