My brother came back from university one Christmas and gave Vaughan Williams' Fantasia to my Mom and Dad. I'd no idea such music existed, let alone that I would enjoy it. I told him years later what a gift it had been to me.
There’s something so esoterically English about this, not God nor glory but of the earth we stand on. Williams drew out the folk in our folk and pulled us back into the soil, the horse and cart and the village pub, the grime and greenness of an English landscape, the elevation of our common selves and our verdant souls. Remarkable.
Indeed. This was virtually the theme of my heart, all my emotions as I rolled on a coach through the English countryside under a full moon, to Oban and Iona in Scotland!
I think it is you who are remarkable. I have waited nearly 55 years for you to voice your feelings for this music and recognise that quintessential Englishness that speaks to us from the ancestors who shared the landscape.
I used to be a metal fan, now an amateur classical composer) Rock is so widespread nowadays, that classic is the real punk genre) That doesn't mean I stopped loving rock
I first heard this piece in 1974. I was 14. I was traveling with my family to California on vacation on board a United Airlines DC-10. I was wearing those earphones they handed out on the plane. And there was this piece of music. I fell in love with it imediately.
It's a curious thing. Vaughan Williams is considered, by many supposed experts, to be a relatively minor composer. Yet this glorious and infinitely moving piece, and The Lark, are annually voted the two most loved pieces of classical music in the UK.
The fact that many people like Vaughn Williams may be the very reason he is looked down upon by those who favor more modern music. Especially THEIR more modern music that the public does not want to bother hearing.
In my 42 years on this planet, I have never heard anything that has touched my soul as this has. Vaughan Williams, in my opinion, has written a piece to evoke the emotions of a child looking at God's glory. This is the most valuable piece of music I have ever heard so far in my life.
I dont think Vaughan Williams was so religious, specially after what he went through during WWI, but his music is, this bring me closer to God emotionally. As said one of my friend orchestra conductor when I die I want this music to be played for the ceremony... and me too.
As a composer myself, I can never forget how cruel and feelingless academic teachers want our music to be. I am brought to an almost-tearshedding state listening to this and constantly asking to myself and the world: why can't we modern composers compose with our hearts and dreams and instead compose only with mathematics and our purely cognitive, engineer-like brain section??
Strangely enough, Vaughan Williams was an atheist when he wrote this work. His second wife Ursula writes in her biography of him that this changed to "a cheerful agnosticism" in his old age. Yet he some of the most powerful sacred music of the 20th century.
This is the most wonderful piece of music. Playing it today for my dad, who should have been 81 today. He introduced me to classical music with this piece while I was recovering from a broken leg when I was 13. I have yet to find a piece of music to beat it - although there are many to equal it. Thank you Dad, and thank you Vaughan Williams.
I heard this piece for the first time in 2005, as I watched the movie, “Master And Commander”, and recovering from an aneurysm that left me 1 in 10,000 survivors. I too, was raised on classical music, and have heard beautiful pieces; Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Beethoven..but this piece stole my heart. ❤
Thomas Talliss was my ancestor ! I wish Vaughan Williams was my ancestor also ! Both genius composers. This piece is absolutely sublime and brings me back nostalgic memories
It has changed over time and there have been variations with the spelling in the family tree. i.e some relations used 1 s or 2 s’s. Thank you for your reply to my comment! Sorry for the late reply.
@@christaliss200 The spelling of family names do indeed change over time. We should always bear in mind that many/most of our ancestors were illiterate and couldn't even write their own name. In many cases they would never or rarely have seen their own name written down. Chris, you are very fortunate in your ancestor and, as you clearly appreciate and understand his work, he is fortunate in you as a descendant.
There is something so otherworldly and supernatural about this music. It's like it takes me away from the earthly world and places me in a celestial one. It just gives me chills
What is this feeling I get when I listen to this heavenly sound, how does one describe it? How does one put into words the overwhelming emotions it brings to me? Why does it bring tears to my eyes that I fail to hold back? I cannot explain any of this, though I feel the need to. How does a mere human compose perfection as this? Every note, every theme blends and swirls in my heart, it is a rising swell, a wave that carries me away to a secret place of my own. We that love this music have our own feelings about it, but we are all brothers and sisters, because we know what it does, we know that we want its perfection to become part of us. There is no greater feeling than this. Peace.
+Charlotte Younger Well now! If you are a fan of VW and his great Tallis Composition, as I am, then you are a sister in spirit. This piece of music even makes God stir and then after he lets his invisible tears flow, they flow with the majesty of the great Vaughan Williams who is sat right beside his maker. Peace as always from me. X
+Paul Manning Responding to evocative music like this Paul, proves that we are human; we are able to appreciate beauty in all it's forms, by using our senses. Some claim that you have to be religious to feel these emotions--total rubbish, because I have NEVER been a believer.
I don't need to be religious to be utterly, completely, incandescently moved by this tone sermon. Moving, emotive, breathtaking, and sublime. Thank you for the post.
The first time I heard this I was off sick with work stress and it was played as I drove past the Shropshire Hills. It is truly touched by the divine and Vaughan Williams fascinates me.
Nah, people respond differently to music. If someone listens to this piece and isn't moved by it, that's perfectly fine and valid. Maybe it's just not their type of music. Maybe they need a few more listens before they "get it" or maybe they weren't in the right mood or mindset when listening to it.
This music takes you places, it doesn't matter where you are physically, it takes you places on another level of consciousness. Beautiful in every note.
It charms that consciousness straight outta you, almost without your sayso, one way or another. Which is great Good News indeed, really.... It reminds me of Auden's line from "The Composer" "You alone, alone, imaginary song Are unable to say an existence is wrong And pour out your forgiveness like a wine."
I spent my whole life in classical music. This is my very few times stopping the car in the parking lot to finish this piece from FM. So rare beauty, the connection of romantic to contemporary. So vivid, like the greens with the crystal blue sky, fluffy clouds floating, holding the hand of the beloved. Time ceases. The opening of a great legend.
This song saved me from insanity one afternoon driving on the freeways of Phoenix... we were packed in car to car heat and gas fumes permeating every aspect of this hot asphault hell.. and then I hit a station at random... and this was playing.... and it was if angels were singing to me in this pile of junk and metal... and I had to smile
@@nellyt2807: you are a silly person to call anyone 'Uncultured' The genesis of culture is in geography. its development is in history and these are continuing processes. People are not products of culture and culture is not an attribute of people. Culture is the interaction between people, geography and history and is everchanging. Culture is not art it is the canvas on which people can express themselves artistically.
Mind of Christ, Heart of the Holy Spirit, Love of the Father. Vaugn Williams captured that with this beautiful piece of music that reaches into the Divine world every time I hear it.
I think I found a new favorite composer. I heard about 5 minutes of this in the car on the way home from work, and I had to hear the rest of it. Chills, smiles, and peace. I absolutely love this. One of the absolutely most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard in my life. Just, wow! Crying now. Can't believe how beautiful this is!
Agreed. I have loved emotionally beautiful classical pieces all my life and at different times have had what I thought was 'the best of them all'. I was wrong. This piece - in this performance - reaches the zenith for me.
Personally I feel this to be one of the most beautiful compositions of the 20th century, showing yet again that Vaughn Williams, eclipsed by the likes of musical renegades (Hindemith, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Messian, et al. - all very brilliant in their own right) remains a highly underrated composer - at least to my 'common' ear.
I like both camps. The Edgies require attentions that never fail to reward, (OK, I won't guarantee that for all their opuses/and a little humor for some of it is indicable). Vaughn Williams and others, Elgar, Barber and so on are the other camp(who, truthfully, on occasion can produce inspired Muzak). But THIS ONE is in a class of its own. Ralph Vaughn Williams can fill a long concert evening.
