El sombrero de tres picos
3 min
Recording
- Suite No. 2: Danza del molinero (Farruca)Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid; Enrique Fernández Arbós · 19282:39
In this Farruca from Falla’s ballet El sombrero de tres picos, the miller dances alone on St John’s Night. Enrique Fernández Arbós, who conducted the first performance of Falla’s Nights in 1916, conducted his Madrid orchestra in this Columbia recording of 1928.
Listening notes
- The Miller’s dance, St John’s Night
On St John’s Night the neighbours gather at the mill, and the Miller’s Wife asks her husband to dance for them. He dances a farruca, which John Henken called “dark and fiery” and “the earthiest dance in the ballet”.
- Danse du Meunier, piano score
The piano score marks the dance Moderato assai, “molto ritmico e pesante”. Heavy chords drop to a sudden pianissimo (“pp subito”) and grow louder again through a long “cresc. molto”, with a tune marked “il canto” above them.
- London première cast, 1919
At the London première on 22 July 1919 Léonide Massine, who also choreographed the ballet, danced the Miller, and Tamara Karsavina was the Miller’s Wife. Picasso designed the curtain, scenery and costumes.
- Final page, increasing tempo
The last page of the piano score is marked “pochissimo più mosso, ma ritmico”, then “più animato” and “animando ancora sino il fine”. The tempo increases up to the final chords, which are marked fff. In the ballet a knock at the door follows, and the Law arrives with a warrant for the miller.