Rodolfo Halffter, was born in 1900 in Madrid to a Catalan mother and German father. His was a family of musicians, brothers Ernesto and Cristóbal also being composers.

Halffter was self-taught and became part of the "Grupo de los Ocho" or "Grupo de Madrid," mentored by Adolfo Salazar. In contrast to Blas Galindo’s Mexican Group of Four, which sought to create a Mexican classical idiom, the Spanish Group of Eight was dedicated to avant-garde explorations, which meant becoming conversant with the music of Debussy, Ravel, Schoenberg and Bartók.

In 1935 Halffter wrote the ballet Don Lindo de Almería, Opus 7, “a delightful parody of the customs of romantic Andalusia,” on which Halffter collaborated with the well-known writer José Bergamin. With the performance of Don Lindo at the International Festival of Contemporary Music at Bercelona in 1936, Halffter’s European reputation was firmly established. (Field, 1955) His second collaboration with Bergamin, La madrugada del panadero Op.12 ("The Baker’s Morning"), completed in 1940, is modelled on de Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat without. It has been described as “full of attractive and colourful ideas expertly wrapped in some piquantly scored Neo-classicism.”

During the time of the Spanish Civil War, Halffter worked for the anti-Franco Republican government. At the end of the war, and with Franco’s ascendance, he went into exile in Mexico, bringing with him a compositional style that combined contemporary trends with a refined Spanish neo-classicism. In Mexico he became collegial with Carlos Chávez and Blas Galindo. He taught at the Escuela Superior Nocturna de Música from 1939 until 1941, when he became professor of musical analysis at the National Conservatory. Halffter was also a noted editor, working for the journal Nuestra música, and directed the publishing company Ediciones Mexicanas de Música for many years, publishing works by Galindo, Jose Pablo Moncayo, Mario Lavista, and many others.

The initial work of Halffter’s period of exile, composed between 1939 and 40 was theViolin Concerto, which was premiered June 26 1942 by the Sinfónica de Mexico under the direction of Carlos Chávez. It was performed in Madrid in 1964, within the First Festival of Music of America and Spain. It was written at the request of Russian violinist Samuel Dushkin, who had collaborated with Stravinsky on his Concerto in D. Considered by some to by Halffter’s greatest work, the concerto harks back to Halffter’s Spain of the 1920s

Sue Ellen Teat wrote in the NATS Journal that Halffter's music generally follows in the tradition of Falla: “the basis is tonal, sometimes enriched with bold and witty polytonal inflections; the rhythm is asymmetrical and varied; the style is above all clear and spare. In 1953, in the Tres hojas de album for piano, he began to use 12-note serialism, the first Mexican composer to do so. This, however, did not alter the essentially melodic nature of his work.”

As a composer and musical leader, Rodolfo Halffter has received numerous awards and honors. In 1961 he joined the advisory board of the National Symphony Orchestra in Mexico. He was conferred a life membership in the Mexican Academy of Fine Arts in 1969 and the Instituto de Cultura Hispanica, Madrid, Spain in 1970. In 1973 the Spanish government bestowed upon him the great honor and decoration of the Encomienda con Placa de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio.”

Links:

Recording of La Madrugada