Manuel Maria Ponce was born in Fresnillo, Mexico, on December 8, 1882.
His main music study took place in Europe where he arrived in 1905:
composition with Enrico Bossi in Bologna; piano with Martin Krause in
Berlin. After returning to Mexico he gave a concert of his own
compositions in 1912. For several years he taught the piano at the
National Conservatory in Mexico City, and from 1917 to 1919 he was the
conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra there. During World War I
he lived in Havana and New York. After the war he went to Paris for an
additional period of study with Paul Dukas. From 1933 to 1938 he was
professor of folklore at the University of Mexico. In 1941 he toured
South America, and in 1947 he was the recipient of the first annual
Mexican Arts and Sciences Award established by the President of Mexico.
He died in Mexico City on April 24, 1948.
Ponce was a modernist who filled his orchestral compositions with the
most advanced resources of modern harmony, counterpoint and rhythm. But
in his songs he possessed a spontaneous and ingratiating lyricism, often
of a national Mexican identity. It is one of these that has made him
famous in semi-classical literature: “_Estrellita_” (“Little Star”), a
song with such a strong Spanish personality of melody and rhythm that it
was long believed to be a folk song. Ponce first published it in 1914
but it did not become universally popular until 1923 when it was issued
in a new arrangement (by Frank La Forge) and translated into English.