Dies Natalis for high voice and string orchestra Op.8 (1925–1939)

Dies Natalis and the Romance, both of them luminously scored for string orchestra, are intimately connected. Although Finzi was ready to release one of them 11 years before the other – Dies Natalis was the first to be performed, at the Wigmore Hall in 1940 – the Intrada of Dies Natalis and the Romance were probably conceived at much the same time and possibly, as the first two movements of a projected Serenade for Strings, for much the same purpose. If there is a kinship of that kind between the two pieces, it would seem to be confirmed not only by the pastoral sound they have in common but also by the tonal relationship between the middle section of the Romance and the outer sections of the Intrada.

At the same time, however, while the Intrada could be interpreted as another loving tribute to the West Country, the rest of Dies Natalis transcends the contemplation of a favourite landscape to reflect a vision of nature seen in enchanted innocence by the eyes of a child unaware of sin and untainted by cynicism. Based on the writings of the 17th-century metaphysical poet Thomas Traherne – whose major works, the Poems and the prose Centuries of Meditation, were discovered only at the end of the 19th century – the four vocal movements were assembled over a period of more than a dozen years.

The lilting 6/8 main theme of the Intrada is taken up by the voice to the words “Will you see the infancy” in the opening bars of Rhapsody. The composer’s subtitle for this movement defines it as an accompanied recitative, which is a modest description of word-setting – one note per syllable in Finzi’s characteristic manner – that makes such radiant poetry from the prose of Traherne’s third Century. Among the apparently spontaneous musical reactions to the poet’s observations, the allusion back to the second main theme of the Intrada for the challenge represented by “Heaven and Earth … could not make more melody to Adam than to me” is one of the most effective.

Rhapsody, along with The Salutation, was one of the earliest of the vocal movements of Dies Natalis. The last was The Rapture, written in 1938 in anticipation of an imminent performance and in the knowledge that a quick piece was needed to offset the comparatively slow movements on either side of it. For all the brilliance of its colouring, however, its unaffected tunefulness and its syncopated dance rhythms, it retains a close thematic relationship with the rest of the work. The opening theme of the Intrada is cheerfully recalled in the rising phrase on first violins after the introductory trills and in a broader form on both violins and the voice when the tempo is relaxed for “O heavenly joy!” At the climax of the movement at “O how Divine Am I!” the orchestra seizes on a dramatic gesture, scarcely modified and yet scarcely inconguous, from the first bar of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro.

After that celebration – inspired in part by the carved angels in March Church and the dancing angels in Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity – the introspectively lyrical Wonder, with its violin solos and much-divided string textures, seems all the more intimate. Sketched as early as 1925, the closing Salutation reveals another source of inspiration for Dies Natalis. The melody introduced by the violas in the opening bars suggests thatof the Bach cantata image was in the forefront of Finzi’s mind from the outset. As the strings weave their obbligato round the ecstatic vocal line, they make such a firm link to the opening phrase of the work that the cycle is completed with no need for anything more conclusive than a short rallentando.