Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Pt.2.

[nikwik2]

No words can do this brilliant music justice

[Axxrat]

OMG, just realised how short a human life is.... do stuff now, while you can.

[windstorm1000]

Great composer with a great heart---and you get the feeling, looking at his photos, that his life was touched with more than a bit of sadness--one reason perhaps why he was able to create this music from the heart.

[BradBrassman]

Vaughn Williams is, dare i say it, even more England than Elgar.

[3tangle3]

@BradBrassman he wrote welsh music pieces as well,, and his name vaughan williams - vaughan is from the welsh fachan ;) lol...he was very close to the welsh border so he wasnt heart of england origin....but I know what you are saying as imo hes nothing like the continent musicians

Lark ascending is his most english piece about the ridgeway in the chilterns

[rgadave]

This always reminds me of my home county of Shropshire (before Telford of course).

[MamaPalma]

This is THE most wonderful piece of music man has ever composed.

[mandarinlearner]

This is magnificent. I wish someone had the technology to clean up the sound on the recording a bit.

[lloydlover1313]

when i played this in orchestra at s.c.p.a. I felt so alive and have yet to experience such a feeling to that degree...

[furDaLuLz]

deeply moving...

[EinkOLED]

I heard this live at liverpool Philharmonic, I went there especially to hear this and was not disapointed.

Reminds of the ribble valley countryside where I used to live, nothing but the power and beauty of nature can describe this song, beautiful.

[cloudhopperable]

It was not written by a normal Earthmen. It was written By an Englishman and an Eccentric...Enjoy

[NYPrincessss]

This song is just too amazing for words! 

[gpx897]

This composition is so cool they used it in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe. Actual track is over 15 minutes long.

[davidpar2]

i love that this music sound "does not come from" the era in which it was composed

[link955NH]

The first time I heard this I felt transported to another world. I remember thinking "Earth people don't write music like this."

[gdsvalentine]

Hush now, just listen to something very, very special. Do you feel it?

[hatedcheerleader]

dear god, when i die i want them to play this its all encompassing sadness and love and it is love

[briefboyz]

Astounding.

If a man can create this what other good are we capable of?

[tokaicarl]

what an amazing man to produce such magnificence

[RemovdSande11]

wow, I just followed this with the score... and I am deeply.. deeply impressed with this man. His counterpoint/rhytm writing is off the highest level. Now I HAVE to study him!

[KittyPingo]

@RemovdSande11 Yeah, in my string orchestra we have started to play this. I lead the seconds in orchestra 1. I love the strong bit at the begining where we (the seconds) do that long arpeggio sequence. It makes my heart weep. Beautifull... :)

[RemovdSande11]

what a true master _O_ Wish I could get orchestration lessons from this musical maestro.

I can tell where James Newton Howard got his style from (btw) ^^

[owenlawman]

If you can't FEEL this.....you're dead inside...

[xwsftassell]

@owenlawman Yeah, perfect litmus test, you might say.

[artstudent07]

@xwsftassell This sort of thing keeps one a life in side.

[mmp0625]

@owenlawman Well feeling it in the audience with 300 or so other people is nothing to compared to my experience of playing this with 90 fellow musicians on stage, there is this indescribable vibe of energy onstage that the audience just doesn't get.

[Baggerseeradio1]

Schmerzhaft schön...

[jonhedge]

Brilliant I love this Piece also Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus by RVF

[usblueflyer]

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PIECE!! Learned of it from the film "Master and Commander". Bought the Vaughn Williams Box Set just after!  WHAT A BRILLIANT COMPOSER! I''ve found SO many MORE pieces that I can NOT live without!! WHAT A FANTASTIC POSTING!! THANX!!!!

[frets4life17]

Thank you.

[vla2baradanikto]

Part deux

[dboviola]

Hello xwsftassell,

Can you provide some information on this wonderful performance? Conductor? Orchestra? Recorded when and where? Thanks.

[xwsftassell]

Sir John Barbirolli. Sinfonia of London. 1962. Knight's Templar church. Temple, London, as suggested to Barbirolli by Bernard Herrmann, who insisted: "it must be done in a stone building not a studio".

According to Ursula Vaughan Williams: "Coats and bags and thermos flasks were piled round the effigies of Crusader Knights. Benny was there, listening to the balance, listening to the music, and the resulting record is by far the best ever made of the work."

[plugginmuffin]

By chance would you know where I could find this song? Did you take it off of a cd? And if so would be so kind to tell me such cd, I've been looking for a good copy of this song with it's full length. Thank you for uploading this. <3

[NemoProkofiev551]

It's...so beautiful!!!

Oh my hsog, I think I'm going to cry now.

[jsgigman]

Greetings xwsftassell - I bless the day you uploaded parts 1 and 2 of this most beautiful music - I love the RVW images also! Without wishing to sound like a youtube geek I`m intrigued by the fact that the second part has only a quarter of the first part`s viewing numbers. I can`t imagine not clicking through to the second part as soon as the first part is complete...I suppose some people just dip in and then exit - no accounting for poor taste!! Thanks again!!

