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

78Finzi always had a sense that he would not live long enough to complete his work. 74 Indiscussing Farrar, he also self-prophesied to the unknowing Crees audience of 1955, “Sometimesdeath may come instead, before enough has been written to show a composer’s self worth.” 75Whether or not Finzi felt he had accomplished that showing musically, he did feel satisfaction inthe completeness of his life. While loss haunted his childhood and influenced his adulthood, hefound happiness not only in his compositional voice, but in his family, close friends, and serenesurroundings. Ursula Vaughan Williams reported surprise when, following a festival, the coupleswent to have coffee and in the middle of chit chat he said, ‘I think I have doneeverything in my life that I have wanted to [do].’ 76Finzi did not set out to break new artistic ground, nor did he. His harmonies, while richand interesting, are not aurally demanding. His melodic gestures, while refreshing andsometimes surprising, are romantically lyrical at most every turn. “That’s not to say,” asWillcocks pointed out, that “his music wasn’t original,” only that he wasn’t intent on “openingnew things” as other composers might set out to do. 77 Finzi knew however,just where he stood in this scheme of things. He never expected to be a big name,a popular or ‘great’ composer. But, to him, the thought of shaking hands with agood friend over the years, just as if he were sitting in his kitchen atAshmansworth in the fading light chatting to Uncle Ralph or Joy, would havemeant more to him than any number of comparisons with this composer or that. 78That his music should speak to people and be enjoyed was his simple desire. A growinginterest in his work today invokes the image of his returning to numerous pleasant twilight chats,not at his country farm, but now in the kitchens of his many new friends made through the musicwhich spoke so well for him.74 Dressler, 8.75 Finzi, II.76 Crutchfield, 174.77 Ibid., 162.78 Paul Spicer in Dressler, 25.