I am pretty sure that some people came to this world just to bring beauty to all mankind. This piece is nothing but a clear example of that, a truly soul understanding in form of music.
Since I was a child I have always found this piece of music so profoundly moving and it stirred something within me. But being a child I could not interpret what that feeling was, I just somehow loved it. Now as a 60 year man I have come to a degree of understanding of the child I was, for whenever I listen to this now I can see myself back then, wondering and yearning, trying to express some mystery, this thing not known to me. Back then I would cry on hearing this music, and yet I have to admit that I still do, but at least now I know some of the answers to its mystery and have come to a partial understanding of this truly remarkable piece of musical art, that I shall love until the day I die. But there is still a part of me that will never really know the sum total of its mysteriousness, of its profundity... I therefore ask, is it possible to? (I have listened to all versions of this classic piece, by many orchestras, I can say that this rendition is the finest yet.)
Your experience is not uncommon. My reaction, and others as well, is similar. There have been only a handful of musical pieces that can stir my very soul like this one does. Perhaps we don't actually understand it more as we age. After all, what is there really to understand about how music affects you? This piece just "dials into your humanity". Every epic story, every emotion ever evoked, beautifully distilled into one amazing and compelling litany of harmonics. No, I don't think we understand this piece, so much as appreciate it more as we grow older; we recognise its reflection more in the highs and lows of our unfolding lives. My take, anyway. Hope it made sense.
Only just seen your reply to my post, sorry for the delay in answering you. You express my point so very well, better than I have anyway. Yes its hard to put into words how this peace makes us feel, but I agree age is something that is able to interpret it more and more. But here I am again listening and wondering at the marvel of this music, I can't express it, so sorry, I guess you know what I mean though. Peace to you.
Paul, I had the same response with Finzi's Eclogue for Piano and Strings. It has been the soundtrack of my life. So, I resonate completely with your words about this magnificent music.
Upon my death, I hope the congregation at my memorial service can endure the length of this piece. It is worth the time, and speaks all that any words cannot. Ralph Vaughn Williams and Thomas Tallis.
That is exactly the same thing that I have requested. In fact, I asked her if she remembered me asking this she instantly said, "Ralph Vaughan Williams [she even pronounced "Ralph" correctly], FaIntasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis," John Barbirolli conducting the Sinfonia Orchestra. I'm not sure I could ever supply rational reasons for why I love this so passionately, except maybe to say that I have listened to it literally hundreds, if not thousands, of times, and even today, about 40 years after I first heard it, it signifies to me the most beautiful things that this world can offer.
I also want this played at my memorial---if there is one. I have for years. This speaks to me of all the beauty and tragedy of being alive, aware, and sentient in this world. All that is life is written here, for me. All that I love of life and all the sorrow of letting go of the beauty of the world.
The dynamics, and the amount of modulation in this piece is amazing. The perfect combination of pre-Baroque melody and harmony, wedded to modern orchestration.
What's more, following your thought there, on an uncanny level it plays like both a digest and overview of the whole history of British musick. I think RVW had that in mind.
I thank you, too, for posting the score. I find that I cannot listen to this with strangers, but only with loved ones or in solitude. It is so moving I tear up every time, especially when the viola enters to accompany the violin at 7:12.
It's funny you say that about not wanting to hear this piece except in a setting of total attention to it's wondrous beauty. I would literally turn it off, midstream, if I were to be interrupted by a crass disturbance.
If this piece is taking you somewhere cerebral watch out for the crass interruption by a Connor Macgreggor advert at 9 mins in - literally like a slap in the face.
That is a remarkable test of great music, how often can you hear it in replay. I hear Bach that way. Ah, but this work, this ineffable praise of our depths It could be a perpetuum mobile, on a constant loop, and I would each time feel I was made the better for it. It may be the Lullaby for "Somewhere Else" LOL
I can't begin to explain just how entrancing this song is. I've never been thrown into a world of emotion where the source was outside of myself yet seeping out of every pore on my body.
A perfect version of a piece I've loved since I was a child and heard it at school. Whenever our teacher asked the class what music we'd like to hear, this was the overwhelming response.
It's probably more than 25 years since I first heard this piece of Vaughan Williams, and it still brings tears to my eye every time. It's so staggeringly beautiful, the more I have studied the piece the more the appreciation and love grows. Thanks for the upload.
+Tom Nutts Such beauty. I had "lost" this song for 25 years myself. Since I had forgotten the name. Whilst teaching, a man reminded me of the name. And of Lark Ascending. I was moved to tears. I find this the most ethereal and majestic of all sounds. Unlike any other. I want to study its depth and layers as I have a music charity. I also play the piano and want to learn the cello and violin.
To me this always sounds like the song of a soul as it departs. Ascending to heaven, reflecting the beauty, wonder, mystery and majesty of it's time and place in the universe as well as acknowledging the challenges, trials and tribulations a lifetime encapsulates. Every emotion is expressed as if a life story is being told in music as it moves gently and inexorably towards the final separation. I find it very spiritual and comforting. It always reminds me of the passing of loved ones, the circle of life turning and the awesome scale of what we all participate in. I challenge anyone to note their frame of mind before listening and find themselves in the same frame of mind once the piece has finished. It always seems to bring a powerful change.
+chipoftheundead Err... Vaughan Williams was an atheist, so it is very unlikely to be anything about souls floating to heaven or anywhere else. It is a great piece of music for sure, but try to resist reading things in to it,
+David Ashbridge I never said that was what Vaughan Williams had in mind whilst composing it. I made it clear that was my own perception of it. Why should I resist reading anything into it? Isn't part of the joy of music interpreting what your hear from a very personal perspective? Please try to resist looking like a condescending,, music police twat.
+chipoftheundead You like it then I see! You have good taste, and I really know how you feel and what this grand eternal music does to you and me both. A Truly magical stunning overwhelming piece!
I too am an atheist, but this piece to me represents the wonders, mysteries and grandeur of the Universe. And now I'm listening to it for the umpteenth time, with tears streaming again.
I first heard this as I was driving along the Barlow Trail in Calgary. Bob Kerr was playing it on his afternoon CBC radio show. Though I was going to the airport, I pulled over to listen with full attention. Today, it still seems like a voice bringing my soul a message that must be heard no matter what, after many many years indeed.
not2tees You might like Myfanwy - a Welsh song about unrequited love. But if you want to experience an emotional hit listen to the BBC Soul Music podcast, especially the last witness statement by a man who “saw the hill move” when a slag heap engulfed the school in Aberfan. I can’t listen to his testimony without sharing his grief in the moment.
Try singing the Holst My Soul there is a Country (melody adapted from slow section of Jupiter). I thought singing solos as a treble at funerals, looking along an open coffin, toughened me up and ready for anything. Then, 2-3 years ago, I was asked to sing the Holst hymn tune as a solo at a memorial service. I couldn’t make it through the first verse ..,
Englands cowpat modernist composer. Absolutely a sublime piece by Williams. Close your eyes and join the seabirds inflight along the English coastline among the high cliffs . The joy is not reaching your destination- it is the journey.
Love 13:27 when the solo violin comes in followed by the solo viola. How exquisite, especially the bit where the violin's A-Flat clashes with the G on the viola (and the lovely resolution of the G down to the F)! What beautiful interplay of voices!
This music always makes me think of my father and how much I miss him. Why I don't know; I don't remember him ever listening to it. But it always moves me to tears. The power of music!
One of the most incredible pieces of music that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. It is so much a part of my heart and I will carry it with me, forever.
