A performer's guide to Gerald Finzi's collection for baritone and piano: 'Earth and Air and Rain', Op. 15.

摘要

This document is to serve as a performer's guide to English composer Gerald Finzi's collection for baritone and piano, Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15. As the most prolific composer to have set the works of Thomas Hardy, Finzi binds together the themes of loss, man's futility against nature, and a general rejection of Christian spiritualism in a variety of musical idioms to create this collection. Although Earth and Air and Rain is not a song-cycle in name, it is argued that this collection does fit the criteria. Finzi's use of Hardy's "Emma" poems is discussed as a likely binding force (these poems were written after the death of Thomas Hardy's estranged first wife Emma Gifford Hardy in 1912). Along with a brief history of Gerald Finzi (1901-1955) and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), a song-by-song musical and thematic analysis is provided, as are discussions of performance practice. Songs include: "Summer Schemes," "When I set out for Lyonesse," "Waiting Both," "The Phantom," "So I have fared," "Rollicum-Rorum," "To Lizbie Browne," "The Clock of the Years," "In a Churchyard," and "Proud Songsters."