Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Encyclopedia
Fantasia on British Sea Songs or Fantasy on British Sea Songs is a piece of classical music arranged by Sir Henry Wood
in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar
. It is a medley of British
sea song
s and for many years was seen as an indispensable item at the BBC's
Last Night of the Proms concert. In 2008 it was dropped from the programme. It was expected to return in 2010 and again in 2011 but was not included in either final programme.
The fantasia commences with a series of six naval bugle call
s and their responses. These calls were traditionally used to convey orders on a naval warship. The first call is Admiral's salute, call five is Prepare to ram and the final call is Quick double, extend and close. In 2005, the bugle calls were restored to the fantasia after a long absence, although Ye Spanish Ladies was removed, replaced by the Welsh, Scottish and Irish songs, arranged by Bob Chilcott
: Ar Hyd y Nos
, The Skye Boat Song
and Danny Boy
.
Rule, Britannia!
was originally included in the Fantasia, but for many years up to the 2000 Last Night of the Proms, it had been performed in the arrangement by Sir Malcolm Sargent, with a noted opera singer to encourage the audience to sing the refrain. From 2002 to 2007, the BBC reverted to the original arrangement that Sir Henry Wood made for the Fantasia, performing just one verse with chorus for audience participation. In 2009 the original Arne arrangement was used.
. During the various solos, the performing artist often ad libbed their own variation on the melody and various parts of the Fantasia were often repeated at the request of the audience, whose participation was usually encouraged by light-hearted mockery on the part of the conductor.
Henry Wood
Henry Wood was a British conductor.Henry Wood may also refer to:* Henry C. Wood , American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient* Henry Wood , English cricketer...
in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
. It is a medley of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sea song
Sea song
Sea song or sea-song may refer to:*sometimes a sea shanty, a type of shipboard working song which flourished from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century...
s and for many years was seen as an indispensable item at the BBC's
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Last Night of the Proms concert. In 2008 it was dropped from the programme. It was expected to return in 2010 and again in 2011 but was not included in either final programme.
Arrangement
Wood's arrangement comprised nine parts which follow the course of the battle from the point of view of a British sailor, starting with the call to arms, progressing through the death of a comrade, thoughts of home, and ending with a victorious return and the assertion that Britain will continue to 'rule the waves'. In recent years, with the development of concerts running simultaneously in different parts of Britain, the BBC has added Irish, Scottish and Welsh songs which have obscured Wood's original 'plot'.The fantasia commences with a series of six naval bugle call
Bugle call
A bugle call is a short tune, originating as a military signal announcing scheduled and certain non-scheduled events on a military installation, battlefield, or ship. Historically, bugles, drums, and other loud musical instruments were used for clear communication in the noise and confusion of a...
s and their responses. These calls were traditionally used to convey orders on a naval warship. The first call is Admiral's salute, call five is Prepare to ram and the final call is Quick double, extend and close. In 2005, the bugle calls were restored to the fantasia after a long absence, although Ye Spanish Ladies was removed, replaced by the Welsh, Scottish and Irish songs, arranged by Bob Chilcott
Bob Chilcott
Robert "Bob" Chilcott is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxford, England.Born in Plymouth, Chilcott sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, both as a boy and as a university student. He performed the Pie Jesu of Fauré's Requiem on the 1967 recording. In 1985 he...
: Ar Hyd y Nos
Ar Hyd y Nos
Ar Hyd y Nos is a Welsh folksong sung to a tune that was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards . The Welsh lyrics were written by John Ceiriog Hughes, and has been translated into several languages, including English and Breton.The melody was used by John...
, The Skye Boat Song
The Skye Boat Song
"The Skye Boat Song" is a Scottish folk song, which can also be played as a waltz, recalling the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart from Uist to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Charles escaped in a small boat, with the aid of Flora MacDonald, disguised as a...
and Danny Boy
Danny Boy
-Background:The words to "Danny Boy" were written by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in 1910. Although the lyrics were originally written for a different tune, Weatherly modified them to fit the "Londonderry Air" in 1913, after his sister-in-law in the U.S. sent him a copy. Ernestine...
.