I'm a bit late to the party but when music is as timelss as this there's no rush! This is the last word in exquisiteness, utterly breathtaking. Never try to explain magic or you'll lose it irrevocably - may we all continue to gasp, marvel, cry and lose ourselves in this little world of beauty forever
I like that, "late to the party but no rush". Music like this invites us all, an open invitation, to a party that never ends. "You alone, alone, imaginary song Are unable to say an existence is wrong, And pour out your forgiveness like a wine." W.H. Auden, closing lines from "The Composer"
I first heard this at the movies, seeing Master and Commander. It took four months to find out which piece of music this was. I have loved this since I first heard it.
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Barbers Adagio for Strings are two of my very favorite string works. So emotive. So delicate at times... yet so powerful. With only Strings. Great share. Thank you!
+Mark Humenik Another great srting work is the Robert Cummings Lacrymosa for the victims of 9/11. The download on TH-cam should be the Bassinater the video has a beautiful reed from the seashore on the cover.
This is the first recognizable piece of music from some of my earliest memories as a child of three. The album was called transfigured nights, and this was the b side. I still love the music 56 years later.
Today my school invited nicola benidetti to come perform and she came with a 40 people group that included violins and cellos and they played this peice. One of my friends said it was borning but i fell inlive with it. Its truly amazing and sounds so nice
The comment of your friend reminds me of the biblical quote about pearls and swine. This is one of the most magnificent pieces of music EVER WRITTEN, you have been given a gift of untold value to hear it played live by a brilliant soloist. I always give this advice about listening to the Tallis. Late at night when everyone has gone to bed, sit on a very comfortable sofa, turn the lights very low, turn the stereo very low, close your eyes and clear your mind. If you do not have a spiritual experience to knock your socks off then you are DEAD. By "spiritual" I do not mean "religious", VW was an atheist and so am I.
I played this with my school orchestra a few years back. they had the small ensemble sit behind the bleachers apart from where the orchestra was sitting, so when the rest of the orchestra stopped and the small ensemble continued, no one could see the instrumentalists and it just sounded like resounding angels. This is a piece i will never get bored of
One day this song will be the first one played at me and the love of my life's wedding, because this was the first song we've ever listened to together. We both felt the passion and the vibrations of the violin and viola strings that absolutely rocked our souls, and one day we'll both listen to it again.
I agree! An excellent recording. As a non-Englishman, I can't relate this music to anything English. But the music is universal: I feel the fog and ruggedness of the Northern California coast, the green coastal terraces, the crashing waves below, and the endless mystery that stretches beyond.
I have been a music adjudicator for 40 years and have viewed some superlative performances on TH-cam. Then have read some of the negative comments submitted by trolls and by some who are obviously middle school students.
David Weulander Don't forget that there are also a few frustrated, jealous and envious people out there, the ones who want to but can't.... Reminds me of that quote: negative critics are like eunuchs they all know how to do it, but can't do it themselves.... haha
It is GREAT of you, allowing us to hear this fantastic Work! Thank you so much! Bartje, believe it or not, even today I am still but a beginner at computers. Please allow me a dumb question or two. How do you display a Score on the screen? What is the process called? This is not the first time I have seen this wonderful innovation, but I have always skipped on without asking, how it is done. I notice too, things are coordinated, so that the page turns are synchronized. Is there an APP for this? If so, does it cost an arm and a leg? Furthermore, Bartje, are there Scores more difficult to obtain than others? For example, I would LOVE to see this done with Paisiello Piano Concerti, but I have yet to see any such Online displays like the one you have here. As you may know, we just passed Paisiello's 280th birthday. Hmmm...this would be a good way to master a Work right at a Piano! Bartje, thank you in advance !
I swear this song gives me some serious desert vibes. Like a long, arduous journey across sand dunes and sand mountains. Like a montage. More specifically I see the Holy family fleeing to Egypt. Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Also, I swear this is where Joe Hisaishi got his inspiration from. A lot of Ghibli scores sound similar to Vaughn Williams.
Awesome, "I have called My Son out of Egypt." This music calls us all, out of our depths, as just the same. As far as we can go, not without help (such as this!).
This is my absolute favourite piece of classical music and this surely has to be the finest recording I have heard of this wonderful piece. Simply glorious.
He scores the various voices to sound like a church organ, in parts, like the Gloucester Cathedral for which it was intended. I used to practically live, hour by hour, at various times in Notre Dame Cathedral 50 years ago, as a youngster, listening to Pierre Cochereau (whom his great composer teacher Marcel Dupre, called "the greatest organ improviser of all time") and church organ is deeply embedded in my hard drive. As an organist, too, RVW included those sonorities here, a sort of massive atmosphere of recognizable musical deep reverence, as part of the mix. A fun fact, one I just found out when I did a map search, about his boyhood home and birthplace: we sang in UK in 1997, and our first stop for lodgings as a chorus was in Swindon, within a stone's throw of Vaughan Williams boynood home in Down Ampney near the Cathedral. We saw Salisbury Cathedral on our bus trip out, and stopped on my rollerbaldes during our break and I drank it all in. But the music in England has always been playing on a loop in my inner ear, in a subaudible but very present way. The great inspired conductor Andrew Davis is really great at these things. I really prize his Janacek, such as "Glagolitic Mass" available here at TH-cam, so stirring, like this. He knows well how to stir. We sang with his colleague, the great and late Richard Hickox, it broke my heart when he passed so young, at 60, 10 years after we sang for him in Wales, not far from the RVW haunts. I am sure he must have met him, as gifted a prodigy as he was. Happy Vigil of All Saints Day (my translation of the secularized "Hallowe'en). (RVW wrote most of my favorite old school hymns, like his classic "For All the Saints" which we will sing tomorrow, a lifelong praise in song for me, since my teens.) (Check out this version of Janacek, also by Andrew Davis and BBC: th-cam.com/video/R0Nrh_9yv2w/w-d-xo.html Very stirring.)
It's been one of my favorite pieces of music for years now. I wish I could hear it live! Each time I listen to it, this music just sucks me in deeper and deeper. There's something incredibly profound in it, like the depths of the ocean over the restless surface, so I really like to listen to it on the seaside. For me, if the Sea were a music it would sound like this.
Starting at 2:20 and ending at 3:17 , I was reminded of the horrors on the SS Atlantic because of the Part-Time-Explorers documentary. I loved the music so much that I looked for this. What a wonderful piece of art.
I first listened to this many years ago. It is truly a beautiful piece of music. So emotive, a call from the past and it really tugs at the heart strings, I have to say.
One of the best renditions of FTTT's finest piece from the baton of the incomparable Andrew Davis, who releases sublime heights of triumphant joy from the very depths of the darkest of all human tragedies. Ultimately, death is powerless against love.
This is magnificent! I’ve never seen a TH-cam video which displays the sheet music and follows along precisely with the piece being played. I can actually see Vaughan Williams’ original ideas as I’m hearing the interpretation of them. I can now understand specifically how and why this wondrous work sounds the way it does. This is better even than being at a symphonic performance with the score in my lap, following along with the musicians. This is, hands down, one of the most superb ideas ever; and the finest utilization of the TH-cam format. Bravo! And thank you for going through the obviously extensive labour of working out the timing. Unquestionably brilliant! I “liked” this video and subscribed to your channel immediately and saw (to my thorough delight) that all of your uploads follow this same splendid format. I hardly know where to begin! Again, thank you.
+Bartje Bartmans This is my favorite composition of classical music. I have known it since 1970, and I have had the immeasurable pleasure of hearing it performed live twice. Your post makes it possible to see the genius of Vaughan Williams composition. I too, find it mystical and ethereal and sublime. I am very grateful for this post of yours. I will bookmark it and come back to it many times. Thank you!
I agree with everyone else. If you have other videos like this (and I suspect you do) - then I suspect I will be ravaging your collection. Took violin as a child for a number of years but was never a really serious student so my sight-reading is atrocious but if I know what it sounds like while having the notes in front of me, that does the trick. Still take the instrument out now and then to try and play bits of songs that I really enjoy and now I have some sheet music to boot!
