Italian Musicians in Francoist Spain, 1939-1945: The Perspective of Music Critics

Abstract

Among those who went into exile during the Civil War were the musicologists and critics Adolfo Salazar and Jesús Bal y Gay, the composers Roberto Gerhard, Salvador Bacarisse, Rodolfo Halffter, and Julián Bautista, and the cellist Pau Casals. Manuel de Falla, the Spanish composer who enjoyed an international reputation and whom the Franco regime quickly identified as an invaluable asset for its own prestige, left in fall 1939 for Argentina, where he would die seven years later without ever having returned to his home country. For a complete discussion of Falla's complex position during the Civil War and the years of his exile, see Carol A. Hess, Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel De Falla

Education, Intelligence and Cultural Diplomacy at the British Council in Madrid, 1940–1941 Part 2: Shock Troops in the War of Ideas

“…99 Again, the soirée served to attract influential Spaniards to the British Institute, to showcase Spanish talent, to display Britain's musical tradition, to highlight cultural links between Britain and Spain and to counter German and Italian cultural promotion. 100 Professor Julio Casares, Secretary of the Real Academia Española (RAE) and Starkie's neighbour-Casares lived in a flat three streets down from the British Institute-told Starkie at the concert 'that he personally would welcome a small festival of the works of [Henry] Purcell whom he regards as one of the greatest musicians that ever lived and the embodiment of England'. 101 On passing Starkie's report on to the British Ministry of Information, Wiggin received word back from the Ministry that 'if a festival of British music could be arranged in Madrid, it would be of the utmost importance to our propaganda in Spain'.…”