Gerald Finzi
Born: July 14, 1901; London, England
Died: September 27, 1956; Oxford, England
|
A pacifist who believed that creative artists were the prime representatives of a civilization, Gerald Finzi is perhaps best known as a composer of songs. He believed that all texts of artistic merit can be set by composers who wish to work with their artistic substance; none are either too fine or too familiar. Many of his songs are set in an aria-like style. His accompaniments, designed to complement and support the material of the singer, are
...
Read more
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Works
|
|
A Lullaby (1)
|
|
A Severn Rhapsody, Op. 3 (2)
|
|
A Young Man's Exhortation, Op. 14 (4)
|
|
A Young Man's Exhortation, Op. 14: no 1, A young man's exhortation (1)
|
|
A Young Man's Exhortation, Op. 14: no 4, Her Temple (1)
|
|
A Young Man's Exhortation, Op. 14: no 7, The Sigh (2)
|
|
All This Night, Op. 33 (3)
|
|
Anthems (3), Op. 27: no 1, My lovely one (2)
|
|
Anthems (3), Op. 27: no 2, God is gone up (21)
|
|
Bagatelles (5) for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 23 (15)
|
|
Bagatelles (5) for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 23: no 2, Romance (1)
|
|
Bagatelles (5) for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 23: no 3, Carol (1)
|
|
Bagatelles (5) for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 23: no 4, Forlana (1)
|
|
Before and after Summer, Op. 16 (3)
|
|
By Footpath and Stile for Baritone and String Quartet, Op. 2 (1)
|
|
Concerto for Cello, Op. 40 (5)
|
|
Concerto for Cello, Op. 40: 2nd movement, Andante quieto (1)
|
|
Concerto for Clarinet in C minor, Op. 31 (15)
|
|
Concerto for Clarinet in C minor, Op. 31: 1st movement, Allegro vigoroso (2)
|
|
Concerto for Violin (2)
|
|
Concerto for Violin: Molto Sereno (1)
|
|
Dies natalis, Op. 8 (10)
|
|
Dies natalis, Op. 8: no 1, Intrada, Andante con moto (1)
|
|
Dies natalis, Op. 8: no 2, Rhapsody (2)
|
|
Dies natalis, Op. 8: no 5, The Salutation (1)
|
|
Dies natalis, Op. 8: Wonder (1)
|
|
Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15 (4)
|
|
Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15: no 2, When I set out for Lyonesse (1)
|
|
Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15: no 6, Rollicum-rorum (4)
|
|
Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15: no 7, To Lizbie Browne (4)
|
|
Eclogue for Piano and Strings in F major, Op. 10 (16)
|
|
Elegy for Violin and Piano in F major (3)
|
|
Et in Terra Pax, Op. 39 (4)
|
|
Farewell to Arms, Op. 9 (4)
|
|
For Saint Cecilia, Op. 30 (2)
|
|
For Saint Cecilia, Op. 30: no 1, Delightful Goddess, in whose fashionings (1)
|
|
Forlana (1)
|
|
Grand Fantasia and Toccata for Piano and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 38 (5)
|
|
I Said to Love, Op. 19b (3)
|
|
I Said to Love, Op. 19b: At Middle-Field Gate in February (1)
|
|
Interlude for Oboe and String Quartet, Op. 21 (3)
|
|
Intimations of Immortality for Tenor, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 29 (5)
|
|
Intimations of Immortality for Tenor, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 29: no 4, Then sing, ye birds, sing (1)
|
|
Introit for Violin and Orchestra in F major, Op. 6 (2)
|
|
Let us garlands bring, Op. 18 (10)
|
|
Let us garlands bring, Op. 18: no 1, Come away, death (3)
|
|
Let us garlands bring, Op. 18: no 3, Fear no more the heat o' the sun (1)
|
|
Let us garlands bring, Op. 18: no 5, It was a lover (1)
|
|
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Op. 35 (3)
|
|
Lo, the full, final sacrifice, Op. 26 (10)
|
|
Lo, the full, final sacrifice, Op. 26: Amen (2)
|
|
Love's Labours Lost, Op. 28: Soliloquy no 1, The King's Poem (2)
|
|
Love's Labours Lost, Op. 28: Soliloquy no 2, Longaville's Sonnet (2)
|
|
Love's Labours Lost, Op. 28: Soliloquy no 3, Dumaine's Poem (2)
|
|
Love's Labours Lost, Op. 28: Suite (3)
|
|
Magnificat for Choir and Organ/Orchestra, Op. 36 (6)
|
|
Magnificat for chorus & organ (or orchestra), Op. 36 (1)
|
|
My lovely one, anthem (1)
|
|
My Spirit Sang All Day, song (2)
|
|
Nocturne, Op. 7 "New Year Music" (6)
|
|
Oh fair to see, Op. 13 (6)
|
|
Oh fair to see, Op. 13: no 3, As I lay in the early sun (1)
|
|
Oh fair to see, Op. 13: no 7, Since we loved (3)
|
|
Partsongs (7), Op. 17 (4)
|
|
