List of compositions by Gerald Finzi

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The early-twentieth-century British composer Gerald Finzi (1901–1956) is recognized largely for several song cycles, setting texts from a wide selection English poets, including Thomas Traherne, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, Robert Bridges and Edmund Blunden. However, his oeuvre includes well-regarded concerti for clarinet and cello, choral works, works for string orchestra, and chamber music.

Born in London, Finzi was of German Jewish and Italian Jewish descent. But his compositions place him as among the most characteristically "English" composers of his generation. Despite being agnostic, he wrote some inspired and imposing Christian choral music that remains consistently in the performance repertoire.

List of compositions by opus number[]

The most common method of numbering Finzi's works is by opus number as assigned by his publishers during his lifetime.[1]

Opus Number[1] Title of composition Year(s) composed First performance Comments Notes
1 Ten Children’s Songs
Songs to poems by Christina Rossetti		 1920-21 -
  • Scored for unison and two-part voices and piano
  • Songs: 1. "Rosy Maiden Winifred"; 2. "Dead in the Cold"; 3. "Lullaby, Oh Lullaby!"; 4. "The Lily Has a Smooth Stalk"; 5. "Dancing on the Hill-tops"; 6. "Margaret Has a Milking Pail"; 7. "Ferry Me Across the Water"; 8. "There's Snow on the Fields"; 9. "A Linnet in a Gilded Cage"; 10. "Boy Johnny"
 -
2 By Footpath and Stile 1921-22 -
  • A cycle of six songs scored for baritone soloist and string quartet
  • Setting of poems by English poet Thomas Hardy; songs: 1. "Paying Call"; 2. "Where the Picnic Was"; 3. "The Oxen"; 4. "The Master and the Leaves"; 5. "Voices from Things Growing in a Churchyard"; 6. "Exeunt Omnes"
 -
3 English Pastorals and Elegies
No. 1 – A Severn Rhapsody
No. 2 – Requiem da camera		 1923 (A Severn Rhapsody) -
  • A Severn Rhapsody is a brief orchestral work
  • Four-movement Requiem da camera scored for baritone soloist, chorus (or SATB solo voices) and orchestra; movements: 1. "Prelude"; 2. "From 'August 1914'" (setting of John Masefield poem); 3. "In the time of the breaking of nations" (Setting of Thomas Hardy poem); 4. "Lament" (Setting of Gibson poem)
 -
4 Psalms for unaccompanied SATB - -
  • Scored for a cappella mixed SATB choir
 -
5 Three Short Elegies 1926 -
  • Setting for unaccompanied chorus of three texts by Scottish poet William Drummond: 1. "Life a right shadow is"; 2. "This world a hunting is"; 3. "This life, which seems so fair" [2]
 -
6 Introit mid-1920s May 1927
1928
  • written originally as the second movement of a completed violin concerto for Sybil Eaton, a gifted violinist with whom Finzi was infatuated; entire concerto published posthumously
  • second and third movements of concerto premiered May 1927 under Malcolm Sargent with Eaton as soloist
  • completed concerto premiered in 1928 in London under Ralph Vaughan Williams. Finzi was not satisfied with it and withdrew the first and third movements.
 -
7 Nocturne (New Year Music) for Orchestra in C-Sharp Minor 1926, rev. 1940's - - -
8 Dies natalis (cantata for strings and solo voice) mid-1920's, 1938–1939 Wigmore Hall, January 1940
  • Scored for soprano or tenor soloist and string orchestra
  • Setting of four texts from metaphysical poet and theologian Thomas Traherne (1636/37–1674)
  • Movements: 1. "Intrada" (strings only); 2. "Rhapsody" (Recitativo Stromentato); 3. "The Rapture" (Danza); 4. "Wonder" (Arioso); 5. "The Salutation" (Aria)
 [3]
9 Farewell to Arms (Introduction and Aria for tenor voice and small orchestra) 1944 - - -
10 Eclogue for piano and strings - -
  • Work intended as a piano concerto that remained unfinished; named posthumously by publisher
 -