[Andyok87]

I could listen to 1.00 to 3.10 on loop for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.

[Caracalla23]

Exquisite.

[Caracalla23]

@pakleglia Master and Commander??? But I couldn't agree with you more paklegia when I first heard this more than 30 years ago it evoked standing on a beach in a storm.

[marieclaudenivot1950]

quelle musique romantique xws fassell intuitivement je devrais te comprendre but i don't speak english sorry if you want iwould be glad for a translation

[drhoobad]

Waves, eh? Well, that's soothing, and maybe I'm not the perfect person to be transfixed by the ocean, but I think of what the world was like before the Fall of Man.

[48squinnav]

A celebration of life, of renewal and awakening.

[ceebass]

Best...picardy third....ever....

[MacavitysCat]

Utterly divine music - does it get any better? I want this to be played at my funeral.

[ceebass]

I was just thinking that, and then I scrolled and saw your comment.

[71259mark]

@MacavitysCat , Do you have a date for that, yet?

[rgadave]

Brings tears to my eyes every time. True beauty in melody.

[BarbaraPloyer333]

No other piece of music can possibly be as sublime or as powerful as this.... you can feel it surrounding you- sound and only sound- nothing more....

It is music with true feeling- true emotion. Who cares about what is popular- it is music that flows from the heart... from the soul--- I believe that if you are to play or write music it is to be what flows from you soul. It was so with RVW- what he composed flowed from his soul, thus it is he that was a true composer.

[reptilesforever99]

@BarbaraPloyer333 That is too true!

[BarbaraPloyer333]

This is the most beautiful music ever written... I ran into this exact recording a year ago and I must admit, no other piece of music is so powerful,sublime or beautiful. This is music indeed!!!!! REAL music..

[fancyflier]

It is indeed, to listen to it makes me feel as if, somehow, a sunrise were burgeoning within my soul, the emotion of it is larger than my body can contain, thus, I invariably weep.

[ivanovitch57]

i'm weeping now, it stirs my emotions!

[frets4life17]

@ivanovitch57 Fantasia moves me more than any other classical music piece out there. Although Correli's Concerto Grosso in G minor is up there.

[HeyDufus]

@frets4life17 Another moving piece that you might listen to is Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings". Both are some of my favorites in the Classical music realm!

[frets4life17]

@HeyDufus I have listened to that. It is also one of my favorites.

[manthasagittarius]

@HeyDufus I would also suggest the slow movement of Mahler's sixth symphony, to move the spirit in very much the same way. Look for the performance by Claudio Abbado in live performance in Lucerne -- it's posted on youtube.

[BradBrassman]

If you think this is good listen to his, Lark Ascending, for more joy, and then symphony No 3 (Pastoral) in its entirety for real pleasure.

[3589546]

It really is, and I've heard virtually everything out there.

[beethomozart]

the intense lyrism and the rich and tender instrumental touching in this work is what make it famous worldwide, very pleasant theme by this british composer

[brianCIM]

words fail me. if you don't cry or at least get choked up at some point in this sublime piece of music ....i don't know....incredible, absolutely incredible piece

[englishrose47]

It`s currently being played on Classic FM

[englishrose47]

RVW`s passionate love for England is epitomised in his music. He would be heartbroken to see the England of today. (As are many of us)

[xwsftassell]

I vastly dislike having an Islington Council CCTV camera pointing at my front door 24 hours a day. I vastly dislike not being able to have a fag and a pint in the pub anymore. I vastly dislike having an array of cancer inducing mobile phone transmitters 200 yards away from my flat, if that's the kind of thing you mean?

[englishrose47]

Yes, all those, amongst many others. I`m old enough to remember the real England.

[BradBrassman]

What, you mean the patchwork of fields with their streams land little rivers ruined by agricultural change? The red-brick villages and market towns all ruined by the Town and Country planning acts in the late 60's. Anyone who wants to see what England was like in the 50's & 60's should visit Normandy and Villiers Bocage in France, where despite the devastation of two world wars, has not suffered anything like the damage that we have.

[englishrose47]

Yes, thta`s right, it makes you want to weep if you are old enough to remember the England of old.

[BradBrassman]

Bits of it are still intact. Most of Rutland, large parts of Leicestershire and Northants, Norfolk and Suffolk, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, the Cotswolds, and then....Oh, Lovely Shropshire, and the Wrekin. Rejoice Therefore!!!!!!!

[BriefEncounter1987]

the word genius gets thrown around a lot....however.... i dont think anyone will stop me from saying it here!!! PURE GENIUS! it makes u feel as though anythig is possible in life :D

[RockandRolRadio3]

I'll never forget the first time I heard this piece in its full majesty. About 5 years ago I was listening to all the hard core, heavy metal stuff and always listening to all the screaming stuff. And when I heard this, something struck a chord in my head. I had to stop and listen. This changed my music carrer for good. I've been listening to classical ever since and I owe it all to this song. I still love this song and listen to it all the time.

