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Renz Eulric Adame,

Master’s in music, School of Music, University of Ottawa

“A British, French, and Italian man and the idea of a Fantasy”

The “Fantasy” is a single movement work without break that is intended to give the composer
artistic freedom designed not only to challenge the artists’ skill and imagination but to challenge
the ability of the performer as a result (Djiovanis 2005). The term “Fantasy” was also a way to
identify works that deviated and challenged the idea of the standard sonata form or the form of a
four-movement work for example (Lent 2008). This genre entered the oboe repertoire in the late
19th century and into the 20th century. Prior to this, most of the works that existed in the oboe
repertoire consisted mainly of concertos (solo oboe with orchestra) such as Mozart and Haydn’s
oboe concerto and sonatas (solo oboe with piano) such as Bach, Vivaldi, and Saint-Saëns’ oboe
sonatas and with some chamber music such as Mozart’s oboe quartet and Dvorak’s serenade all
of which are within the standard forms that already exist. My research intends to identify the
differences and similarities in the idea of Fantasy across these three composers that wrote three
of the most well-known pieces in the oboe repertoire.

Antonio Pasculli (1842-1924) was an Italian oboist that was regarded by Rachel Becker as
perhaps the greatest oboe virtuoso of historical memory in her 2013 article in the International
Double Reed Society’s journal The Double Reed. Pasculli was also known as the Paganini of the
oboe (Hill 2015) as a result of the incredibly virtuosic music that Pasculli wrote, he mainly wrote
for himself just as Paganini did. Pasculli’s Fantasia sull’opera ‘Poliuto’ is no different.
Unfortunately, the date in which the piece was written cannot be identified in comparison to the
other two fantasies as the manuscript that Pasculli wrote was mainly for his own reference
material when he performed and therefore were never dated to indicate exactly when he wrote it
(Hill). These fantasias served to push what the oboe could do at this point as no one had really
written anything like this for the oboe, with incredibly fast and violin- like passages, he had re-
arranged Donizetti’s melody and wrapped the melodies around a wall of notes to tell the story in
his own way, while still honoring the composer. He took the melodies, arranged the thematic
musical material and created his own story of Poliuto’s love story (Becker 2013). He used the
freedom that the genre of fantasy allows to rearrange a story in his own voice.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) wrote the Phantasy quartet in 1932 for William Cobbett’s
“Phantasy” competition that meant that composers had to write single movement works intended
to challenge pre-existing forms (Djiovanis 2005). The composers in this competition are tasked
to write a piece that does not exceed 12 minutes in length and is made up of sections, which may
differ in tempo and rhythm but are performed as one whole piece with no break (Lent 2008).
Cobbett also mentions that although the Phantasy is a one movement work with multiple
sections, each part of the piece should be of equal importance (Lent 2008). It is important to note
Britten’s love for Beethoven and Brahms at this point, to which when one closely examines the
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quartet, it amalgamates the idea of a four-movement classical form into one single-movement
work (Djiovanis 2005). The Andante from measures 1-60 being the first part, the Allegro from
measures 60-212 being the second, measures 212-371 the third, and a recapitulation from
measure 371 to the end being the fourth section, nearly imitating a four-movement work
(Djiovanis 2005). Britten used the freedom in writing the quartet in order to amalgamate his love
for classic forms and turned into a modern idea.

Eugene Bozza (1905-1991) was commissioned in 1939 to write an exam piece for the oboe for
the Diploma program at the Paris Conservatoire where he earned his degrees for violin,
conducting, and composition and while he was working as the Chef d’orchestre for the Opera
Comique in Paris (Liu 2015). Fantaisie Pastorale, in three parts, was written to challenge the
performer’s musical and lyrical skill, but also their technical ability. The piece opens with a
cadenza that immediately gives the performer the opportunity to show off their technical ability
without any constraints in tempo. It then continues with a slow and melodic middle section that
showcases the performer’s musicality, and followed by a conclusion consisting of a brisk final
section that again shows the performer’s technical ability with fast and short articulated passages
that builds to an incredible climax all the way to the end of the piece.

Each composer takes a different approach to the genre, but all taking advantage of the freedom
that it gives in different ways. Pasculli creates the idea of a theme and variations in order to re-
tell a story by rearranging the themes and making them harder and harder as the piece
progresses. Britten combines Beethoven and Brahms’ idea of form and the Phantasy competition
in order to create something modern and quite unique. And Bozza uses the freedom by creating
an unconventional form by starting with a cadenza, followed by a lyrical passage, and
concluding with a fast and articulated ending that allows a performer to showcase their skill and
talent in a short piece. All showing a very different version of the same genre, but all
fundamentally to highlight the freedom in which the composer can show their skill as well as the
performer’s talent.

Bibliography:

Becker, Rachel. 2013. “Pasculli and His Oboe: Feminine Characterization in Opera Fantasias.”
The Double Reed, Vol. 36 No. 3. 137-145. Retrieved 10 Oct. 2019.
https://www.idrs.org/wp-content/plugins/flowpaper-zine/php/services/view.php?
doc=DR36_3-1.pdf&format=pdf&page={page}

Burgess, Geoffrey. 2001. “Pasculli, Antonio.” Grove Music Online. Accessed 9 Oct. 2019.
https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo
-9781561592630-e-0000045664.
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Djiovanis, Sotos J. 2005. “The Oboe Works of Benjamin Britten.” DMA diss., Florida State
University. Accessed 9 Oct 2019.
https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:168899/datastream/PDF/view

Field, Christopher D.S., E. Eugene Helm, and William Drabkin. 2001. “Fantasia.” Grove Music
Online. Accessed 24 Oct. 2019. https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo
-9781561592630-e-0000040048

Hill, Aaron S. 2015. “Use your words: A lyrical guide to the opera-inspired paraphrases of
Antonio Pasculli (1842-1924)” Accessed 9 Oct 2019. DMA diss., James Madison
University. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019/15

Liu, Hsing-Fang. 2015. “The Practice of ‘Adoptive’ Transcription in Selected Works for Clarinet
by Eugene Bozza.” DMA diss., University of North Texas. Accessed 9 Oct 2019.
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc822842/m2/2/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf

Lent, Kathryn L. 2008. “Walter Wilson Cobbett and the English Phantasy.” MMus Thesis.,
Bowling Green State University. Accessed 20 Oct 2019. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!
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