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Chelys 7 (1977), article 4
The difference between the two treble reading in bar 51 (Example XIIIb)
is curious since either version is acceptable; we have preferred Browne’s
because it contains imitation which links in with the tenor parts and is
probably earlier.
Each of Jenkins’s series of fantasias in four, five and six parts has its
own character, often stressing features not present to the same degree-if at
all-in the other groups. One of the dominant characteristics of the six-part
group, not surprisingly, is a more ‘massive’ kind of writing (not possible
in the three- and four-part works) and a ‘quasi- orchestral’ scoring fully
exploiting the rich and varied textures available through the use of the
complete chest of viols. Fantasia no. 6 illustrates this feature well: apart
from passages of six-part counterpoint, there is an episode in five parts
(bars 14-17), and two very active trios reminiscent of the liveliest passages
in Jenkins’s three-part fantasias. The whole work is periodically
punctuated by repetitions of a group of four crotchet chords (bars 14, 18,
28-9-with further echos at 31, 34-5 and 42-3) seemingly calling all the
parts to ‘attention’. Bars 51-53 of this work provide a typical instance of
Jenkins’s use of a sequence; in almost every case, after two more or less
regular sequential statements, any hint of a third repetition is quickly
modified or dispelled, often by extension of the phrases. The example in
Example XIV comes from Fantasia no. 10:
Ex. XIV. Bars 43-45 from Fantasia no. 10
showing a typical Jenkins sequence.
[65] In Fantasia no. 5 we are not far removed from the pattern adopted by
Jenkins in the first movement of his fantasia-suites:
a. a fugal opening
b. an exciting ‘display’ section
c. a lighter episode
d. a rich and sonorous concluding section, to describe which there is no
better phrase than Simpson’s ‘Grave and Harmonious Musick’.
The ‘display’ section is remarkable: I cannot recall any passage in Jenkins’s
music which employs the dotted rhythm so consistently as here. It is
organized as a dialogue between each pair of instruments, but because the
phrase lengths are irregular, there are kaleidoscopic changes in colour as the
instruments call to each other. Both this fantasia and no. 4 make extensive
use of major keys, although each begins and ends in the minor. Both include