Finzi gerald biography of donald

I hadn’t planned on writing an entry for this piece (it’s not exactly a choral blockbuster), but the other day the wonderful local classical station, WXXI, was playing Finzi’s The Fall of the Leaf when I turned it on.  Given that Finzi’s music is not in heavy rotation on any radio station in the world, that seemed like some sort of sign from St. Cecilia or somebody in charge, so I thought, “why not?”  Besides, by that time For St. Cecilia had grown on me considerably.  So here goes.

Biography

Gerald Finzi was born to Jewish parents but was himself agnostic, and a pacifist to boot.  His music studies were with Edward Farrar (from 1914 to 1916), Sir Edward Bairstow (from 1917 to 1922) and finally R. O. Morris in 1925.  He taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music between 1930 and 1933, after which he and his wife moved to the country for a simpler life (that included overseeing an orchard of rare apple trees of more than 350 varieties).  He endured his share of tragedy; his father died when he was a child, and his teacher Farrar was killed in the first World War; his three older brothers died as well.  In 1951 Finzi was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease and given ten years to live.  Taking a walk during the 1956 Gloucester Festival with Vaughan Williams, Finzi and the older composer were exposed to chicken pox.  The disease had no effect on the 83-year-old Vaughan Williams but was too much for the weakened immune system of Finzi, who passed away on 27 September of that year.

I encountered Finzi’s music when my first real boss gave me a record of Janet Baker singing “An Anthology of English Song” (sadly, most supervisors do not deliver such enjoyable presents.  But I worked in Arts Management).  The record (also my introduction to John Ireland, Peter Warlock, Ivor Gurney, and others) included two Shakespeare settings by Finzi.  Many years later I acquired the co

The information on this page is a biographical sketch for Gerald Finzi; offering the reader a basic knowledge of his life and work. There are some suggestions at the bottom of this page for resources and links that should help those looking for additional information.

Gerald Finzi, was a man drawn in several directions during his life. He was a man who devoured the written word. He was a man who realized life is short and that we should strive to leave something that makes a difference to humanity. He was a man acquainted with grief and war and despised choices that some men make for others. He was a man who fought for the underdog. He was a man who liked to take walks in his youth so as to soak up nature and to become grounded to his native England. Lastly, he was a man who believed in conservation of music and of the simple things in life, namely apple trees. One can find all of these attributes in the literature he read as well as the songs he composed.

Gerald Finzi: Was born in London on July 14, 1901 and died on September 27, 1956 in the hospital at Oxford, England.

Father: John Abraham (Jack) Finzi (1860-1909)

His occupation was that of a ship broker. He died rather horrifically with cancer of the mouth when Gerald was eight years old.

Mother: Eliza (Lizzie) Emma [née Leverson] Finzi (1865-1955)

She was a home maker and amateur pianist.

Siblings:

Spouse: Joyce (Joy) Black (March 3, 1907 - June 14, 1991)

She married Gerald on September 16, 1933. Her occupation was that of an artist and a home maker.

Children:

• Christopher (Kiffer), born: July 1934
  Continued Gerald Finzi's leadership of the Newbury String Players after Gerald's death.
• Nigel, born: August 9, 1936 and died June 25, 2010 Obitu

When the recruitment agency asked if I wanted to be considered for a sales and marketing position at Boydell & Brewer, I thought it would be interesting to work for a commercial publisher that felt it could make money from publications such as a selection of letters by the British composer, Gerald Finzi.

British music has always had a rather lowly reputation internationally. Interviewed for a TV documentary on Vaughan Williams, the folk guitarist Richard Thompson described how, as a young man, he tried to convince German friends that A Lark Ascending was worth listening to. He was met with the now familiar claim that Britain was “ein Land ohne Musik”. When I tried to persuade a French bookseller that they should stock one of our books on a British composer, the buyer said that he already had one. One what? I asked. A book on British music, was the reply.

In the 1990s Faber published Stephen Banfield’s excellent biography of Gerald Finzi, but there were rumours that another was in the works – in fact had been for some time. I could hardly believe it when, some years into my time at Boydell, I discovered that the author of this fabled volume, Elgar-scholar Diana McVeagh, had finished it and had been persuaded to publish it with us. The book eventually arrived and it was astonishingly good. It’s a clear-eyed look at Finzi, his music and his achievement: writing often wistful melodies in an age of experimentation and atonality, music that has endured despite being unfashionable.

The book was rapturously received: “one of the best-written books about a musician to appear for many years,” said Michael Kennedy in BBC Music; “a lovely, warm and elegiac book” concluded Music & Letters; “she sings with a lyricism that matches Finzi’s own,” enthused the Times Literary Supplement, “a timely reminder that there should be a place for the finely wrought music of a minor master.”

To celebrate its publication and its reception, Diana McVeagh threw a p