The Three-Cornered Hat, A musical story based on the ballet created in 1919 by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with music by Manuel de Falla

"The Three-Cornered Hat" for Young Readers.

Illustrations by Gerardo Valero.

CD:
-Piano: Ángel Cámara, José Vicente Riquelme, José Alberto del Cerro, Alejandro Rubio
-Castanets: Margarita Sánchez
-Hand clapping and "olés": Curro Piñana, Juan Francisco Carrillo

The creation of the ballet "The Three-Cornered Hat" was undoubtedly the most complex and ambitious project of Diaghilev and his ballet company. The cubist contribution of Pablo Picasso in the design of costumes and sets and the musical collaboration of other composers in the completion of the orchestral score, made "The Three-Cornered Hat" reach great success on the night of its première, becoming thereafter one of the most accomplished works of modernist art. This book is the result of years of experience in teaching and researching about music. Presented as a story or musical narration, the book can be read along with the music. The text written by the the music teacher Antonio Hernandez the text that I have composed is not only based on the plot but also enriched by the character of the music and the ballet itself. The same procedure has been used for the design of the illustrations, giving a delightful intrinsic result. "The Three-Cornered Hat" has never yet been adapted for didactic purposes, perhaps because of the complexity of its plot or because of its inadequacy. This book provides finally a adapted version for children and young readers, and also introduces the no less important novelty of accompanying the text with the first or at least one of the few recordings available of the complete ballet music on piano. The piano version of this piece of music will also reveal to classical music-lovers or adult readers a number of aspects about Falla's music - and about this masterwork piece of music in particular - which have never before been appreciated. These have been essential to the research I have carried out on the Ballets Russes in Spain and the collaboration of the dancer Felix Garcia in the creation of this ballet in the centenary year of its première (1919-2019).

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