Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Other Works for Orchestra in Full Score

by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Thomas Tallis

The music of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) continues to enjoy great popularity around the world. Indeed, the title piece of this collection is one of the most widely performed and recorded compositions in the modern era. Now the complete score of the Fantasia, which was inspired by a melody that originated with the Renaissance-era composer Thomas Tallis, is available in this inexpensive collection.
Additional selections include the frequently performed Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1, Overture to "The Wasps," and the Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Highlighted by the great Tallis piece, this excellent and representative collection is reproduced from authoritative early editions and offers an important addition to the score collections of all lovers of fine music.

176 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 1999

About the author

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social outlook. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–1908 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music and free it from Teutonic influences.

Vaughan Williams is among the best-known English symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914). His vocal works include hymns, folk-song arrangements and large-scale choral pieces. He wrote eight works for stage performance between 1919 and 1951. Although none of his operas became popular repertoire pieces, his ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930) was successful and has been frequently staged.