11 Romance for String Orchestra 1928 - - -
12 Two Sonnets by John Milton or Two Milton Sonnets
No. 1 "When I consider how my life is spent"
No. 2 "How soon hath Time"		 1928 - - -
13a To a Poet - -
  • Six songs scored for "low voice" and piano; 1. "To a Poet a thousand years hence"; 2. "On parent knees"; 3. "Intrada"; 4. "The Birthnight"; 5. "June on Castle Hill"; 6. "Ode on the rejection of Saint Cecilia"
 -
13b Oh Fair to See - -
  • Seven songs for "high voice" and piano; 1. "I say I'll Seek Her"; 2. "Oh fair to see"; 3. "As I lay in the early sun"; 4. "Only the wanderer"; 5. "To Joy"; 6. "Harvest"; 7. "Since we loved"
 -
14 A Young Man’s Exhortation - -
  • Ten songs, scored for tenor and piano
  • Song cycle of poems by English poet Thomas Hardy
  • Songs: Part I – 1. ‘A Young Man’s Exhortation’, 2. ‘Ditty’, 3. ‘Budmouth Dears’, 4. ‘Her Temple’, 5. ‘The Comet at Yelham’; Part II – 6. ‘Shortening Days’, 7. ‘The Sigh’, 8. ‘Former Beauties’, 9. ‘Transformations’ 10. ‘The Dance Continued’
 -
15 Earth and Air and Rain
  • Scored for baritone soloist and piano
  • Song cycle of ten songs from poems by English poet Thomas Hardy; Songs: 1. ‘Summer Schemes’, 2. ‘When I set out for Lyonnesse’, 3. ‘Waiting Both’, 4. ‘The Phantom’, 5. ‘So I have fared’, 6. ‘Rollicum-rorum’, 7. ‘To Lizbie Browne’, 8. ‘The Clock of the Years’, 9. ‘In a Churchyard’, 10. ‘Proud Songsters’
 -
16 Before and After Summer - -
  • Ten songs for baritone and piano, with words by Thomas Hardy; songs:1. ‘Childhood among the ferns’ 2. ‘Before and after summer’, 3. ‘The Self-Unseeing’, 4. ‘Overlooking the River’, 5. ‘Channel Firing’, 6. ‘In the Mind's Eye’, 7. ‘The Too Short Time’, 8. ‘Epeisodia’, 9. ‘Amabel’, 10. ‘He abjures love’
 -
17 Seven Partsongs – Poems by Robert Bridges
No. 1: "I praise the tender flower"
No. 2: "I have loved flowers that fade"
No. 3: "My spirit sang all day"
No. 4: "Clear and gentle stream"
No. 5: "Nightingales"
No. 6: "Haste on, my joys!"
No. 7: "Wherefore tonight so full of care		 - -
  • For SATB chorus
 -
18 Let Us Garlands Bring
1. "Come away death"
2. "Who is Silvia?"
3. "Fear no more the heat o’ the Sun"
4. "Oh mistress mine"
5. "It was a lover and his lass"
 1942 -
-
19a Till Earth Outwears 1927-1956 -
  • Seven songs for high voice and piano, with words by Thomas Hardy; songs: 1. ‘Let me enjoy the earth’, 2. ‘In years defaced’, 3. ‘The Market-Girl’, 4. ‘I look into my glass’, 5. ‘It never looks like summer here’, 6. ‘At a Lunar Eclipse’, 7. ‘Life laughs onward’
 -
19b I Said to Love - -
  • Six songs for baritone and piano, with words by Thomas Hardy; song: 1. ‘I need not go’, 2. ‘At Middle-field Gate in February’, 3. ‘Two Lips’, 4. ‘In five-score summers’, 5. ‘For life I had never cared greatly’, 6. ‘I said to Love’
 -
20 The Fall of the Leaf – Elegy for Orchestra - -
  • Op. posth.
 -
21 Interlude for Oboe and String Quartet 1933–1936 -
  • Scored for Oboe, 2 violins, viola, cello
  • Finzi dedicated the work to British oboist Léon Goossens (1897–1988)
  • Finzi also made a version for oboe and string orchestra, adding a double bass part
 -
22 Elegy - -
  • For violin and piano
 -
23 Five Bagatelles for Clarinet and Piano - -
  • Scored for clarinet and piano
  • An arrangement orchestrated by is catalogued as Op. 23a.
  • Movements: 1. ‘Prelude’, 2. ‘Romance’, 3. ‘Carol’, 4. ‘Forlana’, 5. ‘Fughetta’
 -
24 Prelude and Fugue - -
  • Scored for string trio
 -
25 Prelude for strings - - - -
26 "Lo, the full, final sacrifice" 1946 21 September 1946—St Matthew's Day
-
27 Three Anthems
No. 1: "My lovely one"
No. 2: "God is gone up"
No. 3: "Welcome sweet and sacred feast"
1946
1951
1953		 -
-
28a Love’s Labour’s Lost (songs) 1946 -
  • Four songs to accompany Shakespeare's comedy; 1. "When daisies pied" (Song of Ver); 2. "When icicles hang by the wall" (Song of Hiems); 3. "If she be made of white or red"; 4. "Is it not sure a deadly pain" (False Concolinel – anon.)
