Dies Natalis (cantata)

Dies Natalis (Latin: "Natal Day" or "Day of Birth"), Op. 8, is a five-movement solo cantata composed in 1938–1939 by early twentieth-century English composer Gerald Finzi (1901–1956). It is a solo vocal cantata scored for a solo soprano or tenor accompanied by string orchestra, and features settings of four texts by Thomas Traherne (1636/37–1674), a seventeenth-century English Metaphysical poet, priest and theologian.

Dies Natalis is a cantata for solo voice and string orchestra. The opening introductory orchestral movement is followed by four movements for accompanied voice in which Finzi set mystical texts by the seventeenth-century English poet Thomas Traherne (1636/37–1674). Finzi selected three of Traherne's poems, prefaced by prose drawn from the opening three sections of the Third Century in Centuries of Meditations. Written from 1938–1939, the score was published in 1946. Finzi conducted the work at the Three Choirs Festival in 1946.

The first recording of Dies Natalis, sponsored by the British Council, was one of only two recordings of Finzi's music made in his lifetime. Two of the three sessions took place in October 1946, and the third on 29 January 1947. For Finzi it was an unfortunate experience: the soprano soloist was Joan Cross, whom he disliked for being an opera singer, and for her close connection to Benjamin Britten, whose work he disliked. The conductor Boyd Neel was ill for one of the three sessions, and Finzi had to take over. His biographer, Diana McVeagh, suggests it may have been for the "Rhapsody", which was recorded on a particularly cold day - the coldest day in 50 years - and Joan Cross said afterwards, "I don't think I did justice to that piece, alas!".

In 1964, his son Christopher Finzi conducted the work for its second recording with the soloist Wilfred Brown. Brown had first sung Dies Natalis in 1952 under the composer's baton. Finzi's biographer, Diana McVeagh, describes Brown's interpretation in the recording as "among his finest: intelligent, poetic, and informed with his acute but gentle feeling for words."

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