MANUEL DE FALLA S CUATRO PIEZAS ESPAÑOLAS:

The intention of this study is to demonstrate howspecial modal and tonal constructions and theirinteractions in Cuatro Piezas Espańoles (1906-1909)are basic in the integration of Manuel de Falla'smusical language. His modal techniques represent asignificant contribution to the rebirth of Spanishnationalism. His use of modal variants, which arederived from his native folk-music sources, is thebasis for expanding his musical language into alarge-scale system. In this work, Falla employsvarious means of transforming the modes into amodernistic idiom.Although Falla wrote few piano works in general,Cuatro Piezas Espańoles is exemplary of hisdevelopment from Romantic tonality to the modalitiesof Spanish folk music. Thus, the study of CuatroPiezas Espańoles seems to be an ideal compositionalsource for evaluating Falla's compositional processduring the period of integration of his musicallanguage. This treatise demonstrates how specialmodal and tonal constructions and their synthesisbasic in the formulation and interoperation of thecomposer's means of expression.