Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla y Matheu (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946) was a Spanish composer. With Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. His image was on Spain's 1970 100-pesetas banknote. Falla was born Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu in Cádiz. He was the son of José María Falla, a Valencian, and María Jesús Matheu, from Catalonia (Hess 2001a). His early teachers in music were his mother and grandfather. At the age of nine he was introduced to his first piano teacher, Eloísa Galluzo. Little is known of that period in his life, but his relationship with his teacher was soon ended after she decided to enter a convent, Sisters of Charity, to become a nun. In 1889 he continued his piano lessons with Alejandro Odero and learned the techniques of harmony and counterpoint from Enrique Broca. At age 15 he became interested in literature and journalism and founded the literary magazines El Burlón and El Cascabel. In 1893 he was inspired by a concert of Edvard Grieg's works, later saying that at the time he felt that "my definitive vocation is music".