Manuel María de Falla's life began on November 23, 1876, in Cádiz, the son of a merchant and a pianist. He received his first musical lessons from his mother. After the family moved to Madrid in 1896, he began his studies at the Madrid Conservatoire as a piano student of José Tragó and composed his first works. To support his family financially, he wrote five zarzuelas between 1901 and 1903, which, however, met with little success. While still in Madrid, he composed the Cuatro piezas españolas (Courtyard Pieces of Spanish Music), which were recommended by prominent composers such as Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas. His musical style was characterized by harmonic uniqueness and elegant counterpoint, avoiding monotony despite the Spanish dance rhythms.
From 1902 onward, de Falla studied with Felipe Pedrell, the founder of Spanish national music. With his opera "La vida breve" ("The Short Life"), which he wrote in 1904/1905, he experienced his breakthrough as a composer. This work, influenced by his native folk and flamenco music, won first prize in an opera competition held by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, but was not performed until 1913. After returning to Madrid in 1914, he composed the "Gypsy singspiel" El amor brujo, which tells the story of the young gypsy woman Candela and includes well-known pieces such as "Danza del terror" and "Romance del pescador." The Fantasia Baetica, written for Artur Rubinstein in 1919, captures the diversity of Spain with its guitar figures and sophisticated flamenco vocals.
In 1920, de Falla moved to Granada, where he composed, among other works, the piece Homenaje for Debussy. He was also inspired by other cultures, such as Greek and Indian music, as evidenced by his piano piece Canto de los remeros del Volga with its unusual treatment of familiar melodies. With Diaghilev, de Falla developed a ballet based on the story El sombrero de tres picos, which premiered in London in 1919. This humorous work tells the story of an old judge and a miller's prank and includes the famous "Dance of the Miller's Wife." De Falla died on November 14, 1946, in Alta Gracia, Argentina, where he had fled in 1939 to escape the horrors of World War II.