Manuel de Falla y Matheu was born in Cádiz on 23 November 1876 . He was a Spanish composer. He is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. His image was on Spain's 1970 100-pesetas banknote.

Falla moved to Paris in 1907, where he remained for seven years. There he met a number of composers who had an influence on his style.

He returned to Madrid where he composed several of his best-known pieces, including:The ballet El amor brujo ("The Bewitched Love", 1915) which includes the much excerpted and arranged Ritual Fire Dance ("Danza Ritual Del Fuego")

He died of cardiac arrest on 14 November 1946 in Alta Gracia, in the Argentine province of Córdoba.

El amor brujo (Love, the Magician, literally, Spell-bound Love or The Bewitched Love) is a ballet composed in 1914-1915 by Manuel de Falla.

The work is distinctively Andalusian in character with the songs in the Andalusian Spanish dialect of the Gypsies. The music contains moments of remarkable beauty and originality; it includes the celebrated "Danza ritual del fuego" (Ritual Fire Dance), "Canción del fuego fatuo" (Song of Wildfire, or Song Of The Will-o'-the-Wisp) and the "Danza del terror" (Dance of Terror).