Did Arvo Part rip off Vaughan-Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis? I never made the connection before I heard it on the proms but if you'd blindfolded me I would have thought I was listening to best of Part. Interesting.

Any thoughts...?

I don't really see it.. i've always thought that they're pretty different. Are you thinking of something like the Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten? similar sonority but really a totally different sound world. They both use modes quite a lot, but VW tends to use cadence a lot more, folky stuff. Part's melodies are derived from plainsong for the most part - same modes used in a different way. Part has an almost Cage-ian stillness in quite a lot of his music. If you consider the Cantus, it doesn't really have any formal structure, just the imposed structure of the expanded descending scale, where as almost all of VW's music is either lyrically or rhythmically structured. The Fantasia on Thomas Tallis is more similar than most as it draws from a similar tradition to Part, early music at least, so it loses some of that rhythmic continuity and form. If you compare it to the Fantasia on Greensleeves, the similarity to Part disappears, as the pulse of the song takes over the music. Part's music rarely is so rhythmically driven or indeed continuous.
Another difference is harmony, VW uses a lot of that full, english string orchestra sound, lovely fat harmonies and lush chords. Part can be very minimal in terms of conventional harmony, most of his music, while often "diatonic" is fundamentally horizontal. If you look at his Tintinnabulum style, the harmony is, while not irrelevant, not part of the development of the piece but rather part of the context.
In short, while at some moments their sound can be similar, it is approached from totally different directions philosophically and musically.

wow that was a bit of an essay

Good reply

Maybe they both just ripped off Tallis and that's where the similarity lies.

I love both composers and have never felt there was a similarity

I don't really see it.. i've always thought that they're pretty different. Are you thinking of something like the Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten? similar sonority but really a totally different sound world. They both use modes quite a lot, but VW tends to use cadence a lot more, folky stuff. Part's melodies are derived from plainsong for the most part - same modes used in a different way. Part has an almost Cage-ian stillness in quite a lot of his music. If you consider the Cantus, it doesn't really have any formal structure, just the imposed structure of the expanded descending scale, where as almost all of VW's music is either lyrically or rhythmically structured. The Fantasia on Thomas Tallis is more similar than most as it draws from a similar tradition to Part, early music at least, so it loses some of that rhythmic continuity and form. If you compare it to the Fantasia on Greensleeves, the similarity to Part disappears, as the pulse of the song takes over the music. Part's music rarely is so rhythmically driven or indeed continuous.
Another difference is harmony, VW uses a lot of that full, english string orchestra sound, lovely fat harmonies and lush chords. Part can be very minimal in terms of conventional harmony, most of his music, while often "diatonic" is fundamentally horizontal. If you look at his Tintinnabulum style, the harmony is, while not irrelevant, not part of the development of the piece but rather part of the context.
In short, while at some moments their sound can be similar, it is approached from totally different directions philosophically and musically.

wow that was a bit of an essay
[/quote]


Well I can't argue with this! What's more I don't want to because I've since sat down and played them back to back and yes the similarity is superficial. It was at a distance in time of listening that made me question it. And your analysis is superb - thanks for such a terrific reply.