La Folia is one of the oldest European musical themes. Over the course of three centuries, more than 150 composers have used it in their works. The first publications of this theme date from the middle of the 17th century, but it is probably much older.
Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1672, Arcangelo Corelli in 1700, Alessandro Scarlatti in 1710, Antonio Vivaldi in his Orlando Furioso of 1727, Johann Sebastian Bach in his Peasants' Cantata of 1742 have all used this repeating theme.
It disappeared in the 19th century only to reappear during the 1930s with Sergei Rachmaninov in his Variations on a theme by Corelli in 1931 and Manuel Marķa Ponce and his Variations on "Spanish Folia" and Fugue for guitar. Since then, it has been frequently used by various composers, such as by Vangelis for the film Conquest of Paradise. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
