Choral Fantasia (Holst)
Encyclopedia
A Choral Fantasia, Op. 51, is a piece of choral music by Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

.

Background and composition

The work was written in 1930 by request of organist Herbert Sumsion
Herbert Sumsion
Herbert Whitton Sumsion was an English musician who was organist of Gloucester Cathedral from 1928 to 1967...

 who wanted a work with a concertante part for organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, to be played at the Three Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...

. Holst originally conceived the piece as an Organ Concerto but later changed the concept and incorporated the poem Ode to Music by his friend Robert Bridges
Robert Bridges
Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, was a British poet, and poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.-Personal and professional life:...

 written for the Purcell bicentenary celebrations in 1895. Bridges' poem is a requiem of sorts for all past artists. The finished work is scored for the unusual forces of organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...

, percussion and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

 with chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 and solo soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

. The Fantasia was first performed in 1931 at the Three Choirs festival in Gloucester Cathedral
Gloucester Cathedral
Gloucester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the river. It originated in 678 or 679 with the foundation of an abbey dedicated to Saint Peter .-Foundations:The foundations of the present...

 with Dorothy Silk
Dorothy Silk
Dorothy Silk was an English soprano.She studied in Birmingham, then in Vienna under Johannes Ress. She made her London debut at Queen's Hall...

 (Holst's favorite soprano who had premiered his Choral Symphony six years previous) singing the solo part and Holst conducting.

The Work

The fantasia opens with a colossal fortissimo prelude for organ in the phrygian mode leading to a chord - causing one reviewer in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

 to comment, in a spirit of an all too prevalent parochialism, that: "when Holst begins his new Choral Fantasia on a six four of G
G (musical note)
Sol, So, or G is the fifth note of the solfège starting on C. As such it is the dominant, a perfect fifth above C.When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of Middle G note is approximately 391.995 Hz...

 and a C-sharp below that, with an air of take it or leave it, one is inclined to leave it"
- which introduces the soprano ("Man born of desire, cometh out of the night") over almost inaudible organ line. A chromatic fugato section bearing the otherworldly bleakness of Egdon Heath and Saturn follows before trumpets, trombones and timpani rise menacingly in 5/4 introducing an important, typically Holstian, ostinato figure. The chorus enters, hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

like, in 7/4 with the words "Rejoice, ye dead where ere your spirits dwell" to diatonic brass accompaniment. This leads to a climax with a reprise of the opening organ prelude. The ensuing music, really a reprise of the fugato section, travels through some unexpected harmonic procedures and dissonances but a brief poignant section for strings leads to the return of the soprano ("Rejoice, ye dead") over the fading string accompaniment ending the work on a note of resignation.
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