Rule, Britannia!
Rule, Britannia!
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740...
was originally included in the Fantasia, but for many years up to the 2000 Last Night of the Proms, it had been performed in the arrangement by Sir Malcolm Sargent, with a noted opera singer to encourage the audience to sing the refrain. From 2002 to 2007, the BBC reverted to the original arrangement that Sir Henry Wood made for the Fantasia, performing just one verse with chorus for audience participation. In 2009 the original Arne arrangement was used.
Instrumentation
Wood scored the fantasia for the following large orchestra:- WoodwindsWoodwind instrumentA woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
: piccoloPiccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
, 3 fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, 3 oboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, English hornCor anglaisThe cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....
, 3 clarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s in B-Flat, 2 bassoonBassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s, contrabassoonContrabassoonThe contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower... - BrassBrass instrumentA 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...
: 6 hornHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
s in F, 4 trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s in B-Flat, 4 tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
s (3 tenor and 1 bass), euphoniumEuphoniumThe euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...
, tubaTubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the... - PercussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
: timpaniTimpaniTimpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, snare drumSnare drumThe snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
, tenor drumTenor drumA tenor drum is a cylindrical drum that is higher pitched than a bass drum.In a symphony orchestra's percussion section, a tenor drum is a low-pitched drum, similar in size to a field snare, but without snares and played with soft mallets or hard sticks. Under various names, the drum has been used...
, bass drumBass drumBass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, triangleTriangleA triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
, wood blockWood blockA woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
s - KeyboardKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
: organOrgan (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... - StringsString instrumentA 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...
: 2 harpHarpThe harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
s, first and second violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
s, violoncelloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
s, double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
es
Performance during the Last Night of the Proms
Crowd participation is often noted in the Fantasia performance during the Last Night of the Proms. Mock tears were shed by the audience during Tom Bowling, feet were stamped in time to the introduction of Jack's the Lad, a familiar tune which gets faster and faster, being followed by the honking of hooters and a crescendoing clapping during the climax. Occasionally the orchestra have been known to deliberately perform this part out of tune in response to the audience. The frantic pace was then juxtaposed with the solemn humming with Home, Sweet Home and then the whistling of the melody of See, The Conquering Hero Comes. This culminated in the "prommers" singing the refrain of Rule, Britannia!Rule, Britannia!
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740...
. During the various solos, the performing artist often ad libbed their own variation on the melody and various parts of the Fantasia were often repeated at the request of the audience, whose participation was usually encouraged by light-hearted mockery on the part of the conductor.
Movements
- Bugle CallsBugle callA bugle call is a short tune, originating as a military signal announcing scheduled and certain non-scheduled events on a military installation, battlefield, or ship. Historically, bugles, drums, and other loud musical instruments were used for clear communication in the noise and confusion of a...
- The Anchor's Weighed
- The Saucy ArethusaThe Saucy ArethusaThe Saucy Arethusa is a nautical song which, although usually considered 'traditional', was possibly written by 'Prince Hoare', a comic opera librettist, in around 1832....
- Tom BowlingTom BowlingTom Bowling can be:*A character in the novel The Adventures of Roderick Random*An 18th century song by Charles Dibdin.*The fourth movement of the Fantasia on British Sea Songs by Sir Henry Wood, which uses the melody of Dibdin's song....
- Jack's The LadThe Sailor's HornpipeThe Sailor's Hornpipe is a traditional hornpipe melody.- History :The usual tune for this dance was first printed as the "College Hornpipe" in 1797 or 1798 by J. Dale of London....
(HornpipeHornpipeThe term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
) - Farewell and Adieu, Ye Spanish LadiesSpanish LadiesSpanish Ladies is a traditional English naval song, describing a voyage from Spain to the Downs from the viewpoint of ratings of the British Royal Navy.- Origins :...
- Home, Sweet HomeHome! Sweet Home!"Home! Sweet Home!" is a song that has remained well-known for over 150 years. Adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera Clari, Maid of Milan, the song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne...
- See, the Conqu'ring Hero Comes
- Rule, Britannia!Rule, Britannia!"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740...