This is the most beautiful piece of music ever written (followed closely by The Lark Ascending) and is my music to die to. Thanks for posting it along with the score.
It is beautiful, but "most beautiful piece of music ever written?" th-cam.com/video/GwboQDgoPzE/w-d-xo.html is far, far more beautiful. Even Mussorgsky's 'Larme' outstrips this famous piece.
It’s a really beautiful piece but I don’t think we can measure what is the most beautiful piece of music ever written. Personally I find Ben Johnston’s 7th string quartet extraordinarily beautiful but a lot of people wouldn’t agree. I can’t see anyone finding this Fantasia ugly though
JP in Fuerteventura Indeed it really is, JP! I first heard it around 1979 and NEVER forgot it! They called Vaughan Williams a Christian Agnostic because of this, and also because he allegedly did not believe in a God! But this is beyond sublime! ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 xx
"I stand alone as her only friend, and bear witness to the sorrow. I feel the fading warmth of her fingertips reach out to caress my face, my arms, Only to be whipped and scolded by a jealous wind. Yet slowly she sinks, kneeling on distant brow. Her garments purple. crimson. gold, darken as they wash away. Finally her wounds splinter open. Her soul bleeds across the heavens for my eyes. She dies for me tonight."
I love all different types of music from many different countries and eras, but this piece is something I come back to regularly. I love how it uses the original Tallis flower and builds an entire garden out of that centrepiece. It's just such a remarkable piece of music from start to finish. Those three final notes (G, A, B?) that resolve the whole thing bring a real feeling of hope. I'm so moved every time.
40 years passed since I heard this on a classical fm station late one night. Thanks for sharing the score with us. Such a great feeling fto be reunited with a piece of music after this long.
#SEMPER FIDELIS #QUA PATET ORBIS #JE MAINTAN DRAI ! ♫♪ great ♫♪♫♪♫♪☺ BRAVISSIMO @/bisbis 🎶🎵🎼 great music! a well tuned ensemble that sounds like an organ ! Fabulous banding! Compliments! #SEMPER FI #QPO #JMD🎵🎼🎼🎶🎵🥁🎺👌👌🙏🙏🎺 Robert Schumann Quote : Composing something real unique is writing down a melody/set of notes that no one else ever had done before.... ♫♪
There's something absolutely divine about this piece. For years, I've only known it as an ost track from Master and Commander, but thankfully one day decided to google to learn more about it, as it was wrenching my soul every time I heard it: even in that shortened version, it was just on a different level compared even to the greatest soundtracks. Thankfully I discovered the full version and Ralph Vaughan Williams as a composer. Internet is a wonderful thing. Imagine humanity could still create something like this in our days... Maybe if one day all the pieces of culture suddenly disappeared, we would be moved to wake up, reach out and grasp that something we've lost, that divine level of creativity, just to be able to hear something like this once again. Now, we're too spoiled by the abundance.
I don't think we're 'spoiled' by the abundance, more swamped by it... thankfully, great music like this does still rise to the surface, but it seems harder, and take longer, to notice.
This come on in my car yesterday as I was driving and in my mind I went from being a bedouin nomad on a camel in the desert, an english Knight on some sort of quest, a monk in Tibet and finally into a bliss indescribable. My new favourite piece of music
My brother came back from university one Christmas and gave Vaughan Williams' Fantasia to my Mom and Dad. I'd no idea such music existed, let alone that I would enjoy it. I told him years later what a gift it had been to me.
There’s something so esoterically English about this, not God nor glory but of the earth we stand on. Williams drew out the folk in our folk and pulled us back into the soil, the horse and cart and the village pub, the grime and greenness of an English landscape, the elevation of our common selves and our verdant souls. Remarkable.
Indeed. This was virtually the theme of my heart, all my emotions as I rolled on a coach through the English countryside under a full moon, to Oban and Iona in Scotland!
I think it is you who are remarkable. I have waited nearly 55 years for you to voice your feelings for this music and recognise that quintessential Englishness that speaks to us from the ancestors who shared the landscape.
I'm an old punk rocker yet this moves me in a way nothing else equaled
Come to the classical side
It's real mysticism. Great music always has that, and this overflows with it.
I used to be a metal fan, now an amateur classical composer)
Rock is so widespread nowadays, that classic is the real punk genre)
That doesn't mean I stopped loving rock
I'm a die-hard Vaughan Williams fan and there are some examples of Punk Rock that I adore.
I first heard this piece in 1974. I was 14. I was traveling with my family to California on vacation on board a United Airlines DC-10. I was wearing those earphones they handed out on the plane. And there was this piece of music. I fell in love with it imediately.
It's a curious thing. Vaughan Williams is considered, by many supposed experts, to be a relatively minor composer. Yet this glorious and infinitely moving piece, and The Lark, are annually voted the two most loved pieces of classical music in the UK.
+TheRmr23 These two, Lark & Fantasia, are in my top ten of all time. RVW is a major composer in my book.
The fact that many people like Vaughn Williams may be the very reason he is looked down upon by those who favor more modern music. Especially THEIR more modern music that the public does not want to bother hearing.
is there a fantasia that Williams has composed that isn't a beauty to the ears
I believe he should be ranked with the top germans.
3589546 The top ANYONES.
In my 42 years on this planet, I have never heard anything that has touched my soul as this has. Vaughan Williams, in my opinion, has written a piece to evoke the emotions of a child looking at God's glory. This is the most valuable piece of music I have ever heard so far in my life.
I dont think Vaughan Williams was so religious, specially after what he went through during WWI, but his music is, this bring me closer to God emotionally. As said one of my friend orchestra conductor when I die I want this music to be played for the ceremony... and me too.
JP L More throughts about of Franciscana Missa Comandorris, and transubstantial morphos aegon claimed in biothopic edgement?
As a composer myself, I can never forget how cruel and feelingless academic teachers want our music to be. I am brought to an almost-tearshedding state listening to this and constantly asking to myself and the world: why can't we modern composers compose with our hearts and dreams and instead compose only with mathematics and our purely cognitive, engineer-like brain section??
Strangely enough, Vaughan Williams was an atheist when he wrote this work. His second wife Ursula writes in her biography of him that this changed to "a cheerful agnosticism" in his old age. Yet he some of the most powerful sacred music of the 20th century.
André Lisboa Little Alma is doing it,and very well.
This is the most wonderful piece of music. Playing it today for my dad, who should have been 81 today. He introduced me to classical music with this piece while I was recovering from a broken leg when I was 13. I have yet to find a piece of music to beat it - although there are many to equal it. Thank you Dad, and thank you Vaughan Williams.
I heard this piece for the first time in 2005, as I watched the movie, “Master And Commander”, and recovering from an aneurysm that left me 1 in 10,000 survivors. I too, was raised on classical music, and have heard beautiful pieces; Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Beethoven..but this piece stole my heart. ❤
I believe that Thomas Tallis himself would adore this version of his melody.
Thomas Talliss was my ancestor ! I wish Vaughan Williams was my ancestor also ! Both genius composers. This piece is absolutely sublime and brings me back nostalgic memories
really?
But Thomas Tallis is T-A-L-L-I-S, while your last name is T-A-L-L-I-S-S. Maybe it changed over time?
It has changed over time and there have been variations with the spelling in the family tree. i.e some relations used 1 s or 2 s’s. Thank you for your reply to my comment! Sorry for the late reply.
@@christaliss200 The spelling of family names do indeed change over time. We should always bear in mind that many/most of our ancestors were illiterate and couldn't even write their own name. In many cases they would never or rarely have seen their own name written down. Chris, you are very fortunate in your ancestor and, as you clearly appreciate and understand his work, he is fortunate in you as a descendant.
My ancestor was a serial killer :)
TH-cam: it is an anathema to add crass adverts part way through this sublime music.
