Lo, the full, final sacrifice

There’s a musical mysticism, a faint smell of incense clinging to Gerald Finzi’s choral anthem Lo, the full, final sacrifice (1946). Commissioned by the Reverend Walter Hussey—whose unerring nose for talent also generated Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, as well as artworks by Henry Moore and Marc Chagall—it celebrates the ritual and symbolism of the Eucharist, capturing the sense of ceremony but also something of the transcendental wonder of the act. After a brooding organ introduction, Finzi combines poems by English metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw to create an episodic meditation that moves from lyrical yearning (“Jesu Master”) to ecstasy (“Rich, Royal Food”) and fanfare-like rejoicing (“Rise, Royal Sion!”). Musical motifs are abundant and short-lived, but all united by syllabic treatment that lets the text lead. After so much text and harmonic movement, the sense of arrival, of lulling, gently unfurling vocal lines in the final “Amen” is striking—a musical homecoming and blessing.