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Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
To lovers of modern classical music, the name Thomas Tallis is probably most recognizable from the title of the early 20th century orchestral work Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams didn’t just borrow a psalm setting by the English Renaissance composer--he also used a popular instrumental genre of the 16th and 17th centuries: the fantasia. This hour, we’ll explore this foot-loose and fancy-free musical form and its use during Tallis’ lifetime, including music by Thomas Tomkins, William Byrd, and more. / Plus, our featured release is the viol consort Fretwork’s 2022 recording of fantasias by Thomas Lupo.
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Thomas Tallis: The Complete Works - Volume 6: Music for a Reformed Church
Chapelle du Roi; Alistair Dixon, director
Signum Classics 2003 / SIGCD022
Thomas Tallis
Tr.22 Remember not, O Lord God (expanded version) (4:34)
Alistair Dixon directed Chapelle du Roi in a performance of the anthem “Remember not, O Lord God” by Thomas Tallis from their recording of the complete works of Thomas Tallis, volume 6. This early Anglican work is written in English, reflecting the commitment of Protestant reformers to the use of vernacular language in worship. / The text is drawn from The book of Common Prayer, published in 1549.
The genre of the fantasia was associated with English music long before Vaughan Williams. In fact, by using this genre and borrowing a tune from Tallis, he was linking himself to a golden age of English instrumental and vocal polyphony.
The musical term fantasia comes from the word fantasy, which has to do with imagination, invention, and freedom. In instrumental music, where there is no text for a point of reference, imagination and invention comes into play in different ways. Many fantasias of the 16th century use a series of points of imitation, passing a short melody from one voice to the next and reworking that theme extensively before repeating the same process with the next idea. Seventeenth-century French theorist Marin Mersenne wrote that in the genre of the fantasia, a composer was [quote] “free to employ whatever inspiration comes to him, without expressing the passion of any text.”
Grant the King a long life: English anthems & instrumental music
Fretwork
Obsidian 2012 / OBSID-CD708
Thomas Weelkes
Tr.18 Weelkes: Fantasia for 2 Basses (1:30)
Consort music for viols and voices; Keyboard music
Rose Consort of Viols
Naxos 1995 / 8.550602 Naxos
Thomas Tomkins
Tr.8 Tomkins: Hexachord Fantasia: Ut re mi (6:40)
Fretwork played Fantasia for 2 Basses by Thomas Weelkes followed by the Rose Consort of Viols performing “Hexachord fantasia: ut re mi” by Thomas Tomkins.
English fantasias focused on having diverse melodies as the subjects of different sections. Late sixteenth-century musician Thomas Morley defined the fantasia as [quote]:
"[The] chiefest kind of musicke which is made without a dittie’ as when a musician taketh a point at his pleasure, and wresteth and turneth it as he list, making either much or little of it as shall seeme best in his own conceit. In this way more art is showne [then in any other musicke, because the composer is tide to nothing but that he may adde, deminish, and alter at his pleasure …. Other thinges you may use at your pleasure, as bindings with discordes, quicke motions, slow motions, proportions, and what you list. Likewise, this kind of musick is with them who practise instruments of parts in greatest use, but for voices it is but sildome used." [end quote]
This definition of Thomas Morley’s was copied by theorists throughout the seventeenth century. The fantasia continued in a similar style through the end of the seventeenth century before combining with elements of other forms. Late seventeenth-century composers like Henry Purcell continued many traditions from the 16th century fantasia including the diversity of musical themes.
The complete fantazias / Purcell
Fretwork
Harmonia Mundi USA 2009 / HMU 907502
Henry Purcell
Tr.7 Fantazia VII (3:36)
Tr.5 Fantazia V (4:10)
Henry Purcell’s Fantasia VII and Fantasia V for four parts performed by viol consort Fretwork.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
Mid Break Music Bed:
Fantasias, pavans & galliards: music by Bull, Byrd & Gibbons
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord and virginal
Decca 1993 / 00028948311415
Thomas Morley
Tr.5 Morley: Fantasia (excerpt of 5:35)
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Welcome back! We’re listening to fantasias written in the Renaissance around the lifetime of English composer Thomas Tallis. Ironically, despite Tallis’s name being forever linked with Vaughn Williams “Fantasia on a Tune by Thomas Tallis,” Tallis himself has few surviving works titled fantasia or fantasy. However, his compositions do often feature characteristics shared with fantasias, such as imitation or variations on a succession of short melodic motives.
