Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis

Vaughan Williams' masterpiece for string orchestra was given its premiere on September 6th, 1910 at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral with the London Symphony Orchestra under the composer's direction. It was an immediate success, but the composer revised the piece twice (1913 and 1919) before it's first publication in 1921. The Phrygian-mode Tallis melody upon which the work is based originally appeared in Archbishop Parker's Psalter of 1567 with the text "Why fum'th in fight the Gentiles spite." This newly engraved and edited score, based upon the 1921 Curwen score, has a vastly improved layout designed for ease of study and performance.

• IMSLP page
• Wikipedia article