[fordeo1952]

I first heard Ralph Vaughn Williams, and specifically Fantasia on a Theme, in San Francisco in 1989. I don't ever remember a more beautiful piece in my life and I'm 56 years old.

[HarperLee55]

Soul Music. In it, I hear the vast & varied expansiveness of the land, the deep, swirling splendor of the water, & even the endless, timeless mystery of the sky & space. But at it's core is the human spirit, small, humble, in awe, overwhelmed, & ever extending itself outward towards that sublime connection to the natural world, & a state of grace.

#1 reason to love YouTube: the contact w/others who are similarly moved.

Peace.

[MacavitysCat]

It's amazing isn't it? I go through 48 years of life, blissfully unaware this piece existed, until the last week or so.

To say that I'm shell-shocked would be an understatement to say the least! It's left me emotionally exhausted; like others here I've weeped uncontrollably at some parts, particularly at 2:19 on part 1, where the music breaks into flowing waves. At other times I wonder, as another contributor has said, how any mortal could write such music.

The most perfect music ever.

[dcstudio]

how did you come upon this? did you watch Master and Commander and look up the score, perhaps.... :)

[fifirockefeller]

Hello. Your question was not directed to me; I'm just chiming in. I was watching theTudors on disc and Thomas Tallis was mentioned by name twice. I figured he must "be somebody" to be specifically introduced by name twice. Read info in Wikipedia, came here, and I have not heard this on my local classical station, WGUC in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Chalk up another fan . . . better late than never!

Many, many thanks!

[deadgirl17]

Nothing reminds me so much of the Cotswolds and my dear, departed Father. Thank you so much for posting.

[door2yourheart]

Maybe i should have said "lose yourself" regarding the daily detritus we endure. But "find yourself" by visiting the place that keeps us connected, grounded, sane and hopeful.

[door2yourheart]

As i said on part 1, one of my favourite ever pieces. Beautiful and sublime. Somewhere to lose yourself.

[EinkOLED]

Isn't 5:05 truly beautiful?

[cartstwo]

I believe this is the 1976 recording of Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic.

My favorite by far!

As previously stated- Sublime.

[xwsftassell]

No, it's actually Barbirolli with The Sinfonia of London. 1963.

[tingtwo]

I had not listened to that recording for approximately 20 years. I pulled it out and after hearing it again, I must admit it's beautiful. In a couple of key areas it doesn't measure up to Boult's in my opinion. I just received Ormandy's 1963 recording- equal to Barbirolli's (listening to it as I type.) Really nice!

thanks for the correction. I will listen to the CD first before I comment on a performance over the internet again.

[xwsftassell]

I think: The Boult one is a good all-rounder but misses the g-spot slightly on the 'climactic bit', whereas Barbirolli really gets that right. As regards recordings of the piece in general, they're all so different, because of the vast harmonic spectrum within it. It must have been fantastic to have heard it at it's opening at Gloucester Cathedral (although accounts from the time suggests that people were just confused by it).

[tingtwo]

That's interesting, that exactly where Boult's shines and the others I've heard either rush through or employ too much staccato. Thanks for the link, I had heard that about a week ago- it's always thrilling to read/hear about RVW and what other people have to say

[qskeptic]

Can you put the Barbirolli version up I need to convince my wife. She just bought VWs box set by Boult thinking it was the one ..........you know the rest.

[xwsftassell]

This is the Barbirolli one.

[qskeptic]

Many thanks!

I hope to play it to 500 schoolkids and change their lives.

[xwsftassell]

Well... kids being kids, probably not a good idea to put too much anticipatory weight on that. Just play it & see how they respond. I used to DJ at a shee-shee music bar in London, playing sort of ambient/classical/background gear. I'd put FOATBTT on at some point during the evening & within a few minutes half the room (most've whom had little or no interest in music) would be blubbing their eyes out into their vodka & cranberries. Most revealing, it was.

[PonsXAsinorum]

@xwsftassell

The age of the audience should be irrelevant; humanity,being human,could care less 4this type of enchanting music--opting instead for R&B etc.I ask u; as a child would unot have been enthralled by music such as this? When I was 1st exposed to fur elise &other magnificent classics, something I now can't fathom nvr have known, I was hooked; why.:.deny such possibility to the children of the world? The masses could care less but so long as you inspire 1 would it not have been worth it?

[aalexander928]

Splendid. Thank you for posting this two-part video.

[cogidubnus1953]

I have been listening to this piece for years and am at a total loss to understand how any mortal could write any such piece...the Tallis piece is simply beautiful, but this is sublime...I cry...again...

[deadgirl17]

I also cry - every time.

[wildsimian]

Epic.

[alliemilliot]

love the quartet part..... i burst into tears every time no matter what

[IcyScythe]

freaking awesome.

which version is this?

[mairfrog]

Who's playing and conducting? One of the few performances where they get the 'powerful' bit right.

[alliemilliot]

makes me cry every time

[daisygokhale]

beautiful...