Fantasia in G Major

Despite their brevity, Purcell’s Fantasias span the gamut of affects, by turns poignant, playful, melancholy, luminous. Technically, they showcase the young composer’s mastery of counterpoint—the art of threading together several individual melodic lines to form a cogent musical narrative or tapestry. To that end, instruments imitate and develop each other’s melodies: there’s a lovely example of this in the opening of the G major Fantasia for four viols where each instrument “passes the baton” to the next. Purcell also threads together ascending and descending melodies, creating undulating waves of sound whose luminous textures are shot through with tart dissonances and striking harmonic colours, making them daringly expressive. This Fantasia starts in the radiant key of G Major but meanders chromatically through keys remote from that tonality, darkening the mood in the central section until the breezy finale scurries back to the home key. About Purcell’s Fantasias for Viols The 21-year-old Purcell composed these Fantasias in white heat during the summer of 1680. They are brief but intense swan songs of the viol consort, which had long been the most fashionable form of chamber music-making for convivial gatherings with friends and family. The viol (a fretted, bowed instrument with a delicate, reedy sound) comes in different sizes, more or less corresponding to the ranges of the human singing voice: treble, alto, tenor and bass. Purcell contrasts colour and tempos—fast and slow—throughout these seamless, single-movement works which are scored variously for three to five viols, though they can also be played on other stringed instruments.