Finzi, Gerald - In Terra Pax op. 39

In terra pax, Christmas Scene for soprano & baritone soli, chorus & orchestra (1954/6). The text conflates Robert Bridges’s poem Noel: Christmas Eve (1913) and Luke 2: 8-14. Finzi suggested that the Nativity ‘becomes a vision seen by a wanderer on a dark and frosty Christmas Eve, in our own familiar landscape’. In terra pax is a masterpiece in miniature, Finzi’s pacifism at its heart, and his belief that men and women of goodwill should live harmoniously. Weaving through the music are three ideas: the pealing of the bells with their joyous message, a phrase from the carol The First Nowell, and the alleluia refrain from the hymn Lasst uns erfreuen.