Music manuscripts of Gerald Finzi

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Gerald Finzi (1901-1956): manuscripts of published and unpublished works, with drafts, notes and unfinished pieces. The bulk of the manuscripts were sorted and in some cases annotated by Mrs Joyce (Joy) Finzi and Dr Howard Ferguson. Their lists, to which Bodleian shelfmarks have been added, can be found in MS. Mus. b. 33, fols. 1-15. Further material has since been added to the collection from other sources.

Dates

Creation: 1919-1990

Extent

6.75 Linear metres (61 physical shelfmarks)

Language of Materials

English

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark, e.g. MS. Mus. c. 376, fols. 1-2].

Please see our help page for further guidance on citing archives and manuscripts.

Full range of shelfmarks:

MSS. Mus. b. 33-34, 43, 114, 118-119, 393, 542-550, c. 376-398, 448-450, 550, 585, e. 57-82

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 13891, 13892, 9988, 15546

Additional Description

Abstract

Music manuscripts of published and unpublished works, with drafts, notes and unfinished pieces, by Gerald Finzi, with related material, 1919-1990.

Biographical / Historical

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) was an English composer. See Grove Music Online for further details.

Arrangement

The catalogue is arranged as follows:

I. Works to which no opus numbers were given

II. Numbered works and posthumous works, with related material:

II i. The shorter works, now bound in three volumes

II ii. Longer works, some bound for Gerald Finzi, with related material

III. Unfinished works and arrangements

IV. Sketch books and other manuscript fragments

V. Additional material received from Boosey & Hawkes (1978) and other sources.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The majority of the collection was given by Mrs Joyce Finzi, 1965-1968. The sketch books and some other material were added later from other sources (specified below with individual items).

Existence and Location of Copies

Shelfmarks MSS. Mus. b. 33-34, b. 43 and c. 376-398 were issued on microfilm in the series Twentieth century composers. Part one : the music manuscripts of Sir Michael Tippett, Sir Arthur Bliss and Gerald Finzi (Reading : Research Publications, 1992).

Related Materials

The Bodleian Library holds significant collections of Gerald Finzi material. Please see elsewhere in this Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts online catalogue for details of further items.

Related Materials

Much of Finzi's collection of mainly 18th-century printed music and modern manuscript transcriptions is now in St. Andrew's Univesity Library. See Cedric Thorpe Davie, Catalogue of the Finzi Collection in St. Andrew's University Library (St. Andrew's, 1982). His collection of English literature is in Reading University Library.

Bibliography

Stephen Banfield, Gerald Finzi: an English composer (London: Faber and Faber, 1997)
John C. Dressler, Gerald Finzi: a bio-bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997)
Letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson, edited by Howard Ferguson and Michael Hurd (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2001)
Diana McVeagh, Gerald Finzi: his life and music (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005)
The clock of the years: an anthology of writings on Gerald and Joy Finzi marking twenty-five years of the Finzi Friends Newsletter, compiled and edited by Rolf Jordan (Lichfield: Chosen Press, 2007)
Gerald Finzi's letters, 1915-1956, edited by Diana McVeagh (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2021)