Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1911)
Scored for: Double string orchestra and solo string quartet
Performance time: 15 minutes
First Grant Park Orchestra performance: June 28, 1997; William Eddins, conductor

When Ralph Vaughan Williams was commissioned to write a piece for the prestigious Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, he looked to England’s past for inspiration. Between 1904 and 1906, Vaughan Williams had been almost singularly focused on compiling, editing, and composing hymns for The English Hymnal. Several melodies from the hymnal made their way into his own compositions, including a psalm tune by 16th-century English composer Thomas Tallis.

The Phrygian-mode melody Vaughan Williams used in Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is the third of nine psalm tunes Tallis contributed to Archbishop Matthew Parker’s 1567 psalter. Vaughan Williams pays further homage to English music history by casting the work as a string fantasia, a popular genre of consort music during the Tudor period that had regained popularity in the early 20th century. This rooting in England’s musical past, including his promotion of English folk song, helped Vaughan Williams cultivate the “quintessential Englishness” that came to characterize his output.

Vaughan Williams scores the Fantasia for two string orchestras (the second only comprising nine players, placed in the distance) plus a solo quartet in the foreground. This use of distinct groups provides a wealth of sonic possibilities and mirrors the resonant acoustics of Gloucester Cathedral. The theme is first introduced by the low strings in haunting pizzicatos. Vaughan Williams employs Tallis’s original four-part harmony for the first full statement of the theme by the combined orchestras, followed by a second statement with more elaborate accompanimental figures. He then divides the musical material into fragments and puts the ensembles in antiphonal conversation with one another, exploring the potential of Tallis’s theme to the fullest.

Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)
Phenomenal Women (2018)
Scored for: two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, one bassoon, two French horns, two trumpets, one trombone, tuba, timpani, harp, strings, and solo woodwind quintet
Performance time: 27 minutes
First Grant Park Orchestra performance

“It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.”

– excerpt from Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman”

Founder and former flutist of Grammy Award-winning wind quintet Imani Winds, Valerie Coleman is equally accomplished as a composer and performer. In 2017, Anne Midgette of The Washington Post named her one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” of the 20th and 21st centuries. Coleman wrote Phenomenal Women, a six-movement concerto grosso for wind quintet and chamber orchestra, for Imani Winds and the American Composer’s Orchestra in 2018. Inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Women” (first published in And Still I Rise in 1978), the work celebrates five influential women who overcame adversity with grace: Maya Angelou, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, tennis star Serena Williams, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Olympic boxer Claressa Shields, who has brought greater awareness to the water crisis in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. The commonality between these women, Coleman said, is that “They figured out a way through their own determination to not only persevere through [adversity] but thrive.”

Although containing no lyrics, the first movement traverses Maya Angelou’s poetry, from “Still I Rise” to “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” to the eponymous poem. As Coleman describes the movement, “There’s a certain calypso feel to it; it’s sexy but at the same time it’s very bold.” Coleman deploys subtle tone painting in her portraits. For instance, “Serena” captures the percussive thwack of a tennis ball, while staccato oboe notes stream like binary code before the spaceship eventually lifts off in “Katherine.” In the middle of these character portraits is “Caravana,” which is dedicated to the migrant women walking in caravans across the southern border, only to be separated from their children. In this movement, the solo flute plays a two-note figure reminiscent of Brahms’s Lullaby in a poignant reminder of the migrant mothers’ heartbreak.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297, Paris (1778)
Scored for: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two French horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings
Performance time: 22 minutes
First Grant Park Orchestra performance: July 8, 1966; Irwin Hoffman, conductor

The last time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was in Paris, he was a child prodigy being paraded around in front of aristocrats. Now 22, he returned to Paris on one final European tour with his mother, Anna Maria Mozart. The primary goal of this trip, like the others before it, was to secure well-paid permanent employment under a weather patron. To his father’s dismay, he never sealed the deal. He failed for various reasons—personality clashes, differing musical tastes, and, as was the case in Paris, bad luck.

After a few months in Mannheim, Mozart and his mother arrived in Paris in the spring of 1778. Only one major work came out of his six-month residency there, his so-called “Paris” Symphony No. 31, K 297. The symphony was a great success, but Mozart’s trip was cut short when his mother died soon after the premiere. Mozart remained in Paris through August for a repeat performance of the symphony, but after settling his affairs, he headed home to Salzburg.

Even discounting Anna Maria’s death, Mozart did not enjoy his time in Paris. He hated French music and suspected the Parisian musical establishment of professional sabotage. Nevertheless, following his father’s advice, he decided to cater to local tastes when composing the Paris Symphony. He wrote to his father, “The few intelligent Frenchmen who are there will like it . . . As for the stupid ones, I can’t see that there is any great misfortune in displeasing them. Still, I have hopes that even the asses may find something in it to give them pleasure.”

The Paris Symphony reveals Mozart’s knack for playing with the audience’s expectations. For instance, he adheres to the French convention of the premier coup d’achet, which simply means all instruments begin the piece together. This expectation bemused Mozart, who wrote, “What a fuss these boors make of this! What the devil! I can’t see any difference—they all begin together—just as they do elsewhere. It’s a joke.” Mozart opens the piece with three decisive D-major chords in full orchestra, almost parodying the convention. However, he begins the finale with just the first and second violins, marked piano, before a forte tutti entrance eight bars later. This surprising twist caused the audience to break into delighted applause mid-movement at the premiere. Mozart conformed with Parisian norms in his instrumentation as well, employing the largest orchestra he had used thus far. He also incorporated clarinets for the first time, having first encountered the instrument in Mannheim before arriving in Paris.

The work’s crowd-pleasing musical fireworks, with its resounding unisons, dramatic dynamic contrasts, and pleasing melodies, belie an underlying sophistication and density of musical ideas that sets Mozart apart from many of his contemporaries. At least one person in the audience caught on to this complexity. The director of the concert series for which Mozart had written the Paris Symphony said the slow movement had “too many ideas.” Therefore, for the second performance in August, Mozart decided to replace it with a new Andante. Both the Andantino in 6/8 (thought to be the original slow movement) and the Andante in 3/4 will be played tonight in direct succession.

—Katherine Buzard