Gerald Finzi

Biography

1901

Born in London, 14 July

1915

During World War I the Finzi family settles in Harrogate. Gerald studies with Ernest Farrar, a pupil of Stanford and friend of Vaughan Williams

1917-22

Studies privately with Sir Edward Bairstow at York Minster and attends his rehearsals and concerts with the York, Bradford and Leeds Choral Societies

1922

Moves to Painswick in Gloucestershire

1923

By Footpath and Stile, his first published Hardy settings, performed in London

1924

A Severn Rhapsody performed in Bournemouth by Sir Dan Godfrey, and published by the Carnegie Trust

1925

Following advice from Adrian Boult, takes a course of counterpoint with R.O.Morris

1926

Moves to London where he becomes friends with young composers Howard Ferguson and Edmund Rubbra, and meets Vaughan Williams, Holst and Bliss for the first time

1928

Vaughan Williams conducts the Violin Concerto at a Bach Choir concert, but the composer withdraws the work apart from the Introit

1930-33

Teaches at the Royal Academy of Music

1932

New Year Music performed under Sir Dan Godfrey in Bournemouth

1933

First complete performance of A Young Man's Exhortation in London. Marries the artist Joyce Black, with Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams as witnesses, and settles at Aldbourne in Berkshire

1935

Begins to work on behalf of Ivor Gurney, cataloguing his manuscripts, and is a driving force behind a Music and Letters symposium (January 1938), and behind the eventual publication of five volumes of songs and two collections of poems

1936

First works published by Boosey & Co and Hawkes & Son, including Earth and Air and Rain

1939

Moves to newly built Church Farm at Ashmansworth, near Newbury. Outbreak of war causes the cancellation of the premiere of Dies natalis at the Three Choirs Festival, a major performance which could have established his career as a composer

1940

Dies natalis performed in London, 26 January. Founds and conducts the Newbury String Players, a small, mainly amateur body with which he gives enterprising concerts in a wide area round his home until his death. Many young musicians and composers, including Julian Bream and Kenneth Leighton, are offered the chance of performance, and Finzi revives and edits music by William Boyce, Richard Capel Bond, John Garth, Richard Mudge, John Stanley, and Charles Wesley

1941-45

Works for Ministry of War Transport. His home is opened to several German and Czech refugees

1945

Farewell to Arms performed by the BBC Northern Orchestra under Charles Groves

1946

Lo, the full, final sacrifice performed; also Dies natalis at the Three Choirs, Hereford

1947

For St. Cecilia performed at the Royal Albert Hall under Boult

1948

Broadcasts a talk on Parry, and over the following years orders Parry's manuscripts for placing in the Bodleian Library

1949

Conducts premiere of Clarinet Concerto with Frederick Thurston and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Three Choirs, Hereford; Before and After Summer published

1950

Intimations of Immortality performed at the Three Choirs, Gloucester

1951

Learns he suffers from Hodgkin's Disease and has ten years or less to live; reads a paper on John Stanley to the Royal Musical Association

1954

All-Finzi concert at the Festival Hall includes the first London performance of the Grand Fantasia and Toccata; begins editing a volume of Boyce overtures for Musica Britannica

1955

In terra pax broadcast. Composes Cello Concerto for the Cheltenham Festival at the request of Sir John Barbirolli; delivers the Crees lectures at the Royal College of Music on 'The Composer's Use of Words'

1956

In terra pax (orchestral version) performed at the Three Choirs, Gloucester. Dies at Oxford, 27 September