What is Manuel de Falla?
[[File:ManuelDeFalla.JPG|right|thumb|Manuel de Falla]] '''Manuel de Falla''' (born [[Cadiz|Cádiz]], [[Spain]], 23 November 1876; died Alta Gracia, [[Argentina]], 14 November 1946) was a [[Spain|Spanish]] [[composer]]. Falla (pronounce: “FA-ya”), together with [[Albéniz]] and [[Granados]], helped to make Spanish music important again after three centuries during which there had been no important Spanish composers. == Life == === Early years === Falla had his first music lessons in Cádiz. At first he did not know whether he wanted to take [[music]] or [[literature]] as a career. When he was ten he started to go to music evenings where he heard [[chamber music]] being played. Then he started to go to the [[opera]], and he heard [[church music]] and [[orchestra]]l music. He liked the music of [[Grieg]] and decided that he wanted to do something similar with Spanish music. He went to [[Madrid]] where he studied very hard and won prizes. His first compositions were played in Cádiz. He studied with Pedrell who had also taught [[Albéniz]] and [[Granados]]. He wrote a song called ''Tus ojillos negros'' which became very popular, and he won a prize for a [[piano]] composition, but it was his opera ''La vida breve'' (1904-1905) which really showed his [[genius]], although it was not performed at the time. No one in Spain wanted to perform his [[zarzuela]]s, so he went to [[Paris]] in 1907. He soon made friends with [[Dukas]], [[Debussy]] and [[Ravel]]. He made changes to ''La vida breve'' and it was performed in Paris in 1913. His piano works and songs were also performed in Paris, and in Madrid. === Mid career === In 1915 he wrote ''[[El amor brujo]]''. It was a work with [[dance]]s, [[song]]s and spoken passages. He soon turned it into a [[ballet]]. The music uses the songs of [[Andalusia]] and the rhythms of Spanish folkmusic. He wrote a work for solo piano and orchestra called ''Noches en los jardines de España'' (''Nights in the gardens of Spain''). Later he changed it to a ballet for [[Diaghilev]], calling it ''El