Classical Works Spotlight #330--Vaughan Williams

[erik]

A genre that many an English composer during the 20th century has excelled yet is a work scored solely for string orchestra. Such is the case of the work in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.

Vaughan Williams: FANTASIA ON A THEME OF THOMAS TALLIS

Throughout his long and distinguished career as one of the greatest composers to come from England during the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams was quite well known for composing works that were either inspired by the music of the extremely distant past or from his native country’s endless treasure trove of folk music. In the case of one of his most famous works, the Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis, he went back to basically the Elizabethan period, specifically a theme composed by Tallis back in 1567, specifically for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. The work, which normally lasts an average of fifteen minutes in length, is scored for a fairly substantial orchestra of string instruments in three parts: one, the full string orchestra; two, singular desk players from each section of the orchestra; and three, a string quartet. The composer’s intent was to make this configuration resemble an organ in sound, with the string quartet representing the “swell” division, the first desk players the “choir” division, and the full string orchestra the “great” division. Although he initially composed the work in 1910, he did revise it into its final shape in 1919; and it is in this final version that the world knows it today. Next to the similar Fantasia On “Greensleeves”, the Tallis Fantasia is easily the most recognized of Vaughan Williams’ works the world over, having achieved fame through dozens of recordings, as well as its use in the 2003 film epic Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World.



Philadelphia Orchestra/EUGENE ORMANDY (RCA)

Included:
Holst: THE PLANETS (with the women’s voices of the Mendelssohn Glee Club of Philadelphia)
Vaughan Williams: FANTASIA ON “GREENSLEEVES”

[egoodstein]

A very lovely work, and his use of strings is quite amazing really as you outline-- particularly at the time for what was a 'traditional/early music' theme. VW's appreciation and transformation of this older music I think was critical in its time for keeping alive an appreciation of such 'pre-Bach' fare. And even more for English older music. And yet he was very contemporary in his style, sounds and concerns too (if ok, perhaps justly labelled a late Romantic of sorts), not to mention poetic and 'tone poem' kind of approach at times. I had forgotten this theme was used for Master and Commander. Nice it has some more current application. VW is often a very fine composer in general, with interesting orchestration and arranging skills. I cam't recall this recording, but I imagine Ormandy/Phila. Orch with their great ability/emphasis on strings do great justice to it.

[erik]

Its popularity shows also that Vaughan Williams' popularity as a composer spread well beyond England and across the Atlantic here to the U.S. in the first quarter of the 20th century. It is a work that is well suited to the Philadelphia Orchestra, since the orchestra's sound is grounded in their string section, honed first by Stokowski, and then accelerated by Ormandy. This particular recording was made almost forty-five years ago to the date (May 6, 1970), and it does not show any diminution in Ormandy's approach during his final decade on the podium there.