Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes

Grace Williams (1906 – 1977) wrote Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes in 1940. She has been recognized as Wales’ most prominent female composer. Williams studied at the Royal Conservatory in London with Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Her compositions include symphonies, concertos, choral and vocal works, chamber works and solo pieces. She was also the first British composer to score a feature film.

In one eleven-minute movement, Fantasia transforms eight Welsh nursery tunes and lullabies, well-known to Welsh families but practically unknown outside Wales. It begins and ends with Jim Cro – also known as Dacw Mam yn Dwâd (Here’s mummy coming), which bears a striking resemblance to the American tune “Yankee Doodle.” It is bookended with the most lively tunes, and develops more melancholic tunes in the middle. Fantasia is cleverly constructed, highlighting the many colors of the orchestra while still remaining whimsical and light. The percussion evokes childhood instruments, while the harp adds strong Celtic tones. The work especially features our trumpet section.

Fantasia received its premiere in 1940 on a radio broadcast by the BBC Northern Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra). It was a great hit, prompting an immediate commercial recording by the London Symphony Orchestra. Its popularity, especially in war-torn Wales, helped Williams to become more widely known, and it is still her most popular work and an important part of her output.

Williams said of the piece, “I can give something of myself to folksong fantasias + such things – yes I know they are derivative but they’ve got a splash of me in – because I really + truly love those traditional tunes.”