Henry Purcell
4 Fantasias in 4 Parts

Gustav Holst
Phantasy Quartet on British Folk Songs Op. 36

Imogen Holst
Phantasy Quartet

Ethel Smyth
String Quartet in E-flat Minor

In 1905, the British patron and passionate chamber musician Walter Willson Cobbett launched a competition for one-movement chamber music works, known as “Phantasies.” Drawing on the significant English tradition of “consort music”—a tradition to which Henry Purcell, among others, contributed with numerous “Fancies” or “Fantasias”—Cobbett envisioned reviving this centuries-old genre—and he actually succeeded!

Along with Arnold Bax, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Frank Bridge, Imogen Holst also submitted her “Phantasy Quartet” to the competition. Although her father, Gustav, did not enter the competition, he drew inspiration from the “Phantasy” trend for his Opus 36. Much to Cobbett’s regret, Ethel Smyth declined the invitation to enter the competition. Her string quartet in E-flat minor, in which influences from Brahms and Beethoven’s influence is clearly evident, making this a rewarding discovery in British chamber music.

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