It is the price we pay for free access to copyrighted materials.
There is something so otherworldly and supernatural about this music. It's like it takes me away from the earthly world and places me in a celestial one. It just gives me chills
Me too, always has. It speaks to the soul, that part of us that is eternal.
What is this feeling I get when I listen to this heavenly sound, how does one describe it? How does one put into words the overwhelming emotions it brings to me? Why does it bring tears to my eyes that I fail to hold back? I cannot explain any of this, though I feel the need to. How does a mere human compose perfection as this? Every note, every theme blends and swirls in my heart, it is a rising swell, a wave that carries me away to a secret place of my own. We that love this music have our own feelings about it, but we are all brothers and sisters, because we know what it does, we know that we want its perfection to become part of us. There is no greater feeling than this. Peace.
+Paul Manning So beautifully articulated, Paul.
+Charlotte Younger Well now! If you are a fan of VW and his great Tallis Composition, as I am, then you are a sister in spirit. This piece of music even makes God stir and then after he lets his invisible tears flow, they flow with the majesty of the great Vaughan Williams who is sat right beside his maker. Peace as always from me. X
Paul Manning And peace to you, you poet and brother in spirit!
+Paul Manning Responding to evocative music like this Paul, proves that we are human; we are able to appreciate beauty in all it's forms, by using our senses. Some claim that you have to be religious to feel these emotions--total rubbish, because I have NEVER been a believer.
+Paul Manning Ry Cooder would call this "chicken skin Music" It gives me goosebumps and tears in my eyes.
Was enraptured until an ad came on...philistines!!
Omg the swell on the key change makes me beside myself
I am brought to tears, gasping for breath, at moments, whilst listening to this precious gem of music.
For me the most profound beautiful piece of music ever written.
JP L
Jpa My thoughts exactly!
Jpa It is my wish that this piece be the last piece of music my ears hear as I leave earth.
Oh yes
This song is my deepest reflection, the place I can be alone with what God made me to be.
I don't need to be religious to be utterly, completely, incandescently moved by this tone sermon. Moving, emotive, breathtaking, and sublime. Thank you for the post.
To those of us with the perception for it, this piece/performance is quite literally a journey into the realm of heaven. Breathtaking.
The first time I heard this I was off sick with work stress and it was played as I drove past the Shropshire Hills. It is truly touched by the divine and Vaughan Williams fascinates me.
Elizabeth Roper, wow I live in that area on the Welsh border.
I can picture it with this music.
Hope you are better now, Elizabeth.
Anyone who can listen to this piece and not be moved to tears is a soulless husk of a creature.
I dont cry...
Maybe im not so emo
Nah, people respond differently to music. If someone listens to this piece and isn't moved by it, that's perfectly fine and valid. Maybe it's just not their type of music. Maybe they need a few more listens before they "get it" or maybe they weren't in the right mood or mindset when listening to it.
that would be horrible for me
This music takes you places, it doesn't matter where you are physically, it takes you places on another level of consciousness. Beautiful in every note.
It charms that consciousness straight outta you, almost without your sayso, one way or another. Which is great Good News indeed, really....
It reminds me of Auden's line from "The Composer"
"You alone, alone, imaginary song
Are unable to say an existence is wrong
And pour out your forgiveness like a wine."
I spent my whole life in classical music. This is my very few times stopping the car in the parking lot to finish this piece from FM.
So rare beauty, the connection of romantic to contemporary.
So vivid, like the greens with the crystal blue sky, fluffy clouds floating, holding the hand of the beloved. Time ceases.
The opening of a great legend.
This song saved me from insanity one afternoon driving on the freeways of Phoenix... we were packed in car to car heat and gas fumes permeating every aspect of this hot asphault hell.. and then I hit a station at random... and this was playing.... and it was if angels were singing to me in this pile of junk and metal... and I had to smile
That's a wonderful story - He smiles and the angels sing.
Donald Barrett made me smile too when he called it a song Americans are just so funny and uncultured .
@@nellyt2807 cant you just be happy that he appreciates this piece unlike many?
YaddaKhan BEAUTIFUL.
@@nellyt2807: you are a silly person to call anyone 'Uncultured' The genesis of culture is in geography. its development is in history and these are continuing processes. People are not products of culture and culture is not an attribute of people. Culture is the interaction between people, geography and history and is everchanging. Culture is not art it is the canvas on which people can express themselves artistically.
there still isn't a word invented that can capture what this does to me when I listen to it. music really is what emotions sound like
That is quite a quote. "Music is what emotions sound like". Thank you.
Ein!!!!!! What a smart doggo you are!!!!
But I absolutely agree. Which is why Vaughn Williams is EASILY one of my favourite composer's.
Yes. Words are the anchored description of the notes up high. And these fair notes are so very high.
Ecstasy… Serenity… those are probably two closest words that will ever get.. near to describing the feeling.
Mind of Christ, Heart of the Holy Spirit, Love of the Father. Vaugn Williams captured that with this beautiful piece of music that reaches into the Divine world every time I hear it.
@markphillips2797
I agree 100%. I visualize Heaven's Light itself descending to the earth every time I hear this piece!
I think I found a new favorite composer. I heard about 5 minutes of this in the car on the way home from work, and I had to hear the rest of it. Chills, smiles, and peace. I absolutely love this. One of the absolutely most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard in my life. Just, wow! Crying now. Can't believe how beautiful this is!
Agreed. I have loved emotionally beautiful classical pieces all my life and at different times have had what I thought was 'the best of them all'. I was wrong.
This piece - in this performance - reaches the zenith for me.
Personally I feel this to be one of the most beautiful compositions of the 20th century, showing yet again that Vaughn Williams, eclipsed by the likes of musical renegades (Hindemith, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Messian, et al. - all very brilliant in their own right) remains a highly underrated composer - at least to my 'common' ear.
Well said.
I like both camps. The Edgies require attentions that never fail to reward, (OK, I won't guarantee that for all their opuses/and a little humor for some of it is indicable). Vaughn Williams and others, Elgar, Barber and so on are the other camp(who, truthfully, on occasion can produce inspired Muzak). But THIS ONE is in a class of its own. Ralph Vaughn Williams can fill a long concert evening.
Very late 19 century and 20 century music are jewel
I am pretty sure that some people came to this world just to bring beauty to all mankind. This piece is nothing but a clear example of that, a truly soul understanding in form of music.
Since I was a child I have always found this piece of music so profoundly moving and it stirred something within me. But being a child I could not interpret what that feeling was, I just somehow loved it. Now as a 60 year man I have come to a degree of understanding of the child I was, for whenever I listen to this now I can see myself back then, wondering and yearning, trying to express some mystery, this thing not known to me. Back then I would cry on hearing this music, and yet I have to admit that I still do, but at least now I know some of the answers to its mystery and have come to a partial understanding of this truly remarkable piece of musical art, that I shall love until the day I die. But there is still a part of me that will never really know the sum total of its mysteriousness, of its profundity... I therefore ask, is it possible to? (I have listened to all versions of this classic piece, by many orchestras, I can say that this rendition is the finest yet.)
+Paul Manning A beautiful reaction to this great work. You also may like the Robert Cummings Lacrymosa for the Victims of 9/11
+shnimmuc Yes I know it well, a very sad piece, but giving hope at the same time. TY
Your experience is not uncommon. My reaction, and others as well, is similar. There have been only a handful of musical pieces that can stir my very soul like this one does. Perhaps we don't actually understand it more as we age. After all, what is there really to understand about how music affects you? This piece just "dials into your humanity". Every epic story, every emotion ever evoked, beautifully distilled into one amazing and compelling litany of harmonics.
No, I don't think we understand this piece, so much as appreciate it more as we grow older; we recognise its reflection more in the highs and lows of our unfolding lives.
