Composed in 1930 in response to a commission by Herbert Sumsion, organist of the Gloucester Cathedral, Gustav Holst's Choral Fantasia is a setting of Robert Bridges' poem Ode to Music. A powerful work, it is written for chorus and orchestra with a concertante organ part as was requested by Sumsion. Holst's penchant for scale passages and the Phrygian mode are evident and present a fine example of his mature compositional style. First performed at the Three Choirs Festival of 1931 with Sumsion at the organ, Holst's favorite soprano, Dorothy Silk, singing the solo soprano line and the composer conducting, Choral Fantasia was met with less than rave reviews. It gained popularity, however, with the more sophisticated audiences of the late twentieth century. This was principally due to the passionate advocacy of Holst's daughter, Imogen, a consummate musician and conductor in her own right.

The Choral Fantasia begins with a brooding fortissimo organ prelude which leads to a six-four G chord with a C sharp below that offended the parochial tastes of the English music critics during this work's premier performance. This massive chord introduces a hauntingly lyrical soprano solo that soars above an almost unheard chordal organ line. The trombone and trumpet fanfares and the impressive timpani motif in five-four meter which follow are typical of Holst's powerful writing. The chromatic lines of the fugato are reminiscent of Holst's Egdon Heath, an orchestral homage to Thomas Hardy, and Hammersmith which he composed in the same year as the Choral Fantasia. As the unison men's choral voices enter in a flowing seven-four meter with the phrase, "Rejoice, ye dead", the chromaticism of the piece gives way to a diatonic brass accompaniment. The chorus expresses a luminous climax with the lyrics, "With deathless flames", that leads to a reiteration of the opening organ cadenza with the original theme being sung by the male vocal line. Homophonic five-part choral dissonances created by opposing chordal motion lead to a two-part vocal canon based on the fugato theme heard earlier. A sweetly innocent string interlude reintroduces the final reprise of the soprano solo which completes this complex work with a satisfying, unaccompanied restatement of the opening theme.

While English audiences of the 1930s were disconcerted by Holst's harmonic thinking, this work makes clear his ability to successfully juxtapose modal and bitonal techniques on more conventional writing. Although not as adventurous as the work of many of his European contemporaries, Holst's Choral Fantasia is an outstanding representation of his mature choral compositional style.



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