Requiem Da Camera

Requiem da Camera was the young composer's first extended work- only the instrumental prelude was performed during Finzi's lifetime. The piano duet arrangement of the Prelude by Finzi's friend and collaborator Howard Ferguson forms part of the manuscript vocal score of the Requiem and is dated 1924. Suitable for intermediate standard players. / 2 Pianos 4 Mains

New edition with completion by Christian Alexander of the young composer's first extended work- only the instrumental prelude was performed during Finzi's lifetime. The other three movements are settings of poems by John Masefield, Thomas Hardy and Wilfrid Wilson Gibson.Scored for baritone solo, small chorus (or SATB soli) and chamber orchestra, the wellspring of the Requiem's composition was the death, during active service in 1918, of Finzi's composition teacher, Ernest Farrar. The work may also be viewed as a metaphor - the permanence of the land, and a centuries-old pattern of rural life following the rhythm of the turning seasons, contrasted with the violent havoc and destructive dislocation wrought by war. A reflective and poignant work particularly suitable for performances commemorating the tragedy of World War I. / Baryton, Choeur Mixte Et Orchestre

Following the publication of Francis Jackson's organ reduction of Finzi's Requiem da Camera in 2014, Robert Gower, chairman of the Finzi Trust, recitalist and organist of Nottingham Cathedral, has created reductions of the full orchestra accompaniments to two more of Finzi's choral works. These reductions broaden the reach of these works to choirs which do not wish to present the works with orchestra, as with other standards from the sacred repertoire such the Requiems of Fauré and Duruflé. The reductions sympathetically recreate the orchestra scoring for a three-manual organ. Ingeniously, the manual couplings (II to III, II and III to I) are unaltered throughout, with pedal coupled to manuals as appropriate. Detailed registrations are not indicated as these are best left to the performer, taking into account the unique circumstances of the particular instrument, size of choir and acoustic setting at each performance. The scores are user-friendly, in landscape format and with at least one principal vocal line cued throughout, and a cappella choral passages are reproduced in full. The reductions are fully compatible with the published piano vocal scores of the respective works which the singers will use. For St Cecilia, Ceremonial Ode for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra - words by Edmund Blunden. The original work was commissioned by the St Cecilia's Day Festival Committee for the 1947 celebration of music's patron saint. The ceremonial mood is established with fanfares, and the sonorous sweep of the choral writing reflects Finzi's admiration for Parry and Elgar. The 'catalogue' of saints, shared between the soloist and chorus, are deftly delineated: St Valentine, St George, St Dunstan, St Swithin and St Cecilia herself. In rapt stillness, the English composers of the past - Merbecke, Byrd, Dowland and Purcell - are summoned. To close, Finzi creates a festal summation with exultant counterpoint and the saint's name pealing around the chorus. / Choeur Mixte (SATB) Et Orchestre