Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla y Matheu was born in Cádiz on 23 November 1876, trained as both composer and pianist, and emerged alongside Albéniz, Tárrega, and Granados in the generation that pulled Spanish music into the 20th century. His output was small, almost austere - he published far less than his peers - but the claim that he became Spain's greatest composer of the era rests on that very restraint: every work mattered. He spent decades refining a voice that fused the rhythms and modes of Andalusía with the harmonic language of Paris and Vienna. By the time he fled Spain for Argentina during the Civil War, the catalog was thin and the reputation secure. He died in Alta Gracia on 14 November 1946, ten days short of seventy, having proven that in music, as in fame, less can be more.