Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis 

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958)

Inspired by a sixteenth-century psalm chant, Ralph Vaughan Williams merged old with new in his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and created a lush, layered composition for string orchestra, a smaller ensemble of nine (string nonet), and a string quartet. Vaughan Williams was commissioned to compose a piece for the 1910 Three Choirs Festival, an annual choral music festival in England. He had been exploring variations on a tune from a 1567 work by Thomas Tallis he discovered (Why Fum’th in Fight?) while editing the English Hymnal (1906). It is composed in the Phrygian mode, which consists of intervals of a flat second, third, sixth, and seventh.

The use of multiple ensembles creates distinct voices that alternate, echo, and sometimes merge. From the three ensembles, different textures come to light, creating a soundscape with more depth and richness than Vaughan Williams’ earlier works, even those composed for larger ensembles. The theme is first introduced after a series of delicate chords lay the foundation for the pizzicato in the low strings to hint at the melody and lead into the first phase of the piece. There is a gradual and vast expansion on the chant-like theme with alternating voices between the three ensembles, overlaid with shimmering tremolos and soaring arpeggios. In the second phase, the three ensembles take turns picking apart the melody, speaking and responding with fragments from the original theme and then converging with dramatic intensity. Finally, the third phase features solo voices from the string quartet, eventually engaging the nonet and full orchestra before coming to an end with chords reminiscent of the opening.  

In 1908, Vaughan Williams traveled to France to study orchestration with Maurice Ravel, and it was shortly after this period of study that his style evolved into this more sophisticated delicacy in sound and texture. Ravel’s influence is evident in the Fantasia as a colorful soundscape that brings High Renaissance choral music into a new light. As one reviewer wrote after Vaughan Williams debuted the piece with the London Symphony Orchestra, “One is living in two centuries at once … Throughout its course one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new. The work is wonderful because it seems to lift one into some unknown regions of musical thought and feeling.” – Jennifer Reid

About the Ciompi Quartet

Since its founding in 1965 by the renowned Italian violinist Giorgio Ciompi, the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University has delighted audiences and impressed critics around the world. All its members are professors at Duke, where they teach instrumental lessons, coordinate and coach chamber music, and perform across campus in concert halls, libraries, dormitories and classrooms. In a career that spans five continents and includes many hundreds of concerts, the Ciompi Quartet has developed a reputation for performances of real intelligence and musical sophistication, with a warm, unified sound that allows each player’s individual voice to emerge.

In recent years, the Ciompi Quartet has performed from Washington State to California, Texas, New York, Washington DC and New England, and abroad from China to France, Italy, Germany, Prague, Serbia and Albania. In the summer the Quartet has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit, North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival and Highlands Chamber Music Festival, and at Monadnock Music in New Hampshire.

The Quartet’s commitment to creative programming often mixes the old and the brand new in exciting ways. Its extensive catalog of commissions includes many that the group continues to perform on tour. Close ties to composers such as Paul Schoenfield, Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth, and Melinda Wagner have produced important contributions to the repertoire; the quartet recently premiered Stephen Jaffe’s Third String Quartet and two new quintets by Lindroth: Schley Road for quartet and saxophone and his Cello Quintet, written for the Ciompi Quartet and cellist Ashley Bathgate. The group’s most recent recordings are on Toccata Classics (a string quartet by 19th-century violin virtuoso Heinrich Ernst) and Naxos, which released Journey to the West by Chiayu Hsu in 2015; also on Naxos online is a recording of the quartets of Paul Schoenfield, including the popular Tales from Chelm. Numerous other discs are on the CRI, Arabesque, Albany, Gasparo, and Sheffield Lab labels, with music from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, up through the present.

Read more at https://ciompi.org/.