- Finzi composed this piece in the 1920s. (It’s hard to give a specific date to many of Finzi’s works because he did a lot of revising.)1
- Finzi originally intended this music to be part of a suite called The Bud, the Blossom and the Berry. The title represents different seasons (The Bud – spring; the blossom – summer; the berry – fall). The suite was unfinished at Finzi’s death, so this piece was published on its own with the title Prelude.
- Finzi’s biographer Diana McVeagh thinks this was intended as the “Bud” (Spring) movement.
- McVeagh suggests that this Prelude, with its dark and gloomy sound, might depict the very earliest hints of Spring, at the close of winter.2
Sources
- Diana McVeagh, “Finzi, Gerald,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000009689.
- Diana McVeagh, Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music (Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press, 2010), 39.
Cut IDs
41662, 43324