Ritual Fire Dance (Spanish: Danza ritual del fuego) is a movement of the ballet El amor brujo[1] (The Bewitched Love), written by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla in 1915. It was made popular by the composer's own piano arrangement.[2] The dance has a duration of about three to four and a half minutes.
The work can be associated to 1910 Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"[3] due to its fast, repetitive trills and ornaments. 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.[4][5]
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Manuel de Falla: Ritual Fire Dance
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Manuel de Falla – Danza ritual del Fuego – Ritual Fire Dance Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa
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Ritual Fire Dance
Transcription
Plot
In de Falla's ballet El amor brujo, a young Andalusian gypsy 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.[6]
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.[7]
Form of transcription | Instrumentation | Date of transcription |
---|---|---|
Original composition | Singing voice (the role of Candélas), flute (piccolo), oboe, horn, cornet, bells, piano, 2 first violins, 2 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and double bass | 1915 |
Sextet | 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and piano | 1915 |
Full orchestral | 2 flutes (piccolo), oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani (bells), piano and strings | 1916 |
Small orchestral | Chamber orchestra | 1917 |
Ballet | Voice (mezzo-soprano), 2 flutes (piccolo), oboe (cor anglais), 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, piano and strings | 1919 |
Piano rendition | Solo piano | 1921 |
Concert ballet | 2 flutes (piccolo), oboe (cor anglais), 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, piano and strings. | 1925 |
Brass band | British brass band | 2008[8] |
Structure and analysis of the piano version
The piece has an Allegro ma non troppo tempo (
Here the tempo changes to Più mosso, ma giusto. This is the coda. Semiquavers 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.[9]
Recordings
CD title | Length (minutes:seconds) | Record label | Recording date |
---|---|---|---|
Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 18[5] | 3:23 | RCA Red Seal | 1947 |
500 Classical Masterpieces[5] | 1:43 (Excerpt) | Vox Records | 1992 |
40 Popular Classics | 4:13 | Castle Select Records | 1999 |
Falla – Vocal & Orchestral Works | 4:15 | EMI Classics | 1999 |
Falla: La vida breve; El amor brujo; etc. | 4:11 | EMI Classics | 2001 |
Classical Music 101[5] | 0:39 (Excerpt) | RCA Red Seal | 2004 |
De Falla – El amor brujo, El retablo de maese Pedro, Fantasia Bætica | 1:52 | Mirare | 2007 |
See also
Notes
- ^ "Manuel de Falla: El amor brujo" by Peter Gutmann (2004), Classical Notes
- ^ "Ritual Fire Dance", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, by Michael Kennedy and Joyce Bourne
- ^ Robin Maconie (2013). Experiencing Stravinsky: A Listener's Companion. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 41ff. ISBN 978-0-8108-8430-4.
- ^ "Fire Dance", streetswing.com
- ^ a b c d Patsy Morita. Manuel de Falla – "Ritual Fire Dance" (from El amor brujo) at AllMusic
- ^ Ritual Fire Dance by Manuel de Falla
- ^ "Works: A–B", manueldefalla.com
- ^ Bernaerts, Frank. "Ritual Fire Dance". Bernaerts Music. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
- ^ Score at IMSLP
External links
- "El amor brujo": Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Piano arrangement (video) on YouTube, Arthur Rubinstein (1947) at Carnegie Hall
- Guitar Duo arrangement (video) on YouTube, played in Riverside Church, Manhattan, by La Vita Williams Guitar Duo