Program Notes

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)

Scored for string orchestra and solo string quartet

Since the Death of Henry Purcell in 1664, England's glory had been swallowed up by the overwhelming gifts of adopted sons like Handel and Haydn, and later in the wave of German romanticism that so dominated the world. British composers were moved to little more than imitation, and only Edward Elgar's progressive genius brought about anything of lasting value. But all that changed with the pioneering work of Cecil Sharp who spent his life tracking down and collecting authentic English folk music. It was now possible for a new generation of composers to take back the unique voice which had been wrested from them, and return to the heritage that had once made England the envy of other nations. The stage had been set, and into the scene stepped the man who is now largely credited with bringing about England's second renaissance, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Vaughan Williams was, himself, active as a collector of folk songs and English carols, which he transcribed and published in several volumes. He was dedicated to the ideal that music should spring from life experiences, tradition and history. He wrote, “Art, like charity, should begin at home. If a composer's work is to be of any value it must grow out of the very life of himself, the community in which he lives, and the nation to which he belongs.”

So the native music of England became Vaughan Williams' life's blood, and he soon found a way to absorb its melodic richness and modal harmonic language into works of powerful strength and originality. But it didn't catch on overnight.

In 1910, Vaughan Williams was still a largely unknown composer who had written little more than songs and chamber music. But on September 6 th of that year he was given the opportunity to conduct the premier of his groundbreaking orchestral work, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis . Most of those present at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral that night were there for the sole purpose of seeing Edward Elgar conduct his extremely popular Dream of Gerontius , and the 39-year-old Vaughan Williams was delaying it. Few could have been ready for the startlingly unique masterpiece that unfolded before them. Its sounds must have seemed strange, even bizarre to listeners not yet exposed to the traditional folk elements that would, as the new century progressed, become second nature to them. As it turned out, the Tallis Fantasia would be the first in a long line of compositions that would soon catapult their composer to international prominence.

The Fantasia has become one of Vaughan Williams most popular works, and brings together all of the elements of his mature style. The theme that is at the root of the music is taken from the English Hymnal , which Vaughan Williams edited, and which had occupied two very constructive years of his life. The composer casts the work for strings alone, but in keeping with English choral traditions, splits them into three groups: a large string orchestra, a small string orchestra and a string quartet, and instructs that the groups be separated whenever the performance venue permits.

The work is not so much variations on the theme as a musical commentary inspired by it. Vaughan Williams takes portions of the theme and offsets them in various ways skillfully manipulating the three different string textures to create a remarkable variety of sounds. Here it seems as though all of the passion and beauty of England's glory days has been stored up and released in concentrated bursts throughout the three sections of the piece creating a distinctively personal, almost ethereal statement. Its almost alarming loveliness and grace leave the listener in awe.

Following its first performance, the English critic J. Fuller Maitland said, “This Fantasia cannot be assigned to a time or a school, but it is full of visions which have haunted the seers of all times. We can recall no piece of pure instrumental music produced at a Three Choirs Festival which has seemed to belong to its surroundings so entirely as does this one.”