 -
28b Love’s Labour’s Lost (suite) 1946 -
  • Ten movement suite scored "for small orchestra" arranged from the incidental music of Op. 28a
  • Movements: 1. Introduction; 2. Moth; 3. Nocturne; 4. The Hunt; 5. Dance; 6. Quodlibet; 7. Soliloquy I; 8. Soliloquy II; 9. Soliloquy III; 10. Finale
 -
29 Intimations of Immortality late 1930s, completed 1950 1950 Three Choirs Festival, conducted by Herbert Sumsion
-
30 For St Cecilia 1947 On 22 November 1947 at the Royal Albert Hall by René Soames with the Luton Choral Society and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
  • For tenor, chorus and orchestra
  • Setting of a work by English poet and author Edmund Blunden
  • Commissioned by the St Cecilia’s Day Festival Committee for the 1947 celebration of music’s patron saint
 -
31 Clarinet Concerto 1949 - - -
32 Thou didst delight my eyes - -
  • Setting of a poem by Robert Bridges for three-part choir (TTB)
33 All this night - -
  • An unaccompanied choral motet
 -
34 Muses and Graces - -
  • A unison song with strings
 -
35 Let us now praise famous men - -
  • Scoring: Two-part choral song with strings and piano
 -
36 Magnificat - - - -
37 White-flowering days 1953 1 June 1953
  • Setting, for a cappella chorus, of a poem by Edmund Blunden
  • Work was Finzi’s contribution to A Garland for the Queen, a collection of part songs by English composers celebrating the coronation of Elizabeth II
 -
38 Grand Fantasia and Toccata - -
  • For piano and orchestra
  • Thought to be intended as an unfinished piano concerto, named posthumously by publisher
 -
39 In terra pax - -
  • A "Christmas Scene" scored for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, strings, harp and cymbal
  • Setting of texts from English poet Robert Bridges and the Gospel of Luke
 -
40 Cello Concerto in a minor 1955 19 July 1955 at the Cheltenham Music Festival, conducted by John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra, and cellist Christopher Bunting
  • Scored for cello soloist and orchestra
  • Work is in three movements: I. Allegro moderato, II. Andante quieto, III. Rondo: Adagio—Allegro giocoso
 -
Posth. Violin Concerto (Concerto for Small Orchestra and Violin) - 1928
  • Withdrawn concerto from which Introit Op. 6, emerged as a stand-alone piece; published posthumously
 -

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b The Finzi Trust (geraldfinzi.org), "Works and Bibliography: Opus Numbers". Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  2. ^ "Three Short Elegies". lieder.net. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  3. ^ Joanne Talbot, "Veiled brilliance", BBC Music Magazine, Volume XXII-02 (December 2013 CD Liner Notes)

Further reading[]

  • Banfield, Stephen. Gerald Finzi: An English Composer (London: Faber, 1997) ISBN 0-571-16269-X
  • Dressler, John C. Gerald Finzi: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997) ISBN 0-313-28693-0
  • Jordan, Rolf. The Clock of the Years: A Gerald and Joy Finzi Anthology (Lichfield, Staffordshire: Chosen Press, 2007) ISBN 978-0-9556373-0-8
  • McVeagh, Diana. Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell & Brewer, 2006) ISBN 1-84383-170-8

External links[]

  • The official Gerald Finzi website, created for the composer's family and including the latest news of concerts featuring Finzi's works.
  • Gerald Finzi page on the website of his publisher Boosey & Hawkes, including a complete list of works published by Boosey & Hawkes and a discography.
  • The Finzi Trust, the official Finzi Trust website: listen to Finzi's music and read about his life and works, the Trust's work and the Finzi Travel Scholarships.
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