HomeManuel de Falla on the Island: Art, Culture and Modernity in 1930s Mallorca

Manuel de Falla on the Island: Art, Culture and Modernity in 1930s Mallorca

Manuel de Falla dans l’île. Art, culture et modernité dans la Majorque des années trente

Manuel de Falla en la isla. Arte, cultura y modernidad en la Mallorca de los años 30

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Published on Monday, March 23, 2026

Abstract

On the occasion of the Manuel de Falla Year (1876–1946), marking the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Department of Musicology at the Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears and the Department of Historical Sciences and Theory of the Arts at the Universitat de les Illes Balears are organising this International Conference. Taking Falla’s stay in Mallorca as its point of departure, the conference aims to encourage reflection on issues related to the arts and European culture in the context of the 1930s.

Announcement

Palma, 26–28 November. Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears (CSMIB) – Universitat de les Illes Balears

Argument

On the occasion of the Manuel de Falla Year (1876–1946), marking the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Department of Musicology at the Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears and the Department of Historical Sciences and Theory of the Arts at the Universitat de les Illes Balears are organising this International Conference. Taking Falla’s stay in Mallorca as its point of departure, the conference aims to encourage reflection on issues related to the arts and European culture in the context of the 1930s.

Falla lived in Mallorca between 1933 and 1934, having been invited by his friend, the musician and clergyman Joan M. Thomàs i Sabater. During this stay—documented in Thomàs’s book Manuel de Falla en la isla (1949) and in specialised scholarship (Hess 2005; Torres 2009)—he composed and premiered his Balada de Mallorca (1933). He settled in a house in the Palma district of Gènova, a residential area which, together with neighbouring El Terreno, was home to a significant artistic bohemia, both local and foreign. This took place at a time when Mallorca was beginning to gain recognition as an international tourist destination, within an increasingly tense political climate in interwar Europe marked by the rise of fascism.

This complexity was also reflected in the microcosm of the island of Mallorca, where Jewish exiles fleeing Nazism, right-wing European activists seeking refuge from revolutionary left-wing movements, and an increasingly visible Nazi colony converged. These population movements included a significant number of artists and intellectuals, who joined those already visiting the island within a broader context of circulation among European elites.

The composer became part of this milieu of painters, writers and musicians—from Gertrude Stein to Robert Graves, as well as George Copeland, Paul Cadmus and Natacha Rambova—who turned the island into a genuine creative and intellectual laboratory of interartistic dialogue. This convergence brought together an artistic bohemia and an intellectual elite under a shared pursuit of modernity. However, this concept acquired a multifaceted character, with features that were not always convergent. Modern art thus incorporated avant-garde elements but also, depending on the individuals involved, criteria linked to tradition and to notions of essence.

In this regard, some of the questions the conference seeks to address include: How does Falla fit within the “modernities” of interwar Europe? How may his stay in Mallorca be interpreted: as part of cultural exchanges characteristic of an elite, or as an expression of the development of an artistic bohemia in Palma during the 1930s? In what ways did musical and artistic life contribute to the social and political modernity of Mallorca and Spain at the time? What did it mean to be modern in that context?

Researchers are invited to submit proposals which, taking Falla’s stay in Mallorca and the island’s artistic life in the 1930s as a point of departure, address topics such as:

  • Interwar modernity
  • Interartistic relationships
  • Relations between art and politics
  • Exile and/or the circulation of artistic and intellectual elites
  • The “island” as an exotic construct

Submission guidelines

The deadline for submission is 30 May 2026. Proposals should be sent to congresfalla@gmail.com.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome no later than 15 September 2026.

Each proposal must include a title and an abstract of no more than 300 words outlining the paper’s objective, theoretical framework, methodology and expected results. A separate bibliography should be provided. The abstract must be accompanied by a brief curriculum vitae (150 words). Papers may be presented in Catalan, Spanish, English or French.

Convenors

  • Amadeu Corbera Jaume (Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears) 
  • Sonsoles Hernández Barbosa (Universitat de les Illes Balears)

Secretary

  • Mercedes Palao Rosselló (Universitat de les Illes Balears)

Organising Committee

  • Agnès Gayà Grimalt (Universitat de les Illes Balears) 
  • Eugènia Gallego Cañellas (Universitat Internacional de València) 
  • Marina Triay Andreu (Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears) 
  • Joan Antoni Ballester (Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears)

Scientific Committee

  • Teresa Cascudo García-Villaraco (Universidad de La Rioja)
  • Igor Contreras Zubillaga (Institució Milà i Fontanals – Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas)
  • Álvaro Flores Coleto (Fundación Archivo Manuel de Falla)
  • Albert Fontelles-Ramonet (Universitat de Vic)
  • Francisca Lladó Pol (Universitat de les Illes Balears)
  • Eva Moreda Rodríguez (University of Glasgow)
  • Eduard Moyà Antón (Universitat de les Illes Balears)
  • María Palacios Nieto (Universidad de Salamanca)
  • Antoni Vives Riera (Universitat de Barcelona)

Keynote Lectures

Carol A. Hess (University of California, Davis)

Eduard Moyà Antón (Universitat de les Illes Balears)

 

Places

  • Palma, Kingdom of Spain

Event attendance modalities

Full on-site event


Date(s)

  • Saturday, May 30, 2026

Keywords

  • Manuel de Falla, Majorque, modernité, musicologie, histoire de l'art, circulation des élites européennes, relations interartistiques, bohème des années 30, Europe de l'entre-deux-guerres, art et politique, l’« île » comme construction exotique

Contact(s)

  • Sonsoles Hernández Barbosa
    courriel : sonsoles [dot] hernandez [at] uib [dot] es

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Sonsoles Hernández Barbosa
    courriel : sonsoles [dot] hernandez [at] uib [dot] es

License

CC-BY-4.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .

To cite this announcement

Amadeu Corbera Jaume, Sonsoles Hernández Barbosa, « Manuel de Falla on the Island: Art, Culture and Modernity in 1930s Mallorca », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, March 23, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/15xiv

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