After studying with Ernest Farrar, Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) continued his musical studies with Bairstow in York. The death of Farrar in the First World War (and of his father and three brothers) affected Finzi deeply. Adrian Boult advised him to take a course of lessons in counterpoint with R O Morris, which he did in 1925. After teaching briefly at the Royal Academy of Music, the composer retired with his wife to Wiltshire, where he cultivated rare apple trees on his sixteen-acre property and built a unique library which was divided bewteen St Andrew's University and Reading University after his death.

God is gone up is the second of his three opus 27 anthems. It was written in 1951 for a St Cecilia's Day Service at St Sepulchre's Church in Holborn. This well-written anthem of praise, which, like Bairstow's works, stretches the organ's resources, carefully sets the inspirational words taken from the Preparatory Meditations by the Puritan poet Edward Taylor (c1642-1729).

from notes by William McVicker © 1990