Keyboard works: complete
Rachelle Taylor
ATMA Classique 2005 / 00722056619424 ATMA Classique
Thomas Tallis
Tr.15 Tallis: Fantasy (2:27)
Tr.11 Tallis: Poyncte for the Virginals (0:51)
Tr.13 Tallis: Gloria tibi Trinitas (1:17)
Harpsichordist Rachelle Taylor performed Tallis’s “Fantasy,” switching to the organ for Tallis’s “Poyncte for Virginals” and “Gloria Tibi Trinitas.”
Tallis did write in a genre related to the fantasia — a contrapuntal genre for consort called the in nominee that uses a cantus firmus based on the chant tune Gloria Tibi Trinitas, which is sung by one voice in long held notes. The other parts imitate each other, creating a fantasia-like texture around the slow-moving part. The tradition originated from a section of a mass composed by 16th-century composer John Taverner and continued through the time of Purcell.
Four temperaments
Phantasm
Avie 2005 / AV2054 (alt. Linn Records 2014 BKD 487)
Thomas Tallis
Tr.11 In nomine I a 4 (2:13)
Tr.04 In nomine II a 4 (1:50)
Robert Parsons
Tr.05 In nomine III a 5 (1:47)
William Byrd: consort songs by William Byrd and his contemporaries
Il Concerto delle Viole
Olive Music 2005 / 5425008379821
William Byrd
Tr.15 In Nomine a 4 (2:47)
Il Concerto delle Viole, with William Byrd’s In Nomine [for] 4. Before that, the ensemble Phantasm performed three 16th-century In nomine compositions: two by Thomas Tallis and one by Robert Parsons.
Tallis lived during a time of great political and religious change in England. He worked under several Tudor monarchs in the Chapel Royal, and each responded to the Reformation differently— from Henry VIII splitting with the catholic church, to Edward VI who instituted ideas of Protestant reforms, to Mary I who reinforced Catholicism, and to Elizabeth I who was nominally Anglican, but in music at her court combined elements of Protestant and Catholic practices. (Elizabeth still patronized some Catholic composers like William Byrd.)
It created a lot of extra work to change language and style to fit the needs of the shifting preferences. In Tallis’ surviving manuscripts, we can see how he recycled work to fit these new requirements. For instance, he transformed material from instrumental fantasias into vocal works like his motets: O sacrum convivium and Salvator mundi.
Four gentlemen of the Chapel Royal
Rose Consort of Viols
Deux-Elles 2008 / DXL 1129
Thomas Tallis
Tr.1 Salvator mundi (2:36)
Tr.2 O sacrum convivium (3:11)
The Rose Consort of Viols performed two fantasia-like vocal works by Thomas Tallis: Salvator mundi and O sacrum convivium.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
Our featured recording this hour is an album of fantasias by Thomas Lupo, released by viol consort Fretwork in 2022. Lupo’s mother was a member of the Bassano family, a celebrated group of Sephardic Jewish musicians from Venice, several of whom had ended up playing for the English court, in the royal string ensembles and in other musical roles. Most of Thomas Lupo’s surviving music consists of chamber music for viol consort in two to six parts, including 71 fantasias.
Thomas Lupo Fantasias for Viols
Fretwork
Signum Classics 2022 / SIGCD716
Thomas Lupo
Tr.2 Lupo: Fantasia a 3 No. 24 (2:01)
Tr.18 Lupo: Fantasia a 6 No. 10 (3:41)
Tr.4 Lupo: Fantasia a 6 No. 8 (4:03)
Three fantasias by Thomas Lupo – No. 24 in three parts, and two 6-part fantasias, No. 10 and No.8. played by Fretwork on our featured recording, the 2022 Signum Classics release Thomas Lupo Fantasias for Viols.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia is Devon Nelson.
Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.
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