El Amor brujo (Love the Magician)

Danza rituel del Fuego (Ritual Fire Dance): Allegro ma non troppo e pesante

El Amor brujo originated with a request for “a song and a dance” from the Andalusian gypsy dancer and singer, Pastora Imperio. Stimulated, however by the gypsy music and folklore Falla heard from the dancer and her mother Rosaria la Mejorana, another popular flamenco performer, he agreed to write a whole one-act ballet with song.

This gitaneria version of El Amor brujo, destined for a theatre without a pit, was scored for only 15 musicians. Although the public was apparently disappointed by the thin instrumental ensemble and the correspondingly slender scenario by Maria and Gregorio Martinez Sierra, the composer was quite happy with it. Less than a year later, however, he had completed a new full-orchestral version of the score, which was first performed with great success at a concert in Madrid in March 1916. Even so, although the libretto had been rewritten too, El Amor brujo found favour as a ballet only in 1925, when two celebrated flamenco dancers of a later generation, Vincente Escudero and La Argentina, chose to mount a production at the Trianon lyrique in Paris.

According to the new version of the story, the gypsy girl Candelas is haunted by the memory of her dead lover, whose ghost has the frustrating habit of coming between her and her new suitor, Carmelo, whenever he approaches her. The answer to the problem, Carmelo decides – remembering that his late rival was as faithless as he was jealous – is to distract him from his vigilance by a decoy in the shape of a beautiful young gypsy girl called Lucía. The ghost is, in fact, seduced by Lucía’s dancing, which gives Candelas and Carmelo chance to exchange “the perfect kiss” and so break the spell of the past.

The first extract to be heard today is the Danza del Terror which follows the apparition of the dead lover and develops a sinister trumpet tune introduced at that point. It is based on an ancient dance said to have an origin similar to that of the Sicilian tarantella. Its panicky rhythms have no effect in exorcising the ghost, however. So the next step, in the ballet, is the Danza rituel del Fuego, which in this selection of dances is reserved for the end. So what follows now is the Danza del Juego de Amor, a comparatively leisurely malaguena confirming the defeat of the dead lover. It features a sinuoualy flexible melody introduced by a solo viola and, transcribed here for woodwind, two songs for a soprano soloist.

By far the best known of all Falla’s flamenco inspirations, the Danza rituel del Fuego, is derived from an old gypsy forging song traditionally associated with the warding-off of evil spirits. The eerie as well as the fiery aspect of the scene are suggested by the trills on violas and clarinet, the superstitious as well as the work function of the song by the heavily percussive ostinato on the piano in an uneasy harmonic relationship with the melody on the oboe. It ends, at an accelerated tempo, with the ultimate heel-tapping taconeo.

Gerald Larner © 2009

Introduccion y Escena (Introduction and Scene)

Canción del amor dolido (Song of the Pain of Love)

Danza del Terror (Dance of Terror)

El Circulo Mágico (The Magic Circle)

Danza rituel del Fuego (Ritual Fire Dance)

Canción del Fuego fatuo (Song of the Will-o’-the-Wisp)

Pantomima (Pantomime)

Danza del Juego de Amor (Dance of the Game of Love)

Final (Finale)

El Amor brujo - or “Love, the Magician” as it is known in English - originated as a flamenco ballet for the famous Andalusian gypsy dancer and singer, Pastora Imperio. Initially, Falla and his poet collaborator Martinez Sierra were to provide no more than a song and a dance for her but, stimulated by the flamenco music and the gypsy folklore they heard from the dancer and her mother Rosaria la Mejorana, another flamenco performer, they agreed to write a whole one-act ballet with song.

The story of the ballet is based on one told them by Rosaria la Mejorana. The gypsy girl Candelas is haunted by the memory of her dead lover, whose ghost has the frustrating habit of coming between her and her new suitor, Carmelo, whenever he approaches her. The answer to the problem, Carmelo decides – remembering that his late rival was as faithless as he was jealous – is to distract him from his vigilance by a decoy in the shape of a beautiful young gypsy girl called Lucía. The ghost is, in fact, seduced by Lucía’s dancing, which gives Candelas and Carmelo chance to exchange “the perfect kiss” and so break the spell of the past.

At its first performance in Madrid in 1915, while it pleased the gypsy performers who took part in it, the ballet did not please the public, who complained (incredibly) that the music was not Spanish enough. However, after some revision and expansion of the originally small-scale orchestral proportions, the score proved successful – with or without the vocal numbers but never without the Ritual Fire Dance – as a concert piece. And, after some revision of the scenario for a production in Paris in 1925, the ballet began to find favour too, not least because of the part played by another gypsy dancer, La Argentina.

It could be that what displeased the audience at the first performance of the ballet in Madrid was the absence of actual Spanish folk material in the score. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine orchestral music more Spanish than that of El Amor brujo – and not only in the dances, the sounds and rhythms of which are derived from traditional sources. Even the Introduction, with its modal harmonies and its vigorous dotted rhythms is typical flamenco. The time and place of the Scene, on which the curtain rises, are precisely defined as night in a gypsy camp in Andalusia, mainly by means of the oboe’s echo of cante jondo towards the end. In the first of the vocal numbers Candelas gives passionate voice to the painful situation she is in, between haunting memories of her dead lover and her attraction to Camelo.     

The Dance of Terror, which follows the first appearance of the ghost of the lover (in sinister bitonal harmonies on muted trumpet and strings), is based on a dance said to have origins similar to those of the Italian tarantella. Its panicky rhythms contrast effectively with the melodic spell-binding of The Magic Circle, a short episode which proves no more successful in exorcising the ghost. So the next step is the Ritual Fire Dance, derived from an old gypsy forging song traditionally associated with the warding-off of evil spirits. It is an inspired piece of writing with the eerie as well as the fiery aspect of the scene suggest by the trills on clarinet and violas, the superstitious as well as the work function of the song by the heavily percussive ostinato on the piano in an uneasy harmonic relationship with the melody on the oboe.

After a vocal interlude, Song of the Will-o’-the-Wisp, and a recall of the music from the introduction to the ballet at the beginning of Pantomime, Lucía performs her dance of seduction. A voluptuously scored Cadiz tango, it proves to be a temptation that the ghost cannot resist. The defeat of the dead lover is confirmed in the Dance of the Game of Love, a malagueña coloured by vocal interventions from the flamenco soloist.    The rest of the ballet is celebration, with the morning bells ringing out in the bright light of the Finale and a happy song on cellos carried to a brief but broad climax.