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“My very dear Manuel!
Bless the cante jondo! Bless the newspaper articles! Bless… every reason why you wrote me a ten-page long letter!”
(Letter from Adolfo Salazar to Manuel de Falla, Madrid, 3rd March 1922)

This collection of letters illustrates a crucial moment in 20th century Spanish music through two of its star figures: composer Manuel de Falla and critic, musician, composer and promoter of young composers Adolfo Salazar, one of the most influential – and controversial – voices in the Spanish music prior to the Civil War. The 345 letters collected in this volume unveil the personality and lifestyle of the two main characters. They show the shared goal they had of introducing the musical avant-garde in Spain and they reveal the absolute harmony in the dual relationship they established, despite never abandoning the formal pronoun “usted”: on the one hand, the relationship between the composer and his critic (Salazar, from El Sol, put his pen to the service of Falla’s work); on the other hand, the one between the student and his master (Falla always meticulously tutored Salazar’s first vocation, i.e. composing). Salazar’s determination to make Ernest Halffter one of Falla’s students and the powerful alliance between Falla and Salazar to drive the young musician’s career occupy as well a good part of this correspondence.

PAPERBACK, 14 x 21,5 cm
664 pp
ISBN: 978-84-949650-3-6