My take, anyway. Hope it made sense.
Only just seen your reply to my post, sorry for the delay in answering you. You express my point so very well, better than I have anyway. Yes its hard to put into words how this peace makes us feel, but I agree age is something that is able to interpret it more and more. But here I am again listening and wondering at the marvel of this music, I can't express it, so sorry, I guess you know what I mean though. Peace to you.
Paul, I had the same response with Finzi's Eclogue for Piano and Strings. It has been the soundtrack of my life. So, I resonate completely with your words about this magnificent music.
Upon my death, I hope the congregation at my memorial service can endure the length of this piece. It is worth the time, and speaks all that any words cannot. Ralph Vaughn Williams and Thomas Tallis.
alandcaldwell1@gmail.com
Yes, I love it too.
That is exactly the same thing that I have requested. In fact, I asked her if she remembered me asking this she instantly said, "Ralph Vaughan Williams [she even pronounced "Ralph" correctly], FaIntasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis," John Barbirolli conducting the Sinfonia Orchestra.
I'm not sure I could ever supply rational reasons for why I love this so passionately, except maybe to say that I have listened to it literally hundreds, if not thousands, of times, and even today, about 40 years after I first heard it, it signifies to me the most beautiful things that this world can offer.
Yes, I have to agree -- I also think of this at a memorial service. Why, though? It's so strange!
I also want this played at my memorial---if there is one. I have for years. This speaks to me of all the beauty and tragedy of being alive, aware, and sentient in this world. All that is life is written here, for me. All that I love of life and all the sorrow of letting go of the beauty of the world.
The dynamics, and the amount of modulation in this piece is amazing. The perfect combination of pre-Baroque melody and harmony, wedded to modern orchestration.
It’s good to know people understand the intricacies of this piece.
What's more, following your thought there, on an uncanny level it plays like both a digest and overview of the whole history of British musick. I think RVW had that in mind.
I thank you, too, for posting the score. I find that I cannot listen to this with strangers, but only with loved ones or in solitude. It is so moving I tear up every time, especially when the viola enters to accompany the violin at 7:12.
It's funny you say that about not wanting to hear this piece except in a setting of total attention to it's wondrous beauty. I would literally turn it off, midstream, if I were to be interrupted by a crass disturbance.
Stunning, this is more of a journey than a piece of music.
Well said. Nathanael Hawthorne wrote in a preface to his book, "For I am a citizen of Somewhere Else."
I think this must be at Its Frontier.
If this piece is taking you somewhere cerebral watch out for the crass interruption by a Connor Macgreggor advert at 9 mins in - literally like a slap in the face.
has to be the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. I could listen to this every minute of the day and never tire of it.
You are right - I have done so and each time the joy and peace are more enhanced.
That is a remarkable test of great music, how often can you hear it in replay.
I hear Bach that way.
Ah, but this work, this ineffable praise of our depths
It could be a perpetuum mobile, on a constant loop, and I would each time feel I was made the better for it.
It may be the Lullaby for "Somewhere Else" LOL
My husband introduced me to this years and years ago .. it still moves me to tears.
I can't begin to explain just how entrancing this song is. I've never been thrown into a world of emotion where the source was outside of myself yet seeping out of every pore on my body.
+micmolily How beautifully expressed. Likewise. Thank you!
A perfect version of a piece I've loved since I was a child and heard it at school. Whenever our teacher asked the class what music we'd like to hear, this was the overwhelming response.
It's probably more than 25 years since I first heard this piece of Vaughan Williams, and it still brings tears to my eye every time. It's so staggeringly beautiful, the more I have studied the piece the more the appreciation and love grows. Thanks for the upload.
+Tom Nutts For me it's the same, but with the difference I heard this piece fifty years ago for the first time. So long Tom. Paolo-Nicola
+Tom Nutts Such beauty. I had "lost" this song for 25 years myself. Since I had forgotten the name. Whilst teaching, a man reminded me of the name. And of Lark Ascending. I was moved to tears. I find this the most ethereal and majestic of all sounds. Unlike any other. I want to study its depth and layers as I have a music charity. I also play the piano and want to learn the cello and violin.
+Hummingbird1977 the lark ascending is one of the most beautiful piece I heard. I'll never forger this name
+Hummingbird1977 And I had lost it for 17 years! My long hunt only just ended today. It's my favorite piece of music of all time.
Rachel Waters,the souls ascends also,its timeless.
To me this always sounds like the song of a soul as it departs. Ascending to heaven, reflecting the beauty, wonder, mystery and majesty of it's time and place in the universe as well as acknowledging the challenges, trials and tribulations a lifetime encapsulates. Every emotion is expressed as if a life story is being told in music as it moves gently and inexorably towards the final separation. I find it very spiritual and comforting. It always reminds me of the passing of loved ones, the circle of life turning and the awesome scale of what we all participate in. I challenge anyone to note their frame of mind before listening and find themselves in the same frame of mind once the piece has finished. It always seems to bring a powerful change.
+chipoftheundead Err... Vaughan Williams was an atheist, so it is very unlikely to be anything about souls floating to heaven or anywhere else. It is a great piece of music for sure, but try to resist reading things in to it,
+David Ashbridge I never said that was what Vaughan Williams had in mind whilst composing it. I made it clear that was my own perception of it. Why should I resist reading anything into it? Isn't part of the joy of music interpreting what your hear from a very personal perspective? Please try to resist looking like a condescending,, music police twat.
+chipoftheundead
YES!!
+chipoftheundead You like it then I see! You have good taste, and I really know how you feel and what this grand eternal music does to you and me both. A Truly magical stunning overwhelming piece!
I too am an atheist, but this piece to me represents the wonders, mysteries and grandeur of the Universe. And now I'm listening to it for the umpteenth time, with tears streaming again.
The sonority of this double orchestra is wonderful.
Ralph Vaughan Williams, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis. It doesn't get any better than this
I first heard this as I was driving along the Barlow Trail in Calgary. Bob Kerr was playing it on his afternoon CBC radio show. Though I was going to the airport, I pulled over to listen with full attention. Today, it still seems like a voice bringing my soul a message that must be heard no matter what, after many many years indeed.
not2tees
not2tees You might like Myfanwy - a Welsh song about unrequited love. But if you want to experience an emotional hit listen to the BBC Soul Music podcast, especially the last witness statement by a man who “saw the hill move” when a slag heap engulfed the school in Aberfan. I can’t listen to his testimony without sharing his grief in the moment.
I miss Bob Kerr!
Try singing the Holst My Soul there is a Country (melody adapted from slow section of Jupiter). I thought singing solos as a treble at funerals, looking along an open coffin, toughened me up and ready for anything. Then, 2-3 years ago, I was asked to sing the Holst hymn tune as a solo at a memorial service. I couldn’t make it through the first verse ..,
Nobody ever talks about the great acoustics! It must of been amazing to be there hearing this performed in that cathedral! Inspiring!
Englands cowpat modernist composer. Absolutely a sublime piece by Williams. Close your eyes and join the seabirds inflight along the English coastline among the high cliffs . The joy is not reaching your destination- it is the journey.
Love 13:27 when the solo violin comes in followed by the solo viola. How exquisite, especially the bit where the violin's A-Flat clashes with the G on the viola (and the lovely resolution of the G down to the F)! What beautiful interplay of voices!
This solo violin....so ethereal! ❤️
I might be blind but I don't see any A flats in the violin solo. The two chords in that section are g major and c minor.
@@andrewrichesson8627 Timestamp for the A-Flat is 14:10. 13:27 is just where that section starts.
@@Sathrandur yes that's a great suspension
Master and Commander The Far Side of the World was a great movie, and this is a great music.
This music always makes me think of my father and how much I miss him. Why I don't know; I don't remember him ever listening to it. But it always moves me to tears. The power of music!
