Issuu

ISSUU version for perusal only

Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

J. Curwen & Sons

ISSUU version for perusal only

Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

J. Curwen & Sons

ISSUU version for perusal only

All rights for United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Jamaica and South Africa administered by Faber Music Limited. Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA

Exclusively licensed to J. Curwen & Sons Limited, 14-15 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ for the World excluding the countries mentioned above Rights transferred to G. Schirmer Limited, 14-15 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ

Music processed by Cotswold Music Typesetting

Permission to perform this work in public must be obtained from the Society duly controlling performing rights unless there is a current licence for public performance from the Society in force in relation to the premises at which the performance is to take place. Such permission must be obtained in the UK from Performing Right Society Ltd, 29–33 Berners Street, London W1P 4AA

The first performance was given by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ralph Vaughan Williams, in Gloucester Cathedral on 6 September 1910

Duration: c.15 minutes

Orchestral parts available on hire from the publishers

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PERFORMANCE NOTE

The Second Orchestra consists of:

Violin I – 2 players

Violin II – 2 players

Viola – 2 players

Cello – 2 players

Double bass – 1 player

These should be taken from the 3rd desk of each group (or, in the case of the double bass, by the 1st player of the 2nd desk) and should, if possible, be placed apart from the First Orchestra. If this is not practical, they should play sitting in their normal places. The solo parts are to be played by the leader in each group.

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INTRODUCTION

Thomas Tallis’s theme is the third of nine psalm tunes that he contributed in 1567 to Archbishop Parker’s Psalter (which was suppressed from publication). A Phrygian (Third) Mode tune, it was set to the words:

Whyfum’thinfighttheGentiles’spite,infuryragingstout? Whytak’thinhandthepeoplefond,vainthingstobringabout? TheKingsarise,theLordsdevise,incounselsmetthereto, AgainsttheLordwithfalseaccord,againsthisChristtheygo.

It is not known for certain when Vaughan Williams first came across this noble melody, with its subtle harmonies, but he used it in TheEnglishHymnal (1906) where it appears as No. 92 set to the verses by Joseph Addison which begin ‘When, rising from the bed of death’. He returned to it in 1906 when he appears to have used and elaborated the tune in the incidental music he wrote for a dramatisation of Bunyan’s ThePilgrim’sProgressperformed at Reigate. Unfortunately this section of the music, which accompanied the entrance of Christian, is now a gap in the manuscript at the British Library. It is to be presumed that Vaughan Williams removed it in order to have it by him when, in 1909–10, after his concentrated studies with Maurice Ravel, he again returned to it in a work for two string orchestras, one larger than the other, and solo string quartet. To this he gave the title Fantasia , a form with which he was much occupied at this time – the FantasiaonEnglishFolkSong , performed that same year and then withdrawn, the Fantasia on Christmas Carolsand the PhantasyQuintet all date from 1912.

Vaughan Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the first performance of the Tallis Fantasia at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral on 6 September 1910. The story has often been told of the two young composers Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney who, like the majority of the audience, had gone to hear Elgar conduct his The Dream of Gerontiusbut were so impressed by the new work that, unable to sleep, they walked the streets of Gloucester for much of the night.

Among the critics, only J. A. Fuller Maitland of TheTimes shared their enthusiasm and went to the heart of the matter in his review. Describing the Fantasia as ‘wonderful’, he added ‘It seems to lift one into some unknown region of thought and feeling . . . One is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new. It cannot be assigned to a time or 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 Fantasia . . . ’

This apart, the work was not at first recognised as the seminal masterpiece it is, with echoes in many of Vaughan Williams’s later works, in particular ThePilgrim’sProgress . (For example, it was not recorded until the late 1930s.) The second performance was not until 11 February 1913 in London. For this, Vaughan Williams made some revisions amounting to cuts of nineteen bars. (Although the work seems to flow so freely and spontaneously, it in fact cost Vaughan Williams considerable effort.) On his return in 1919 from war service, he revised the score for publication, deleting the fourteen-bar repetition of Tallis’s theme which occurred after letter U (letter V in the present edition). Together with the revised (slightly faster) metronome marking, this reduced the length of the work to 14 minutes from the original 19 in Gloucester. In its sublime beauty and inspired writing for strings, it remains one of Vaughan Williams’s greatest works and his first indisputable masterpiece.

Largo sostenuto

pp molto sostenuto unis. pp div.

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FANTASIA

a Theme by Thomas Tallis

pp molto sostenuto unis.

pp molto sostenuto unis., pizz. p molto pesante

pesante div.

pp molto sostenuto unis., pizz. p molto pesante

pesante last desk pp molto sostenuto

sostenuto

Largo sostenuto

pp molto sostenuto unis. pp div.

pp molto sostenuto unis., pizz.

unis., pizz. p pesante div.

p molto pesante

pp molto sostenuto unis., pizz.

p molto pesante

unis., pizz. p pesante

pp molto sostenuto pizz. p molto pesante p div.

unis.

molto espr. arco div. unis., pizz.

arco

molto espr.

Violin

Viola

Cello

Double

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f appassionato ten.

pp div.

f appassionato

f appassionato ten. div.

f appassionato ten.

f appassionato ten. div.

I. last desk, (div.) pp

pp unis. cresc.

f appassionato ten.

pp div. arco * pp cresc. unis. f appassionato ten.

* The double bass in Orchestra II always plays the upper division

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sord.

ISSUU version for perusal only

gli altri, unis. p 3 div. p 3 3 (solo)

pp le altre, div. p 3 tutti, div. p 3 p 3

unis., senza sord.

pp espr. ten. p 3 unis., senza sord.

pp espr. ten. div. p 3 3 senza sord.

pp espr. ten. div. p 3 unis., senza sord.

pp espr. ten. div. p 3 senza sord. p espr. 3 (solo)

ISSUU version for perusal only

pochettino rit.

ISSUU version for perusal only

(solo) p espr. pp dolce

p pp pizz. pp

(solo) p espr. pp dolce

p pp pizz. pp (solo) p espr. pp dolce

pochettino rit.

M M q = 80 q = 80

p pp pizz. pp (solo) p espr. pp dolce (tutti gli altri) p pp pizz. pp p pp pizz. pp

ancora più animato ancora più animato

p pp p ten.

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ff sempre unis.

sord.

Vln 1

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Vln 2 Vla

Vc.

Db.

V V Tempo del principio Tempo del principio q = 56 q = 56

p sostenuto gli altri, pp sur la touche ppp sur la touche pp ppp solo solo p sostenuto 3

le altre pizz.

p molto pesante arco, sur la touche pp ppp unis., pizz.

p molto pesante pp pizz.

p molto pesante pp senza sord. sur la touche

Vln 1

Vln 2

Vla

ppp senza sord. sur la touche

ppp senza sord.pizz. pp senza sord.pizz. pp

Vln 2

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ORCH. I 227

Vln 1

tutti div. a 2

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molto rit.

f sostenuto ff solo p espr. pp ff pppp

f sostenuto ff gli altri, unis. p ff pppp

Vln 2

Vla

f sostenuto ff solo p ff pppp tutti div. a 2

f sostenuto ff gli altri, unis. p ff pppp

f sostenuto ff solo p ff pppp tutti div. a 2

f sostenuto ff le altre, div. p ff pppp

Vc. Db.

ORCH. II

Vln 1

f sostenuto ff solo p ff pppp tutti div. a 2

f sostenuto ff gli altri, div. p ff pppp

f sostenuto ff p ff pppp

molto rit.

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp div.

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp

Vln 2

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp div.

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp

Vla

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp div.

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp div.

f sostenuto ff pp ppp ff pppp