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Ritual Fire Dance (Spanish: Danza ritual del fuego) is a movement of the ballet ''
El amor brujo ''El amor brujo'' (, "The sorcerer love") is a ballet by Manuel de Falla to a libretto by María de la O Lejárraga García, although for years it was attributed to her husband Gregorio Martínez Sierra. It exists in three versions as well as a ...
'' (The Bewitched Love), written by the Spanish composer
Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ha ...
in 1915. It was made popular by the composer's own piano arrangement. The dance has a duration of about three to four and a half minutes. The work can be associated to 1910
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
's " Flight of the Bumblebee" due to its fast, repetitive trills and
ornament An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration * Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts * Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve ...
s. The piece was also influenced by the traditional, religious ceremony of a fire dance, a dance which was used to worship the fire-god and in which people would often jump through or leap around the fire.


Plot

In de Falla's ballet ''
El amor brujo ''El amor brujo'' (, "The sorcerer love") is a ballet by Manuel de Falla to a libretto by María de la O Lejárraga García, although for years it was attributed to her husband Gregorio Martínez Sierra. It exists in three versions as well as a ...
'', a young Andalusian
gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with si ...
girl called Candela is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband. To get rid of him, all the gypsies make a large circle around their campfire at midnight. Candela then performs the Ritual Fire Dance. This causes the ghost to appear, with whom she then dances. As they whirl around faster and faster, the ghost is drawn into the fire, making it vanish forever.


Instrumentation and transcriptions

The "Ritual Fire Dance", and the ballet as a whole, has been transcribed many times since its original composition in 1915, often by Manuel de Falla himself.


Structure and analysis of the piano version

The piece has an ''Allegro ma non troppo''
tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
(=126) and is in
C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor a ...
. The structure of the piece is an A–B–C–A–B–C–
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
form. The first section starts with 23 bars of trills from the piano. The dynamics of this section change frequently from pianissimo (pp) to mezzo forte (mf). For 14 bars, there is then a section for melody and accompaniment. Candélas then enters with two bars of "Ah!"s. The piano then follows with two bars of octave chords. There is then a question and answer section between Candélas and the piano, one bar at a time, for 17 bars. There are then trills for the piano for a further 8 bars. A
quaver 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note ( American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note pl ...
–quaver rest–quaver–quaver rest pattern follows with straight
crotchet A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem ...
s for 8 bars. A melody then comes in above the base rhythm for 24 bars. The piano then has a large section of chords and (mainly) quavers for 33 bars. There are then trills for one bar and another quaver–quaver rest–quaver–quaver rest pattern with a straight crotchet accompaniment for 4 bars. There are then 20 bars of more trills. A section with melody and accompaniment then follows. The above section then repeats. However, as the repeat is not complete, the third movement is then cut off half way through by an ascending scale of
triplets A multiple birth is the culmination of one multiple pregnancy, wherein the mother gives birth to two or more babies. A term most applicable to vertebrate species, multiple births occur in most kinds of mammals, with varying frequencies. Such bi ...
for four bars. Here the tempo changes to ''Più mosso, ma giusto''. This is the coda.
Semiquaver Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note ( American) or semiquaver ( British) is a note played for half the du ...
s then follow for two three bar phrases of ascending scales. Candélas then has "Ah!"s at the start of every other following bar for the next four bars. These bars finish with semiquavers and then an ascending scale. There are then crotchet chords for 15 bars. A descending arpeggio and low final note finish the piece.Score at IMSLP


Recordings


See also

*
List of works for the stage by Manuel de Falla This is a complete list of the stage works of the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876–1946). List References ;Sources *Crichton, Ronald (1992), 'Falla, Manuel de' in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Op ...


Notes


External links

* * ,
Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish-American pianist.
(1947) at Carnegie Hall * , played in
Riverside Church Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornin ...
, Manhattan, by La Vita Williams Guitar Duo {{Authority control Compositions by Manuel de Falla 1915 compositions Compositions in C major Fire in culture Fictional representations of Romani people Ghosts in popular culture