Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"

Performed for the first time on this date in 1910.

... the overall form corresponds roughly to the Elizabethan fantasia for viols, the music the composer seeks to evoke. But the composer doesn't indulge in antiquarianism. He writes a thoroughly modern work ... Unlike Stravinsky, however, who creates artistic tension between two eras by keeping past procedures and present distinct, Vaughan Williams, like many good Romantics, essentially incorporates the past to reinvigorate the present.

Read the rest of this interesting Listener's Guide here.

Part 1

Part 2