It is true that Falla was a slow and fastidious worker. But it was not actually until 1938 that he began making an orchestral piece out of various pieces for other media that he had produced since 1920. The work is a four-fold homages to major influences, mentors, and teachers in Falla's own life and career.

Debussy provided not only an example but considerable encouragement for Falla, and he responded to an invitation to join a number of other prominent composers in producing a publication of several memorial pieces in honor of the great French composer, who had died in 1918. His contribution was Homenaje pour 'Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy', G 56 (1920), for solo guitar.

In 1933, the great Spanish musician E.F. Arbos was honored by the musicians of Spain on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Arbos was not only an example and mentor to Falla's entire generation of Spanish composers, but was a conductor who was tireless in promoting their music and afforded Falla several important premieres. For his birthday, Falla composed a Fanfare, built on the notes that arise naturally from the name "E.F. Arbos."

In 1935, Falla's most important teacher, the Frenchman Paul Dukas, died and Falla soon produced a piano piece Pour le Tombeau de Paul Dukas.

Felipe Pedrell was the most important opera composer in Spanish history. He lived from 1841 to 1922. In 1924, Falla had thought of producing a work based on music by Pedrell, but the project was unachieved for some time.

The composition of Homenajes may have been kindled by resumption of work on the Pedrell, or perhaps Falla's loss of Spain itself. For during the Spanish Civil War the dangers and pressures of that horrible conflict impelled Falla to accept a teaching position in Argentina, and he arrived there in 1939, when he began work on this score, in which he orchestrates and in some cases extends the works already mentioned. In its final form, this remarkably subtle score comprises the following:

1. Fanfare on the Name of Arbos

2. To Claude Debussy (Elegy from the guitar)

—Reprise of the Fanfare

3. To Paul Dukas (Spes Vitae [The Hope of Life])

4. Pedrelliana

The final movement, then, is the achievement of the interrupted 1924 project, and is based on a theme from Pedrell's opera La Celestina.

To those familiar with the Falla works of the 1910s, the austerity and studied avoidance of any trace of sensuous appeal in this music may initially be shocking. There is an almost monastic purity in the spirit of these works. Careful listening, though, shows that the orchestration is exceptionally subtle. The Debussy homage, in particular, translates the native sound of the guitar into an orchestral equivalent in a way which is entirely unique. These homages are rarely mournful, always dignified, a dignity that nevertheless shows the sincere respect and often love that Falla clearly bore for their subjects. It is very rare that a composer has produced a work which is so clearly personal and yet so lacking in maudlin or self-pitying sentiments.

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