Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes
| Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes | |
|---|---|
| Fantasia by Grace Williams | |
| Composed | 1940 |
| Published | 1956 |
| Recorded | |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 29 October 1941 |
| Conductor | Eric Fogg |
| Performers | BBC Northern Orchestra |
The Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes is a composition for symphonic orchestra, based on traditional Welsh nursery tunes and lullabies, composed by Grace Williams in 1940. Although not typical of Williams' work it brought her to prominence and is the composer's most popular work.
I had a thorough grounding in Welsh airs and Welsh folk songs when I was a child and teenager, and they found their way into some very early works, now withdrawn, and of course into the Fantasia.
The orchestration includes the harp to add a Welsh flavour and percussion to evoke memories of childhood.
It is not clear when Williams started to compose the Fantasia but Benjamin Britten records a meeting with Williams to discuss "her new Welsh variations" on 24 March 1938. Williams claimed that "I tossed it off (i.e. the sketch of it) in an evening" – in a letter to Idris Lewis (musical director of British International Pictures) in June 1942. The last page of the score is annotated "Feb 9th 1940".
The Fantasia may have been modelled on Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs, or the fantasias on folk tunes by Vaughan-Williams, Williams' teacher, where a number of familiar tunes are joined with original music.
The work lasts about 11 minutes and is in one movement using eight Welsh tunes. The beginning and end use the quicker tunes which frame a middle section which uses the slower, wistful tunes. Each tune is stated and discussed, and followed by a transition into the next tune. The work finishes with a return to the initial theme. The tunes, in order, are:
The Fantasia starts at a lively pace (allegro vivo) with the tune (Jim Cro) played on the trumpet. The trumpet, now muted, introduces Deryn y Bwn (the rhythm of the original tune is adapted to match that of Jim Cro).Migildi, Magildi starts on the glockenspiel (one bar), then the strings (one bar), the glockenspiel again (one bar), and strings again (one bar), before the oboe completes the tune.
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