This is what I image one might hear upon passing over. When I lived in the mountains...this is what it felt like.
I cannot describe the myriad of feelings that this track makes me experience, but I'm so grateful that this exists ❤️
It simply doesn't get much better than this.....
One of the most incredible pieces of music that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. It is so much a part of my heart and I will carry it with me, forever.
I'm a bit late to the party but when music is as timelss as this there's no rush! This is the last word in exquisiteness, utterly breathtaking. Never try to explain magic or you'll lose it irrevocably - may we all continue to gasp, marvel, cry and lose ourselves in this little world of beauty forever
I like that, "late to the party but no rush". Music like this invites us all, an open invitation, to a party that never ends.
"You alone, alone, imaginary song
Are unable to say an existence is wrong,
And pour out your forgiveness like a wine."
W.H. Auden, closing lines from "The Composer"
I first heard this at the movies, seeing Master and Commander. It took four months to find out which piece of music this was. I have loved this since I first heard it.
+Jeff Fingerman ....for 40 years I have loved this Williams score, just beautiful....and loved the movie as well with the Boccherini...
+Jeff Fingerman I was really impressed when they used piece in Master and Commader and so effectively too. I am glad you found it.
+one mexican I agree, they dud a great job with the score in that movie. Just shows you can do an action movie with class.
Normally a bit dubious of anything described as one of the best ever, but in this case its true. It is now my fave version.
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Barbers Adagio for Strings are two of my very favorite string works. So emotive. So delicate at times... yet so powerful. With only Strings. Great share. Thank you!
+Mark Humenik Another great srting work is the Robert Cummings Lacrymosa for the victims of 9/11. The download on TH-cam should be the Bassinater the video has a beautiful reed from the seashore on the cover.
When I first heard this piece it was on classical music radio years ago. I felt my heart rise up into my throat.
Just finished watching Master and Commander and came straight here. Anyone else?
Your comment brought me here.
This music is simply sublime!!!! Takes one on a jearney, far far away!!!!
This is the first recognizable piece of music from some of my earliest memories as a child of three. The album was called transfigured nights, and this was the b side. I still love the music 56 years later.
as my father's favorite piece of music it was frequently played during my childhood. Not surprising that it is my favorite as well.
Alan Head I think I had that album too! Schoenberg Transfigured Night, which is fairly similar to this piece. Beautiful album!
I had that album too!! Both pieces are brilliant but I prefer RVW & Tallis
Today my school invited nicola benidetti to come perform and she came with a 40 people group that included violins and cellos and they played this peice. One of my friends said it was borning but i fell inlive with it. Its truly amazing and sounds so nice
If your friend is smart he can learn a lot from you! Thanks for sharing!
The comment of your friend reminds me of the biblical quote about pearls and swine.
This is one of the most magnificent pieces of music EVER WRITTEN, you have been given a gift of untold value to hear it played live by a brilliant soloist.
I always give this advice about listening to the Tallis.
Late at night when everyone has gone to bed, sit on a very comfortable sofa, turn the lights very low, turn the stereo very low, close your eyes and clear your mind.
If you do not have a spiritual experience to knock your socks off then you are DEAD.
By "spiritual" I do not mean "religious", VW was an atheist and so am I.
Anyone who would have the temerity to call this work "boring" is just begging to have the shit slapped out of them. Literally.
Through all the turmoil of this island ,beauty is alive and well.
Needed to listen to this again after the dreadful events in Paris today. Let us pray for the fruitful reconstruction of Notre-Dame.
Amen
I played this with my school orchestra a few years back. they had the small ensemble sit behind the bleachers apart from where the orchestra was sitting, so when the rest of the orchestra stopped and the small ensemble continued, no one could see the instrumentalists and it just sounded like resounding angels. This is a piece i will never get bored of
One day this song will be the first one played at me and the love of my life's wedding, because this was the first song we've ever listened to together. We both felt the passion and the vibrations of the violin and viola strings that absolutely rocked our souls, and one day we'll both listen to it again.
This wonderful performance is my luxury tranqulizer
I agree! An excellent recording. As a non-Englishman, I can't relate this music to anything English. But the music is universal: I feel the fog and ruggedness of the Northern California coast, the green coastal terraces, the crashing waves below, and the endless mystery that stretches beyond.
I love your description & it shows the universality of this music ☺️
I can not fathom anybody giving a thumbs down to this performance.
+David Weulander Anything is possible on TH-cam, especially when you are dealing with trolls.
I have been a music adjudicator for 40 years and have viewed some superlative performances on TH-cam. Then have read some of the negative comments submitted by trolls and by some who are obviously middle school students.
David Weulander Don't forget that there are also a few frustrated, jealous and envious people out there, the ones who want to but can't.... Reminds me of that quote: negative critics are like eunuchs they all know how to do it, but can't do it themselves.... haha
Could be the purists that only like the Barbirolli recording of the piece.
Great British Composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams
I'll give the 1000th like, well deserved for Ralph Vaughn Williams AND Thomas tallis.
Unfortunately I don't have any door prizes but the listening experience.........But thanks for the click and your shared enjoyment! Great to read!
It is GREAT of you, allowing us to hear this fantastic Work! Thank you so much!
Bartje, believe it or not, even today I am still but a beginner at computers.
Please allow me a dumb question or two.
How do you display a Score on the screen? What is the process called?
This is not the first time I have seen this wonderful innovation,
but I have always skipped on without asking, how it is done.
I notice too, things are coordinated, so that the page turns are synchronized.
Is there an APP for this? If so, does it cost an arm and a leg?
Furthermore, Bartje, are there Scores more difficult to obtain than others?
For example, I would LOVE to see this done with Paisiello Piano Concerti,
but I have yet to see any such Online displays like the one you have here.
As you may know, we just passed Paisiello's 280th birthday.
Hmmm...this would be a good way to master a Work right at a Piano!
Bartje, thank you in advance !
You certainly weren't kidding when you described this recording as the 'best performances ever!!'
I used to sing the original Tallis piece in my school choir. Ever since I discovered the Fantasia, it has been my official definition of nostalgia.
I swear this song gives me some serious desert vibes. Like a long, arduous journey across sand dunes and sand mountains. Like a montage. More specifically I see the Holy family fleeing to Egypt. Beautiful. Simply beautiful.
Also, I swear this is where Joe Hisaishi got his inspiration from. A lot of Ghibli scores sound similar to Vaughn Williams.
Awesome, "I have called My Son out of Egypt."
This music calls us all, out of our depths, as just the same. As far as we can go, not without help (such as this!).
I totally get what you mean
This is my absolute favourite piece of classical music and this surely has to be the finest recording I have heard of this wonderful piece. Simply glorious.
It’s incredible I swear I can hear horns, flute, oboe’s…. It’s mesmerising
He scores the various voices to sound like a church organ, in parts, like the Gloucester Cathedral for which it was intended. I used to practically live, hour by hour, at various times in Notre Dame Cathedral 50 years ago, as a youngster, listening to Pierre Cochereau (whom his great composer teacher Marcel Dupre, called "the greatest organ improviser of all time") and church organ is deeply embedded in my hard drive. As an organist, too, RVW included those sonorities here, a sort of massive atmosphere of recognizable musical deep reverence, as part of the mix. A fun fact, one I just found out when I did a map search, about his boyhood home and birthplace: we sang in UK in 1997, and our first stop for lodgings as a chorus was in Swindon, within a stone's throw of Vaughan Williams boynood home in Down Ampney near the Cathedral. We saw Salisbury Cathedral on our bus trip out, and stopped on my rollerbaldes during our break and I drank it all in.
But the music in England has always been playing on a loop in my inner ear, in a subaudible but very present way. The great inspired conductor Andrew Davis is really great at these things. I really prize his Janacek, such as "Glagolitic Mass" available here at TH-cam, so stirring, like this.
