"History, Analysis and Performance Considerations of Gerald Finzi's ...

9Hardy (agnostic fatalist), Wordsworth (lyric romantic), Bridges (prosody), Rosetti (children’stexts) Shakespeare, Milton, and Bridges. Text selection was a very instinctive and sometimesinstantaneous experience for Finzi. Quoting his father, Christopher indicated that he did not“choose texts,” rather “they chose [him].” 33In The Composers Use of Words, his series of threeCrees Lectures given at the Royal College of Music in 1955, Finzi describes (in academic thirdperson) his own experience with the creative impulse and its relationship to text:The process from the composer’s angle is this. He may read some lines. Instantly,with the reading, musical phrases will bind themselves to the words . . . musicmay even be brought about by the sounds, irrespective of the senses. 34John Russell described his personally witnessing such a creative moment with Finzi:Once, as I came into Gerald Finzi’s music room, I found him reading a poem ofHenry Vaughan. He looked up, smiled, and by way of humorous greeting sang:“O rose of Sharon! O the lily of the valley! How art thou now.” He put it straightdown on paper (talking with me at the same time) and it became the main musicalidea of his anthem, ‘Welcome, Sweet and Sacred Feast.’ There, I realized, wasFinzi in the very act of finding out a musical tune. The words sang themselvessimply and effortlessly. The melody was immediately accepted and set downbecause every note of it was fused together with the poetry; the accompanyingharmonies and contrapuntal texture were equally sure and inevitable. 35Finzi described such inspirations as a “lyrical impulse—an unanalysable burning quality,” and “asurcharge of emotion, a passion.” An intense and immediate sympathy for the text was for him,the “germ of the creative impulse.” Not remiss to point out that “a balance between intellect andemotion is the foundation of the greatest works of art,” 36 he nonetheless relied heavily upon hisinitial spark to both sustain and guide him through the creative process:33 Crutchfield, 155. Finzi’s views on textual inspiration were formed early. He wrote to Ferguson while Christopherwas still in infancy, “ . . . the first and last thing is that a composer is (presumably) moved by a poem and wishes toidentify himself with it and to share it . . . . I don’t think everyone realizes the difference between choosing a textand being chosen by one.” Letter from Finzi to Ferguson, 19 December 1936, in Ferguson, 139-140.34 Gerald Finzi, The Composer’s Use of Words, Crees Lectures II, unpublished manuscript provided to the author byDiana McVeagh.35 Russell, “Gerald Finzi.”36 Finzi, II.