OLD BECOMING NEW AGAIN: A FORM-FUNCTION AND NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’ 'FANTASIA ON A THEME OF THOMAS TALLIS'
type: CreativeWork
description: Ralph Vaughan Williams, a leading figure in the early twentieth-century movement to preserve traditional English music, composed Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis as a tribute to his love of Tudor music and English folksong. The piece is based on a psalm setting by Thomas Tallis, known as the Third Mode Melody, which features the Phrygian mode. Vaughan Williams discovered this theme while researching for the new English Hymnal. A brief history of the Tallis theme, along with an exploration of Vaughan Williams' education and early endeavors as a composer, are critical to understanding the Fantasia's historical and musical context. This study analyzes the overall form of the Fantasia, with particular focus on two key transitional sections and their various interpretations by other analysts. It presents a new analysis of the piece alongside previous scholarly interpretations. The study also examines the musical sentence structure of the Fantasia and its impact on the form, as well as the role of musical narrative in shaping dramatic tension through the use of diverse modalities. These shifts in tension are analyzed using narrative curves, which are explored in detail within the context of the work.
abstract: Ralph Vaughan Williams, a leading figure in the early twentieth-century movement to preserve traditional English music, composed Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis as a tribute to his love of Tudor music and English folksong. The piece is based on a psalm setting by Thomas Tallis, known as the Third Mode Melody, which features the Phrygian mode. Vaughan Williams discovered this theme while researching for the new English Hymnal. A brief history of the Tallis theme, along with an exploration of Vaughan Williams' education and early endeavors as a composer, are critical to understanding the Fantasia's historical and musical context. This study analyzes the overall form of the Fantasia, with particular focus on two key transitional sections and their various interpretations by other analysts. It presents a new analysis of the piece alongside previous scholarly interpretations. The study also examines the musical sentence structure of the Fantasia and its impact on the form, as well as the role of musical narrative in shaping dramatic tension through the use of diverse modalities. These shifts in tension are analyzed using narrative curves, which are explored in detail within the context of the work.
author: Sager, Aileen E
keywords: form, sentence, narrative, curve, modality, fantasia, bridge, Composition, Musicology, Music Theory
date published: 2024-12-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:30:45Z
provider: Stephen F. Austin State University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Stephen F. Austin State University