Manuel de Falla's settings of three poems by the French orientalist Théophile Gautier are the work of a young, but rapidly maturing composer seeking to attain the highest level of craftsmanship and refinement in his art. The Trois mélodies, composed in Paris in 1909, follow in succession La vida breve, written for a competition in Madrid in 1905 and premiered only in Nice in 1913, and the Four Spanish Pieces for piano (1908), initiated in Spain and completed after Falla's arrival in Paris in the summer of 1907. Falla eagerly sought Debussy's opinion of his new songs. Debussy praised the outer songs of the set: he found the middle one, Chinoiserie, unsatisfactory. Falla, at first, was taken aback—he thought the song finished—but when he reconsidered Debussy's suggestions and revised the offending passage, he solved the problem in a way that met with his mentor's total approval. If the Trois mélodies failed to attract a following, it was not for deficiencies in critical merit.

Whereas the language and author of its poems are French, the Trois mélodies stand in the shadow of the music on which Falla's reputation is based. The renaissance in Spanish music at the turn of the century reached its peak in the work of Falla. Felipe Pedrell's theories of nationalism in music could scarcely have taken root in more fertile soil than in the musical imagination and determination of his young student from Cádiz. Falla's success contributed to neglect of his non-Spanish creations. Federico Sopeña has called attention to the worth of the Trois mélodies: ”… it is passed over rapidly, or it is disdained and it is performed very little: I believe that such [a view] is not justified).” My re-examination of the merits of the second of these songs, Chinoiserie, affirms Falla's genius while clarifying his methods of incorporating national and folk materials. What is to be made of the greatest Spanish composer of his age writing Chinese music as a Frenchman?