When the First String Resonates

The moment the harp’s arpeggio slices through the air, I am always seized by the same sensation. Like sunlight filtering through the stained glass of an ancient cathedral, that sound blurs the boundaries of time, awakening memories that have been slumbering somewhere deep within my heart.

Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Greensleeves” is such music. In these brief five minutes, we simultaneously walk the streets of 16th-century England and the concert halls of the 20th century. Each melody whispered by the flute seems to travel back hundreds of years to tell us someone’s love story.

Have you ever experienced such a moment? When certain music makes time seem to stand still, when past and present melt into one?

A Journey to Independence Born from Opera

This beautiful miniature was not originally conceived as an independent work. The melody that Ralph Vaughan Williams lovingly crafted as an interlude in Act III of his opera “Sir John in Love” (1924-1928) found its way to the concert hall through Ralph Greaves’ arrangement in 1934.

In this opera based on Shakespeare’s comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the composer wove together two 16th-century English folk songs: “Greensleeves” and “Lovely Joan.”

Fascinatingly, Shakespeare himself had already referenced Greensleeves in his own play, with Falstaff crying out, “Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of ‘Greensleeves’!” This shows just how well-known the song was even in the 16th century.

Vaughan Williams was a composer who spent his lifetime trying to revive England’s national musical identity. For him, seeking to break free from 19th-century German musical influence and find a purely English sound, such folk songs were like treasures. Indeed, he spent over ten years traveling throughout England for thirty days each year, collecting more than 800 folk songs.

A Small Universe Created by Two Melodies

Greensleeves – The Poignancy of Love

The work is structured in the traditional ABA ternary form. After the harp’s lyrical introduction, the first melody sung by the flute is none other than the famous “Greensleeves.”

“Alas, my love, you do me wrong, to cast me off discourteously…”

First recorded in London in 1580, this 16th-century folk song expresses the anguished heart of a man rejected in love. While legend suggests Henry VIII composed it for Anne Boleyn, it’s actually believed to be an Elizabethan work influenced by Italian compositional styles.

When the flute sings this melody, the strings create an accompaniment reminiscent of the lute through tremolo and pizzicato. Combined with the harp’s arpeggios, this sonority transports us to the world of medieval troubadours.

Lovely Joan – Wit and Humor

The middle section brings a complete change of atmosphere. Another folk song called “Lovely Joan” appears here, which Vaughan Williams collected himself in Norfolk in 1908.

This song tells quite an amusing tale: a clever woman tricks a man trying to seduce her, stealing his horse and gold ring before escaping. In contrast to Greensleeves’ melancholy, this overflows with the wit and humor of the English common folk.

Musically, this section is more lively and buoyant. The strings’ rhythm comes alive, and the melodic lines move more dancingly. It’s like listening to a spirited tale unfolding in a country tavern.

The Return of Greensleeves – Sublimated Beauty

In the final section, the Greensleeves melody returns, but this time clothed differently than before. The harmonic richness born from the meeting of two folk songs, the deeper resonance of the strings, and the dialogue between harp and flute transform this five-minute miniature into a complete microcosm.

The Magic of Time Travel I Experience

Every time I listen to this music, I feel like a time traveler. The moment the first note sounds, the present vanishes and I feel drawn into some other dimension.

Especially that tremor when the flute first presents the Greensleeves melody. It’s like reading an old letter—someone’s confession about the pain of love, written hundreds of years ago. When that melody blossoms above the strings’ gentle support, I always feel a stirring in my chest.

Then the “Lovely Joan” section offers a different kind of pleasure. The sudden brightening of mood creates a shift like hearing a sad story and suddenly encountering a comic scene. There’s joy in this contrast. Isn’t life like that? Sorrow and happiness woven together.

When Greensleeves returns at the end, it approaches not with its initial simple beauty, but with something deeper and more mature. Like lovers reunited after separation, it carries the feeling of a reunion after experiencing the pain of parting.

Small Secrets for Deeper Listening

If you’re hearing this work for the first time, I recommend focusing on several key points.

First, pay attention to the harp’s role. This instrument transcends mere accompaniment, functioning like a key that opens the door of time. Particularly in the introduction, following the flow of the harp’s arpeggios, you can feel how the music moves from present to past and back to present again.

Second, listen to the dialogue between flute and strings. Notice what colors the strings add when the flute sings the main melody, especially savoring the archaic atmosphere created by tremolo and pizzicato.

Third, comparing different recorded versions can be rewarding. Some performances use solo violin instead of flute, and each creates subtly different feelings. The flute gives a more celestial and ethereal quality, while the violin offers something more human and warm.

The Power of Music to Touch Time

Ultimately, perhaps the greatest gift Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Greensleeves” offers us is a new sense of time itself. In these brief five minutes, we traverse centuries of history. A song that once echoed through 16th-century English streets is reborn through 20th-century sophisticated arrangement, then passed on to us in the 21st century—a miracle indeed.

Listening to this music, time seems not to flow in a straight line but to move in circles. Past beauty speaks directly to us in the present, and our emotions meet and resonate with someone from long ago.

Perhaps this is exactly what Vaughan Williams pursued throughout his life: conveying universal human emotions that transcend time and space through music. Using the specific material of English folk songs, he created stories that all humanity could share.

When the final chord fades and silence arrives, we return to the present. But we have become slightly different people than we were five minutes earlier—people who have traveled through time, conversed with someone from the past, experienced the magic of music.

This is the greatest gift classical music gives us: a ticket for journeys through time and space.

Next Destination: Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique

Having savored the quiet, lyrical beauty of “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” how about embarking on a completely different dimension of musical adventure? With the fifth movement of Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique”—”Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.”

While Vaughan Williams calls beautiful memories from the past into the present, Berlioz paints nightmares from imagination more vividly than reality itself. From the pastoral landscapes of 16th-century England to the fantastic and grotesque gathering of 19th-century French witches. From the harp’s lyrical arpeggios to the brass section’s frenzied cries.

If five minutes of peaceful meditation have ended, you’re now ready for fifteen minutes of musical roller coaster. This work, painted by Berlioz in the madness of love, will captivate us with charms completely opposite to Vaughan Williams’ restrained beauty.

The journey through time and space continues—this time, an adventure crossing the boundaries between dream and reality.