The Clock of the Years: A Gerald and Joy Finzi Anthology

The Clock of the Years: A Gerald and Joy Finzi Anthology Rolf Jordan (editor and compiler) Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK Chosen Press, 2007 330 pp. $47.95 ISBN: 978-0-9556373-0-8 (cloth)

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The Clock of the Years is a Festschrift of writings on the life and output of the English composer Gerald Finzi (1901-56), his wife, Joyce (or "Joy" as she was known) née Black (1907-91), an artist and poet, and the idyllic place, Church Farm, Ashmansworth, where they lived and shared their magical life with others. I shall never forget my pilgrimage to Ashmansworth in the late '90s. From Oxford, where I had been examining Finzi's manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, I had driven to the site in North Hampshire, seven miles south of Newbury on the old road to Andover-Church Farm, semi-isolated on the edge of the small village of Ashmansworth-and 700 feet above sea level. Mine was an unannounced visit and, undoubtedly, I was trespassing; but I wanted to see the house, shielded from the road and drive by a tall flint and brick wall, and to search for Finzi's headstone in the little churchyard of St. James's Church adjacent to the property. As I enjoyed the spectacular views of the countryside on that lovely day, I thought about the happiest years spent by the Finzi family in their interesting home with its ever-growing library of literature and music; the happy ambience of the children, cats, and notable guests, for example Vaughan Williams and his wife, Ursula, to name two; the work completed with such enthusiasm and love by Finzi (his compositions and other pursuits, such as the apple orchard) and Joy (her drawings and poetry); the fragility of human existence and the tyranny of time that haunted the composer; and so on-all of which (and more) is celebrated in this volume marking twenty-five years of the Finzi Friends Newsletter.

The book is divided into twelve sections ("At Ashmansworth"; "'The Most Honest of Friends'"[remembering Finzi]; "A Kind of Fostering" [Finzi as composition tutor]; "Wife and Mother, Artist, and Organizer" [about Joy]; "The Poems of Joy Finzi" [from A Point of Departure and...