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Chelys 7 (1977), article 4
content to employ traditional techniques: the opening theme of the G minor
In Nomine starts with the first three notes of the plainsong—a common
ploy—and the work is structured as a fantasia with two sharply contrasted
sections. Perhaps it is this abrupt change of mood which is unconvincing:
one reason for the success of the E minor work, it seems to me, is the subtle
change of pace, accelerating from the broad rich opening to a flurry of
excitement by the half-way stage, only broadening again for a relatively
brief coda, which gives the piece a unity lacking in the G minor work. There
are times, particularly in the first In Nomine, when one feels that Jenkins’s
imagination was partially stifled by the restrictions imposed by the cantus
firmus.
[61] However, there are other occasions when he contrasts a slow--
moving cantus firmus melody against more active surroundings (a
technique perhaps borrowed from the In Nomines)—to great effect. One
splendid instance occurs in Fantasia no. 7 where lively bass divisions of
the kind one is always likely to meet in Jenkins’s works (though not
usually as extensively as here) are pitted against a slow-moving four-fold
augmentation of the main theme (Example VII)
Ex. VII. Fantasia no. 7 : bass parts of bars 34-38.
Like Fantasias nos. 2 & 3, this is a monothematic work—a genre which
always seems to stimulate Jenkins’s invention to an infinite variety of
structure, style and mood. Fantasia no. 7, in spite of its single theme,
divides into four sections, each of which begins with a different fugato
treatment of the subject: lightly in the upper parts at bar 15 (Example
VIIIa); broadly, with crotchet replacing quaver in the theme, at bars 24-5
(Example VIIIb); with chordal accompaniment at bar 42 (Example
VIIIc), and with the theme hidden in a contrapuntal texture at bars 51-2
(Example VIIId)
Ex. VIII. Extracts from Fantasia no. 7.