Conductor: Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia Orchestra
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Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, also known as the Tallis Fantasia, is a work for string orchestra by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It was composed in 1910, and performed for the first time in September of that year at Gloucester Cathedral for the Three Choirs Festival. Vaughan Williams himself was the conductor on this occasion, and the composition proved to be a major success.
He revised the work twice, in 1913 and 1919. Performances of the work generally run between 14 and 16 minutes.
The work takes its name from the original composer of the melody, Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585). Vaughan Williams took much inspiration from music of the English Renaissance and many of his works are associated with or inspired by the music of this period. In 1906 Vaughan Williams included Tallis's Third Mode Melody in the English Hymnal, which he was then editing, as the melody for Joseph Addison's hymn When Rising from the Bed of Death. The tune is in Double Common Meter (D.C.M. or C.M.D.)
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
