The Three-Cornered Hat of Manuel de Falla

Film Score Alternative

by Andy Goldsbrough

Manuel de Falla (or fully, Manual Maria de Falla y Matheu) was born in Cadiz on 23 November 1876. His Spanish heritage accounts for many of the attributes of his music but unlike some other 20th Century composers, Bartok for example, Falla's nationalism was directed towards capturing the style and feel of his country's music not always the strict and technical preservation of folk music and song. All of the flavors that we now think of as (perhaps, stereotypically) Spanish; the flamenco melodies, shuffling dance rhythms, strumming guitars and clicking castanets; can be found or at least alluded to in the music of Falla. The composer avoided the extravagant orchestral forces required by the likes of Mahler and Richard Strauss, and dismissed the atonality of Schoenberg and his followers. His music remained tonal, rhythmically vital and colorfully evocative - the ingredients of song.

Unlike Darius Milhaud, the subject of a previous column, Falla wrote a relatively small number of works. This is usually accounted for by his compositional diligence and self-criticism; he undertook extensive research before he began to write and then meditated over the smallest chord; and the composer's ill health in the last years of his life. Falla suffered from various ailments which some believe may have been, at least in part, psychosomatic, brought on by the composer's tendency for inner conflict and superstition.

After spending his youth in Cadiz, the composer moved to Madrid and then to Paris where he arrived in 1907 and became part of an extensive musical circle present there at that time. Dukas, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, Albeniz, Roussel, Satie were all working and socialising in and around the city. The First World War saw Falla return to Madrid. He would later live in Granada before spending his last years in Argentina, in self-imposed exile following the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.

During his second period in Madrid the composer met with Serge Diaghilev, the famed head of the Ballet Russes, the company who introduced many important 20th century ballet works including, most (in)famously, Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'. Diaghilev was impressed with a stage work of Falla's that he had seen performed in April 1917, 'The Corregidor and the Miller's Wife'. This was a two act pantomime with text by Gregorio and Maria Martinez Sierra based on the novel by Pdero Antonio de Alarcon. The comic story, also used by Hugo Wolf as the basis on his opera 'Der Corregidor,' concerns the old magistrate (the Corregidor of the title) of the city of Guodix in Andalusia who takes a liking to the beautiful wife of an ugly but good-natured miller. The wife seems to response but she is only pretending and contrives to embarrass the magistrate and make him the village fool.

This particular tale was one that had interested Falla for years. It was one of the possible ideas for an early opera that Falla wrote, the final decision for the subject of which was eventually drawn by hat! (1905, 'La Vide Breve' or 'Brief Life'). Falla first had the idea of using Alarcon's novel as a lyric piece but the writer's testament and estate would not allowed this usage.

Diaghilev initially wanted to adapt another Falla work, 'Nights in the Garden of Spain,' into a ballet but Falla was not keen on this and, with his fondness for the story, suggested that they rework the tale of the magistrate and the miller's wife instead. (Diaghilev also offered Falla the commission of a work based upon music by Pergolesi. Falla passed and the idea was taken up by Stravinsky - the result was 'Pulcinella.') The head of the Ballet Russes agreed: the scenario was rewritten, Leonide Massine was engaged to do the choreography and Pablo Picasso provided the costumes and scenery (he also painted a portrait of the composer). Falla took his existing music and expanded it for larger orchestra. He also added an extra piece for a solo dance by the male lead, an up tempo finale and an introduction during which the audience were invited to stare at Picasso's theatre curtain. This production, which was delayed by the First World War, debuted in London, on 22 July 1919, under the title of 'The Three-Cornered Hat' (French: 'Le Tricorne', Spanish: 'El Sombrero de Tres Picos') after the shape of the head gear worn by the Corregidor. It was an immediate success, the last big triumph enjoyed by the Ballet Russes.

The scenario, as rewritten for the ballet, is described in the miniature score at length with very fine details and includes many numerical markers to follow the corresponding actions. Falla catches many of the specific acts and movements of the characters, in what is called in ballet, an imitative way or in film music parlance, by mickey-mousing. The composer includes many songs and tunes of Spanish descend, some of which he came across during a tour of Spain during the summer of 1917, in the company of Diaghilev and Massine.

