Born: 23 November 1876, Cádiz, Spain
Died: 14 November 1946, Alta Gracia, Argentina

de Falla, Manuel

The first of Spain's national composers. He wanted to be a writer, yet studied music in depth. During a visit to Paris, he became friends with the impressionist Debussy and Ravel, and when he returned to Spain, with the start of World War I, he wrote the Suite for Piano and Orchestra "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" ("Noches en los jardines de España"), integrating Spanish folk music into spectacular symphonic music. De Falla became a well known composer, and the ballets he wrote, like "The Three-Cornered Hat" ("El sombrero de tres picos") and the early "Love the Magician" ("El Amor Brujo"), made him famous in Europe and around the world. The interesting combination of modern music and sentimental elements of Spanish music was his trademark.

In 1939, after the Civil War in Spain, he moved to Argentina and died there in 1946.

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