Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) was a British composer, editor, author, and outdoorsman/agrarian. Many of his works (a body of fewer than 50) are choral or solo vocal in nature. At the heart of his musical contributions is a unique blend of the metaphysical and mystical with a true love for everything English. Typical of many of the volumes in the Greenwood Press series, this work serves as an awareness tool, introducing an important 20th-century composer labeled variously as a miniaturist, a pastoral composer, and a minor Edwardian musician—but with a singular style that differed from his contemporaries' yet reflected in part the English tradition of Elgar, Parry, and Vaughan Williams in particular.

Growing up with the music of these composers as models, Finzi quickly succeeded in the art of writing songs. His work is just now beginning to receive wider publicity through recordings and public performance. A set of 15 anecdotes contributed by major artists is assembled in this work, containing the artists' reactions to Finzi and his compositions.