After a fanfare based introduction, complete with hand clapping, clacking castanets and cries of 'Ole!' by the currently unseen dancers, there is an unaccompanied song for a mezzo soprano. The curtain then rises on the scene and Falla introduces the themes for the miller and his wife who we see happy together outside of their mill. The former pleasant, undulating motif is a taken from a song that Falla had used previously as the first of his 'Seven Spanish Songs.' It is authentically from Murcia, the native province of the miller. The tune associated with the wife is from a jota - an energetic Spanish dance, in this case from Navarre from where the wife hails, in triple meter.

The Corregidor and his wife arrive in procession. Falla points up the pompous absurdity of this crooked, limping man by making him march to a well-known children's song played by the piccolo and strings. The Corrigedor also has a grotesque bassoon motif associated with him. After a brief episode involving the jealousy caused to the wife by the miller's interest in the arrival of another women, this bassoon theme returns as the magistrate reappears, this time with a policeman in tow. The miller's wife begins to dance a fandango and pretends not to notice the Corregidor and his amorous intentions towards her. She then decides that she will play after all and snatches a bunch of grapes. She proceeds to circle the Corregidor, offering the fruit but just keeping them out of his grasp. Eventually the magistrate falls on his back. At length he manages to get up and limps off stage, threatening retaliation in a song for trumpet. The policeman watches as the miller's wife resumes her fandango dance.

The second part of the ballet takes place on the evening of the same day. Many friends of the miller have arrived at the mill for a feast and they dance to more Spanish tunes. The miller then takes the floor on his own. Reportedly, Falla wrote the following flamenco dance, a farruca, to give Massine, the choreographer and primary male dancer, a chance for a virtuoso solo display, in only 24 hours.

As the onlookers encourage him with their hand-clapping and 'Oles!' the miller dances with increasing speed and ferocity, matching the accompaniment before skidding to halt just as the orchestra does the same. The generous applause of his audience does not last long however, as Beethoven's four note (so-called) Fate motif knocks at the door. It is the police with a warrant, signed by the Corregidor, for the arrest of the miller. They march into the house to a quick, ordered beat with the occasional broad flourish. (Diaghilev wanted to cut this music from the first performance, his reasoning that it held up the plot.) The miller's wife finds herself alone and stops to listen to a voice, singing in the distance, before retiring to the house in solitude.

Of course, the magistrate and his bassoon motif are not long in reappearing. He continues his pursuit of the wife, contriving along the way to fall from a bridge into a stream, and she is eventually driven to holding her husband's gun on him before running off. The magistrate removes his wet clothes, hangs them up to dry and goes to bed in frustration. Meanwhile, the miller has escaped. He happily sings his own tune to himself before he gets the wrong idea and becomes angry at the sight of the Corregidor in his bed. The miller hits upon an idea for revenge, he dresses in the Corregidor's clothes and goes off in search of his wife, the Corregidora. The Corregidor gets up and is forced into wearing some of the miller's clothes. The finale approaches as many of the characters of the ballet and their music reappear. The policemen mistakenly arrest the Corregidor believing him to be the miller and a crowd gathers. A brawl develops, the populace turning on the police and the Corregidor, and the miller and his wife are reunited. The wife's jota music is expanded upon and the full orchestra greets the fall of the curtain.

One of Falla's collaborators and friends, Maria Martinez Sierra, remarked that drafting the story was the hardest part of working with Falla. The composer was deeply religious and took his Christian commandments and moral responsibilities very seriously. The potential influence that his works could have worried him. In fact, in his final will Falla attempted to severely curtail the future performances of his stage work, unless they were performed under strict conditions and only on a program with other acceptable Christian works. This clause, fortunately for future stage music lovers, failed due to conflict with existing contracts with his publishers.

The classic version, recently reissued in the Decca Legends series (466 231-2), is by Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony with Colette Boky as the soprano. This comes with Falla's other ballet, ' El amor brujo'.

A 2CD Double Decca is available that covers not only the two ballets mentioned but much of Falla's other orchestral output. Ernest Ansermet conducts the Orquesta de la Swiss Romande with Marina de Gabarin in a recording from 1962 (433 908-2).

A more recent digital recording is on Chandos Records, CHAN 8904: Jill Gomez, Philharmonia Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier. Includes 'Iberia' by Albeniz.

BBC Music Guides: Falla (Ronald Crichton, 1982, BBC Publications)

Manuel de Falla (Suzanne Demarquez, 1968, Chiltern Book Company)

Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music (JB Trend, 1934, Alblabooks)

Manuel de Falla: His Life and Works (ed. Gonzalo Armero and Jorge de Persia, 1999, Omnibus Press)