Definition of "fantasia"

The Fantasia, by Mr. [Pio] Cianchettini, is upon [Gioachino] Rossini's air "Tu che accendi," so often made the theme of piano forte lessons. [...] Mr. Cianchettini's imagination is very vivid and full, and we know of nothing more florid or requiring lighter and more delicate touching than this Fantasia.

1821, “[...] Fantasia, for the Piano Forte, on Di Tanti Palpiti, by Pio Cianchettini. London. Mitchell. [review]”, in The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, volume III, number X, London: […] Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […], page 252

Miss [Eleanor Margaret] Geary is a brilliant pianiste, who make light of the modern difficulties set down for the instrument: her performance of [Theodor] Döhler's Anna Bolena fantasia was achieved without apparent effort, and won considerable applause; [...] Miss E[lizabeth] Geary is a vocalist, possessing a sweet and flexible voice, [...] this young lady also played a fantasia on the concertina very adroitly.

1841, Eleanor Margaret Geary, “[Addenda.] Reviews Consequent upon a Grand Morning Concert Given by Miss Geary and Miss Elizabeth Geary, at Willis’s Great Concert Room, King Street, St. James’s, June 21st, 1841, [...]”, in Musical Education; with Practical Observations on the Art of Piano-forte Playing, London: D’Almaine and Co., […], page 44

The little Italian party, before alluded to, had collected around the piano. The white and plump fingers of the gay and black-eyed daughter of the Roman marchioness were tripping lightly up and down the octaves of the instrument, and her little tastefully arranged head was merrily dancing from side to side, keeping time to the half-improvised phantasia, which trickled like a wayward stream from her hands.

1853 July, Thomas Buchanan Read, “Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s Magazine, volume XLIII, number 1, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Watson & Co. […]?], chapter VIII, page 105

She [Josepha Barbara Auernhammer] published subsequently many works of her own, (in all 63,) which, as well as her play, especially the extempore phantasias, were distinguished by much delicate feeling and a vivid imagination.

1857, Hugh James Rose, “AURENHAMMER,[sic – meaning AUERNHAMMER] (Josepha)”, in A New General Biographical Dictionary, […], volume II, London: T. Fellowes, […], pages 368–369

Among English composers working during the first half of the seventeenth century, John Coprario distinguished himself as a first-rate craftsman and as the innovator of the three-movement fantasia-suite. [...] These pieces should be viewed in the context of his total output of eight two-part fantasias; ten three-part fantasias; seven four-part fantasias; [...]

1982, Richard Charteris, “Preface”, in John Coprario, edited by Richard Charteris, Twelve Fantasias for Two Bass Viols and Organ, and Eleven Pieces for Three Lyra Viols (Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era; XLI), Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions, Invalid ISSN, page vii, column 1

Representative as they are of [Georg Philipp] Telemann's introduction to Germany of the lighter and less contrpuntal galant style from France, these fantasias are also obvious precursors of the Classical sonata form.

1987, “Publisher’s Note”, in Georg Philipp Telemann, edited by Max Seiffert, The 36 Fantasias for Keyboard, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications

In 1783 C[arl] P[hilipp] E[manuel] Bach's fourth collection of keyboard music for Kenner und Liebhaber was published by Brietkopf in Leipzig. [...] For the first time in the Kenner und Liebhaber series, this volume contained two free fantasias in addition to sonatas and rondos, a novelty that not only caught the attention of the critics, but seems to have been considered by Bach as a particular selling point for the volume: [...]

2001, Annette Richards, “C. P. E. Bach and the Landscapes of Genius”, in The Free Fantasia and the Musical Picturesque (New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, page 34

It is, however, a ceremony of immense antiquity, and the chief civil festival of the year among the Arabs, who love nothing more dearly than a "phantasia" of this sort.

1872 October 19, “The Cutting of the Nile: From The Pall Mall Gazette”, in Littel’s Living Age, volume XXVII (Fourth Series; volume CXV overall), number 1480, Boston, Mass.: Littel & Gay, page 189, column 2

When, at the head-centre, the lady demonstrator, armed with a Brobdingnagian whalebone needle, threaded with a bright red cord, executed herringboned fantasias on a canvas frame resembling a violin stand, it all looked easy enough.

1899, I[srael] Zangwill, “The Keeper of Conscience”, in “They that Walk in Darkness”: Ghetto Tragedies, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Jewish Publication Society of America, section VII, page 289

Consequently 'War in the Air' means social destruction instead of victory as the end of war. It not only alters the methods of war but the consequences of war. After all that has happened since this fantasia of possibility was written, I do not think that there is much wrong with this thesis.

, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Preface”, in The War in the Air (Collins’ Thin Paper Pocket Edition; 20), London, Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press; quoted in Charles E. Gannon, “Promoters of the Probable, Prophets of the Possible: Technological Innovation and Edwardian Near-future War Fiction”, in Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda-setting in American and British Speculative Fiction, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003, page 82

[The Warrior's Barrow (Kjæmpehøjen)] admirably conformed to his employers' National-Romantic aims. This is equally true of the four new plays with which [Henrik] Ibsen honoured his contract: St. John's Night) (Sancthansnatten, 1853), a phantasia having a good deal in common with [William] Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream [...]

1966, Brian W[esterdale] Downs, “Ibsen before 1884”, in Modern Norwegian Literature 1860–1918, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, published 2010, page 44

These are the years in which she [Ellen Terry] begins to sign her letters in a phantasia of different names.

1987, Nina Auerbach, “Our Lady of the Lyceum”, in Joan DeJean, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Peter Stallybrass, Gary Tomlinson, editors, Ellen Terry, Player in Her Time (New Cultural Studies), Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, published 1997, page 209

Her art is always with her, clothing her from throat to toes in an indelible fantasia of color and form and myth.

2003, Ann K. Schwader, “Body of Work”, in Kevin L. O’Brien, editor, Strange Stars & Alien Shadows: The Dark Fiction of Ann K. Schwader, Aurora, Colo.: Lindisfarne Press, page 39

David and my parents looked up from passing bowls of potato and chicken salad. Great, a mayonnaise fantasia.

2012, Zoe Fishman, chapter 2, in Saving Ruth, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow

[T]he zippy musical numbers in which Mary Poppins (a stiff-lipped Emily Blunt) whisks cherubs Annabel, John, and Georgie (Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson, respectively) away into colorful hyperreal fantasias impress.

2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 24 May 2019

As for the wonderful feats of horsemanship one hears of or sees among the Arabs, they are due to sharp spurs like razors, and to bits strong enough to break an animal's jaw. [...] Their favourite feat at their fantasias or fêtes of suddenly pulling up their horses short while at hand-gallop, ruins their legs, and there is in consequence scarcely a horse to be seen whose hind-legs are not spavined.

1868, Mrs. H. Lloyd Evans, “Across the Atlas”, in Last Winter in Algeria, London: Chapman & Hall, […], page 100

These fantasias consist of sham fights, the men riding at full gallop at one another, and firing as they pass; the play might have ended more seriously than was intended, for one Spahi had unknowingly a ball in his rifle, which whizzed close to his enemy's head, but the man never winced, or took any more notice than if it had been blank cartridge, and the fantasia continued as before.

1875 February, “Biskra, in French Algeria, on the Verge of Sahara”, in Frank Leslie’s Pleasant Hours. Devoted to Light and Entertaining Literature, volume XVIII, number I, New York, N.Y.: Frank Leslie […], page 218, column 2

Everyone was enjoying himself. Political differences seemed to be forgotten. The King was smarter than anyone realized. Bang! Bang! Bang! The fantasias went on and on, the Berber warriors in white, standing up in their silver stirrups on bay, gray, black, and chestnut stallions, firing their silver-chased rifles in perfect unison into the air. [...] The men cheered and the women ululated as each successful fantasia run was completed.

1976, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, “The Feast of Accession to the Sultan’s Throne”, in A Street in Marrakech: A Personal View of Urban Women in Morocco, Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press, published 1988, part II, page 223

Mimi was keen to ride a berber horse and Said arranged a Fantasia especially for us – or was it for her? – with the best riders around Marrakech.

1990 April 30, “Sisley: Relaxed Elegance [advertisement]”, in Edward Kosner, editor, New York, volume 23, number 17, New York, N.Y.: News America Publishing, page 199

However, in the last few years, the stud farms in Morocco and elsewhere in the world have rediscovered the qualities of the barb [Barbary horse], which, in Berber tradition, remains the king of the "fantasias", a festival that is also becoming fashionable once again.

2009 October, Laurent Roustan, “The Horse, Present since the Dawn of Time”, in Alphatrad Internationale, transl., Au Royaume du Cheval: Les Haras Nationaux du Maroc [In the Kingdom of the Horse: The National Studs of Morocco], Souyri, Aveyron, France: Editions Au fil du Temps