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fantasia

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.13 sec.
fantasia (făntā`zhə) [Ital.,=fancy], musical composition not restricted to a formal design, but constructed freely in the manner of an improvisation. In the 16th and 17th cent., however, the term designated a contrapuntal piece employing imitation imitation, in music, a device of counterpoint wherein a phrase or motive is employed successively in more than one voice. The imitation may be exact, the same intervals being repeated at the same or different pitches, or it may be free, in which case numerous types
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 and thus was one of the forerunners of the fugue fugue (fyg) [Ital.
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. The term is also applied to improvisatory pieces based on earlier works, e.g., Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on "Greensleeves."

fantasia

Musical composition free in form and inspiration, often for an instrumental soloist. Most fantasias try to convey the impression of improvisation. The first were Italian works for lute (c. 1530). Keyboard fantasias became common in the late 16th century; both organ and harpsichord fantasias flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries in Britain, Germany, and France. Fugal, imitative texture, sometimes highly learned in character, was common from the beginning, often alternating with running passagework and highly chromatic chordal passages in free rhythms. Ensemble fantasias were widely composed as well.


fantasia
1. any musical composition of a free or improvisatory nature
2. another word for fancy

Fantasia
music comes to life in animated cartoon. [Am. Cinema: Fantasia in Disney Films, 38–45]
See : Fantasy


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But the more he listened to the fantasia of Ring Lear the further he felt from forming any definite opinion of it.
A sprightly tramp promised greater difficulty, and nothing but some ferocious pantomime and a shilling persuaded him to forego a choice fantasia of cockney humour.
At this violation of all known rules and precedents of order, the mayor commanded another fantasia on the bell, and declared that he would bring before himself, both Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, and the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, and bind them over to keep the peace.
 
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