Partsongs (7), Op. 17: no 2, I have loved flowers that fade (1)
|
|
Partsongs (7), Op. 17: no 3, My spirit sang all day (2)
|
|
Partsongs (7), Op. 17: no 4, Clear and gentle stream (2)
|
|
Poems (3) of Robert Burns (1)
|
|
Prelude for String Orchestra in F minor, Op. 25 (11)
|
|
Requiem da camera (1)
|
|
Requiem da Camera: Only a man harrowing clods (1)
|
|
Romance for String Orchestra in E flat major, Op. 11 (14)
|
|
Short Elegies (3), Op. 5 (2)
|
|
Sonnets (2), Op. 12 (2)
|
|
Sonnets (2), Op. 12: no 1, When I consider (1)
|
|
Sonnets (2), Op. 12: no 2, How soon hath time (1)
|
|
The Dance Continued (1)
|
|
The Fall of the Leaf, Op. 20 (6)
|
|
Thou Didst Delight My Eyes, Op. 32 (3)
|
|
Till Earth Outwears, Op. 19 (5)
|
|
Till Earth Outwears, Op. 19: no 2, In years defaced (1)
|
|
Till Earth Outwears, Op. 19: no 3, The Market Girl (1)
|
|
Till Earth Outwears, Op. 19: no 5, It never looks like summer here (1)
|
|
To a Poet, Op. 13a (3)
|
|
To a Poet, Op. 13a: June on Castle Hill (1)
|
|
Welcome Sweet and Sacred Feast (3)
|
|
White-flowering Days, Op. 37 (1)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| More Featured Gerald Finzi CDs & DVDs: |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Biography |
by Stephen Kingsbury
|
A pacifist who believed that creative artists were the prime representatives of a civilization, Gerald Finzi is perhaps best known as a composer of songs. He believed that all texts of artistic merit can be set by composers who wish to work with their artistic substance; none are either too fine or too familiar. Many of his songs are set in an aria-like style. His accompaniments, designed to complement and support the material of the singer, are often reminiscent of the treatment given his short orchestral works. Finzi was influenced in his melodic and harmonic vocabulary by the music of Elgar and Vaughan Williams. His works also show a strong influence by the music of J.S. Bach.
The son of an English ship broker, Gerald Finzi began to study music with Ernest Farrar in 1914. When Farrar joined the army in 1916, Finzi began to study with Edward Bairstow at York. In 1922, drawn to the English countryside, Finzi moved to Painswick in Gloucestershire to work in isolation. Then, in 1925, on advice from Boult, Finzi began to study counterpoint with R.O. Morris in London. From 1930 to 1933, he taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
In 1933, Finzi married artist Joyce Black. In 1935, the couple moved to Aldbourne in Wiltshire. Then, in 1937 they built a house, designed for them to work in, on a 16-acre site on the Hampshire hills at Ashmansworth. From this base of operations, Finzi composed, assembled a music library, and tended an orchard of rare apple trees. He also traveled, taking whatever adjudication, examination, or committee work was offered him.
In the winter of 1939, Finzi founded the Newbury String Players, a group consisting mostly of amateur musicians. Since Finzi was neither a pianist nor a singer, the orchestra became the composer's primary performance vehicle. Through this ensemble, he became an advocate of many young performers and composers, as well as a champion of English works from the eighteenth century. He kept the group together from 1941 to 1945, during which he worked at the Ministry of War Transport in London.
In 1951, Finzi learned that he suffered from a form of leukemia. He was told that he had, at the most, ten more years to live. He kept this news within his family, simply continuing to work between his treatments. In 1955, he gave the Crees lectures at the Royal College of Music; providing a somewhat provocative survey of the history and aesthetics of English song during which he presented his principles of text setting.
However, the leukemia eventually weakened the composer's resistance to infection. He died of shingles in 1956, after a chance encounter with chicken pox at the 1956 Gloucester Festival. After his death, his library of music from 1740 to 1780, at the time considered the finest collection of materials from that period in all of England, was donated to St. Andrews University, in Fife. His library of English literature, from which he had drawn so much of his inspiration, is located in the Finzi Book Room at the Reading University Library. |
| |
|