He knows well how to stir. We sang with his colleague, the great and late Richard Hickox, it broke my heart when he passed so young, at 60, 10 years after we sang for him in Wales, not far from the RVW haunts. I am sure he must have met him, as gifted a prodigy as he was.
Happy Vigil of All Saints Day (my translation of the secularized "Hallowe'en). (RVW wrote most of my favorite old school hymns, like his classic "For All the Saints" which we will sing tomorrow, a lifelong praise in song for me, since my teens.)
(Check out this version of Janacek, also by Andrew Davis and BBC: th-cam.com/video/R0Nrh_9yv2w/w-d-xo.html Very stirring.)
It's been one of my favorite pieces of music for years now. I wish I could hear it live! Each time I listen to it, this music just sucks me in deeper and deeper. There's something incredibly profound in it, like the depths of the ocean over the restless surface, so I really like to listen to it on the seaside. For me, if the Sea were a music it would sound like this.
A score of imperishable beauty by a great composer, period, full stop.
Starting at 2:20 and ending at 3:17 , I was reminded of the horrors on the SS Atlantic because of the Part-Time-Explorers documentary. I loved the music so much that I looked for this. What a wonderful piece of art.
this is a miracle. one of the most beautiful music i ever heard.
I wish I could give this way more than one like. Absolutely amazing every time I listen to it!
I first listened to this many years ago. It is truly a beautiful piece of music. So emotive, a call from the past and it really tugs at the heart strings, I have to say.
Exquisite! Words don't describe the beauty of this piece
Words cannot express how much joy it brought me to be able to play this. And even to listen to it now. ❤️
One of the best renditions of FTTT's finest piece from the baton of the incomparable Andrew Davis, who releases sublime heights of triumphant joy from the very depths of the darkest of all human tragedies. Ultimately, death is powerless against love.
This is magnificent! I’ve never seen a TH-cam video which displays the sheet music and follows along precisely with the piece being played. I can actually see Vaughan Williams’ original ideas as I’m hearing the interpretation of them. I can now understand specifically how and why this wondrous work sounds the way it does. This is better even than being at a symphonic performance with the score in my lap, following along with the musicians. This is, hands down, one of the most superb ideas ever; and the finest utilization of the TH-cam format. Bravo! And thank you for going through the obviously extensive labour of working out the timing. Unquestionably brilliant! I “liked” this video and subscribed to your channel immediately and saw (to my thorough delight) that all of your uploads follow this same splendid format. I hardly know where to begin! Again, thank you.
+Phillip Allen Thanks for your feedback! You are welcome!
+Bartje Bartmans --I agree completely with Phillip, superb video, and a definitive rendition.
+Bartje Bartmans This is my favorite composition of classical music. I have known it since 1970, and I have had the immeasurable pleasure of hearing it performed live twice. Your post makes it possible to see the genius of Vaughan Williams composition. I too, find it mystical and ethereal and sublime. I am very grateful for this post of yours. I will bookmark it and come back to it many times. Thank you!
I agree with everyone else. If you have other videos like this (and I suspect you do) - then I suspect I will be ravaging your collection. Took violin as a child for a number of years but was never a really serious student so my sight-reading is atrocious but if I know what it sounds like while having the notes in front of me, that does the trick. Still take the instrument out now and then to try and play bits of songs that I really enjoy and now I have some sheet music to boot!
Thank you very much for your feedback Mary!
I could listen to this all day long and not get bored like the way the orchestra crys out beautiful piece
Vaughan Williams paints a picture of heaven in every composition.
This is the most beautiful piece of music ever written (followed closely by The Lark Ascending) and is my music to die to. Thanks for posting it along with the score.
Yes, and listening to this particular rendition with the orchestration makes it all more poignant. I see more clearly how it is meant to echo.
100% agree
It is beautiful, but "most beautiful piece of music ever written?" th-cam.com/video/GwboQDgoPzE/w-d-xo.html is far, far more beautiful. Even Mussorgsky's 'Larme' outstrips this famous piece.
It’s a really beautiful piece but I don’t think we can measure what is the most beautiful piece of music ever written. Personally I find Ben Johnston’s 7th string quartet extraordinarily beautiful but a lot of people wouldn’t agree. I can’t see anyone finding this Fantasia ugly though
JP in Fuerteventura
Indeed it really is, JP! I first heard it around 1979 and NEVER forgot it!
They called Vaughan Williams a Christian Agnostic because of this,
and also because he allegedly did not believe in a God! But this is
beyond sublime! ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 xx
The cleanliness of open strings makes the piece spew the wonder and majesty of nature.
This magnificent piece was used in the movie, “Master And Commander”.
I was just thinking master and Commander my favorite movie of all time love this track 👍👍⛵
"I stand alone as her only friend, and bear witness to the sorrow.
I feel the fading warmth of her fingertips reach out to caress my face, my arms,
Only to be whipped and scolded by a jealous wind.
Yet slowly she sinks, kneeling on distant brow. Her garments purple. crimson. gold, darken as they wash away.
Finally her wounds splinter open. Her soul bleeds across the heavens for my eyes.
She dies for me tonight."
Dude my band teacher told me to listen to this because we're playing A Tallis Prelude for MPA and yeah thanks Mr. Klaes this is awesome.
I love all different types of music from many different countries and eras, but this piece is something I come back to regularly. I love how it uses the original Tallis flower and builds an entire garden out of that centrepiece. It's just such a remarkable piece of music from start to finish. Those three final notes (G, A, B?) that resolve the whole thing bring a real feeling of hope. I'm so moved every time.
40 years passed since I heard this on a classical fm station late one night. Thanks for sharing the score with us. Such a great feeling fto be reunited with a piece of music after this long.
#SEMPER FIDELIS #QUA PATET ORBIS #JE MAINTAN DRAI ! ♫♪ great ♫♪♫♪♫♪☺ BRAVISSIMO @/bisbis 🎶🎵🎼 great music! a well tuned ensemble that sounds like an organ ! Fabulous banding! Compliments! #SEMPER FI #QPO #JMD🎵🎼🎼🎶🎵🥁🎺👌👌🙏🙏🎺 Robert Schumann Quote : Composing something real unique is writing down a melody/set of notes that no one else ever had done before.... ♫♪
Wish there weren't 12 people who were able to find anything wrong with this tune. It is so beautiful and moving. I love every note...
My God!!! I´ve heard it years ago for the first time. This is absolutely magnificent. There´s nothing more needed to say. Heart touching...
There's something absolutely divine about this piece. For years, I've only known it as an ost track from Master and Commander, but thankfully one day decided to google to learn more about it, as it was wrenching my soul every time I heard it: even in that shortened version, it was just on a different level compared even to the greatest soundtracks. Thankfully I discovered the full version and Ralph Vaughan Williams as a composer. Internet is a wonderful thing. Imagine humanity could still create something like this in our days... Maybe if one day all the pieces of culture suddenly disappeared, we would be moved to wake up, reach out and grasp that something we've lost, that divine level of creativity, just to be able to hear something like this once again. Now, we're too spoiled by the abundance.
I don't think we're 'spoiled' by the abundance, more swamped by it... thankfully, great music like this does still rise to the surface, but it seems harder, and take longer, to notice.
This come on in my car yesterday as I was driving and in my mind I went from being a bedouin nomad on a camel in the desert, an english Knight on some sort of quest, a monk in Tibet and finally into a bliss indescribable.
My new favourite piece of music
Wow! I love your description!
A masterpiece composed by a genius and performed wonderfully. Thank you for uploading.
Heard this in the film Master and Commander. Genuinely such a joy to hear this piece of music.
While I cant' keep the tears from flowing at this incredible piece of music - following along on the score is magnificent.