Classical Composer: | Vaughan Williams, Ralph |
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Work: | Phantasy Quintet |
Year Composed: | 1912 |
Instrumentation: | 2vn, 2va, vc |
Publisher: | Stainer & Bell |
Duration: | 00:16:00 |
Period: | 20th Century |
Work Category: | Chamber Music |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
The Phantasy Quintet, scored for string quartet and a second viola, was written in 1912 and first performed at the Aeolian Hall in London in March 1914 by the London Quartet, led by Albert Sammons, with James Lockyer as second viola. It was dedicated to the quartet and to William Wilson Cobbett, the music patron who had established awards to encourage the composition of 'phantasies', a word that suggested the traditional viola consort fantasies of an earlier period of English music, and had invited the composition. The quintet consists of four short movements. The first viola starts the opening Prelude with thematic material of pentatonic outline, to be answered by the first violin. The viola ends the movement, immediately followed by the Scherzo, with its asymmetrical rhythm and ostinato in textures that seem at times reminiscent of Ravel. The cello, which had started the movement, completes it, before the AlIa Sarabanda, scored for muted instruments without the cello, which returns to begin the final Burlesca, with its echoes of folk-song and reminiscences of the first movement, before a final ascent to the ethereal heights.
Writer: Keith Anderson
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