Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) Fantasy on an American Hymn Tune (1975)

Kenneth Leighton is one of those composers whose music has always appealed to me. Since hearing his Symphony No.1 at the City Hall in Glasgow on 2 February 1974, I have discovered a wide range of his work, including organ, concerted, choral and chamber music. It has never failed to please me. In 1969 Leighton won the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music. So, it may be unsurprising that his Fantasy on an American Hymn Tune (1975) meets the requirements of Walter Wilson Cobbett’s once prestigious Phantasy competitions – in virtually all except the spelling of the title. 

The tune that forms the basis of this work is the hymn ‘The Shining River’, written by Pastor Robert Lowry during a typhoid and cholera epidemic in Brooklyn. The sentiment of the words is straightforward – “We are parting at the river of death: Shall we meet at the river of life?” Lowry’s words and tune preface Leighton’s score. They give a message of “universal hope and consolation transcending personal sadness.”

The formal structure of the Fantasy is slow-fast-slow-fast-slow. The rapid sections are intense and have been rightly described as “straining at an imaginative and emotional leash.”  I must admit that the original tune is not obvious as the work progresses. In fact, it is not heard in its entirety until near the end. The mood of the music is tense from the first note to the last, with some, but not a lot, of consolation appearing in the final bars. On occasion, the ‘American’ connection if made apparent through ‘jazz riffs and breaks’ which lends excitement and pizzazz. This is balanced by some Ivesian slow sections that seem to have the music’s progress enveloped in mist. In the only recording of this work, the choristers of Wakefield Cathedral sing Lowry’s hymn before the work begins. It is a subtle and moving touch.

The Phantasy has been recorded on Prima Facie’s English Phantasies (PFNSCD019) played by the Tritium Trio. Other works on this album include clarinet trios by John Ireland, John McCabe and Giles Easterbrook.