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Ralph Vaughan Williams

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bivalent harmony” and “the scoring throughout is most important of the English reformation. Vaughan
beautifully judged, the wordless voices in particular Williams used the text of the Psalm by Sternhold and
adding a purely human and partly mystical ardor to Hopkins, however, presumably the edition published
the music rather than projecting any philosophic or at Geneva in 1561, instead of the text of The English
impersonal timelessness, as they do in some other of Hymnal version (a translation from the French), which
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his works.” Similarly Dickinson refl ected: “The novel it pre-dated by almost 300 years.
interest is, of course, the intrinsic quality of the viola The Fantasia is in fact an assemblage of quasi vari-
part, and of voices used as a special reed-chorus in ations scored for pianoforte solo accompanied by cho-
conjunction with solo wood and brass and incidentally rus and orchestra. Howes provides a concise overview.
a tuneful celesta.” 22 “There are seven variations in all, of which two are for
piano alone; in the other fi ve the chorus sings verses 1
and 2 and verses 31, 32, and 33 of Psalm CIV. There
is an Introduction in which the piano evolves the tune

From the moment of its premiere, out of its chief motif of four notes. The theme is then
Flos Campi has been explored in stated by the piano alone in very full, if not very ortho-
dox, harmonies” and, thereafter, the work proceeds
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the Vaughan Williams literature by a variation by variation; in other words: introduction
number of authors, who attempted to plus theme, variation one (verse one); variation two
understand and elucidate its meaning, (piano cadenza); variation three (verse two); variation

evaluate its compositional features, and four (verses three and four); variation five (piano ca-
denza); variation six (verse five); and variation seven

debate its place in the canon of the (elements of verse one).
composer. To Dickinson the Fantasia falls into three stages—(1)
Prelude, Theme, and Two Variations; (2) Three Vari-
ations; and (3) Two Variations and Coda (thus imply-

ing a tripartite form). The first stage commences in D
The signifi cance of Flos Campi was recognized by minor “with the piano trying out phrases” but shifts
Foss, who considered it “one of [Vaughan Williams’s] to F minor for an initial presentation of the theme “in
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most original, and most important, expressions,” and a trenchant multiple texture.” The first verse is char-
Kennedy, who posited a status for the suite as “tru- acterized by “choral polyphony, with piano bravura,”
ly inimitable, a masterpiece.” Indeed, in Flos Campi, followed by “an orchestral verse with choral extensions
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Vaughan Williams reinterpreted the genres (cantata, of each phrase, borrowing text from the fi rst verse.” 28
concerto, and suite are fused, choral expression and Dickinson’s second stage begins in B modal minor
verbal communication are separated) and his ingredi- with “a free and extended interlude for piano.” A sec-
ents (biblical, erotic, oriental, pastoral, and primitive) ond verse in D minor involves “choral unison in four-
to create this work sui generis. 25 time, with the piano harping on the fourth phrase.”
“Fantasia (Quasi Variazione) on the ‘Old 104th’ Psalm Thereafter, “a third verse absorbs ‘How sundry, O
Tune” (1949), for piano solo, chorus, and orchestra was Lord’, etc., in fugued entries that do not go beyond

composed for the Gloucester Festival of 1950, with the first melodic phrase and may be regarded as a fi xa-
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Michael Mullinar as the soloist. It consists of a set of tion prompting a return to F minor, in which the piano
variations (15 minutes) on the imposing and severe tune leads the orchestral bass in a massive fourth verse.” 29
attributed to Thomas Ravenscroft (c.1582-c.1635), Dickinson’s third stage is initiated by “another long
“Disposer Supreme and Judge of the Earth” (assigned piano interlude, emulating Busoni in style (or, more
the number 178 in The English Hymnal), and taken from nearly, Liapunov’s Variations on a Russian Folk-song).”
his psalter, The Whole Booke of Psalmes (1621), one of the This is “sobered down to a choral unison verse in D

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2022 Volume 63 Number 3 39