Editing Frederick Delius (section)

==Life==

===Early years===
[[File:Bradford_GS.jpg|thumb|upright|Delius's school (he attended the previous building) [[Bradford Grammar School]]]]
Delius was born in [[Bradford]] in [[Yorkshire]]. He was baptised as Fritz Theodor Albert Delius,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jones |first=Philip |title=The Delius Birthplace |journal=The Musical Times |pages=990–992 |volume=120 |date=December 1979 |jstor=963502 |doi=10.2307/963502}} {{subscription}}</ref> and used the forename Fritz until he was about 40.<ref name=dnb/> He was the second of four sons – there were also ten daughters – born to Julius Delius (1822–1901) and his wife Elise Pauline, ''née'' Krönig (1838–1929).<ref name=dnbarchive>{{cite web |last=Hadley |first=Patrick |title=Delius, Frederick |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/olddnb/32775 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography archive |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1949 |access-date=21 January 2011}} {{subscription}}</ref> Delius's parents were born in [[Bielefeld]], [[Westphalia]],{{refn|Now part of the [[Ostwestfalen-Lippe]] region of Germany.|group=n}} and Julius's family had already lived for several generations in German lands near the Rhine but was originally Dutch.{{refn|According to Sir Thomas Beecham, the Dutch Delius family had changed its patronymic from Delij or Deligh to a latinized form of the name some time in the sixteenth century, a common practice at the time.<ref name=mingledchime>Beecham (1944), p. 72</ref>|group=n}} Julius's father, Ernst Friedrich Delius, had served under [[Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher|Blücher]] in the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref name=mgobit>{{cite news |title=Frederick Delius |newspaper=[[The Manchester Guardian]] |date=11 June 1934 |page=6}}</ref> Julius moved to England to further his career as a wool merchant, and became a naturalised British subject in 1850. He married Elise in 1856.<ref name=dnb>{{cite web |last=McVeagh |first=Diana |author-link=Diana McVeagh |title=Delius, Frederick Theodor Albert (1862–1934) |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32775 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |access-date=21 January 2011}} {{subscription}}</ref>

The Delius household was musical; famous musicians such as [[Joseph Joachim]] and [[Carlo Alfredo Piatti]] were guests, and played for the family.<ref name=dnb/> Despite his German parentage, the young Fritz was drawn to the music of [[Chopin]] and [[Grieg]] rather than the Austro-German music of [[Mozart]] and [[Beethoven]], a preference that endured all his life.<ref name=dnbarchive/> The young Delius was first taught the violin by Rudolph Bauerkeller of the [[Hallé Orchestra]], and had more advanced studies under [[George Haddock (musician)|George Haddock]] of [[Leeds]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The life and times of Frederick Delius |url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9500404.The_life_and_times_of_Frederick_Delius/ |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=30 January 2012 |access-date=9 January 2013}}</ref>

Although Delius achieved enough skill as a violinist to set up as a violin teacher in later years, his chief musical joy was to improvise at the piano, and it was a piano piece, a waltz by Chopin, that gave him his first ecstatic encounter with music.<ref name=mgobit/>{{refn|The Chopin piece was the posthumously published [[Waltz in E minor (Chopin)|Waltz in E minor]].<ref name=dnb/>|group=n}} From 1874 to 1878 he was educated at [[Bradford Grammar School]], where the singer [[John Coates (tenor)|John Coates]] was his slightly older contemporary;<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 18</ref> Delius then attended the [[London International College|International College]] at [[Isleworth]] (just west of London) between 1878 and 1880. As a pupil he was neither especially quick nor diligent,<ref name=mgobit/> but the college was conveniently close to the city for Delius to be able to attend concerts and opera.<ref name=grove>{{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Robert |last2=Payne |first2=Anthony |title=Delius, Frederick |url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/49095 |work=Grove Music Online |publisher=Oxford Music Online |access-date=20 October 2010}} {{subscription}}</ref>

Julius Delius assumed that his son would play a part in the family wool business, and for the next three years he tried hard to persuade him to do so. Delius's first job was as the firm's representative in [[Stroud]] in [[Gloucestershire]], where he did moderately well. After being sent in a similar capacity to [[Chemnitz]], he neglected his duties in favour of trips to the major musical centres of Germany, and musical studies with [[Hans Sitt]].<ref name=grove/> His father sent him to Sweden, where he again put his artistic interests ahead of commerce, coming under the influence of the Norwegian dramatists [[Henrik Ibsen]] and [[Gunnar Heiberg]]. Ibsen's denunciations of social conventions further alienated Delius from his commercial background.<ref name=dnb/> Delius was then sent to represent the firm in France, but he frequently absented himself from business for excursions to the [[French Riviera]].<ref name=grove/> After this, Julius Delius recognised that there was no prospect that his son would succeed in the family business, but he remained opposed to music as a profession, and instead sent him to America to manage an orange plantation.<ref name=grove/>

===Florida===
Whether the move to America was Julius's idea or his son's is unknown.{{refn|The composer [[Peter Warlock]] (real name Philip Heseltine) wrote in 1915 that the idea was Frederick's, rather than Julius's, but cites no authority for the statement.<ref name=heseltine/>|group= n}} A leading Florida property firm had branches in several English cities including Bradford; in an article on Delius's time in Florida, William Randel conjectures that either Julius Delius visited the Bradford office and conceived the notion of sending his wayward son to grow oranges in Florida, or that Fritz himself saw it as a way to escape the hated family wool business and suggested the idea to his father.<ref name=randel>{{cite magazine|title= Frederick Delius in America|last= Randel|first= William|jstor= 4247665|magazine=Virginia Magazine of History and Biography|pages=349–66|date= July 1971|volume=79}} {{subscription}}</ref> Delius was in Florida from the spring of 1884 to the autumn of 1885, living on a plantation at Solano Grove{{refn|{{Coord|29|52|29|N|81|34|34|W|type:landmark_region:US|display=inline|name=Solano Grove}} between [[Picolata, Florida|Picolata]] and [[Tocoi, Florida|Tocoi]]|group=n}} on the [[Saint Johns River]], about 35 miles (55 kilometres) south of [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]]. He continued to be engrossed in music, and in Jacksonville he met Thomas Ward, who became his teacher in [[counterpoint]] and [[musical composition|composition]]. Delius later said that Ward's teaching was the only useful music instruction he ever had.<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 28</ref>

[[File:St johns map.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Map of Florida's [[St. Johns River]] in 1876; Delius' house at Solano Grove lay between [[Picolata, Florida|Picolata]] and [[Tocoi, Florida|Tocoi]] on the east bank]]
Delius later liked to represent his house at Solano Grove as "a shanty", but it was a substantial cottage of four rooms, with plenty of space for Delius to entertain guests.{{refn|The building fell into decay after he left it, but it was rescued by [[Jacksonville University]] and moved to the university campus in 1961 and restored.<ref name= F257>Fenby (1981), p. 257</ref>|group= n}} Ward sometimes stayed there, as did an old Bradford friend, Charles Douglas, and Delius's brother Ernest. Protected from excessive summer heat by river breezes and a canopy of oak trees, the house was an agreeable place to live in. Delius paid little attention to the business of growing oranges, and continued to pursue his musical interests. Jacksonville had a rich, though to a European, unorthodox musical life. Randel notes that in local hotels, the African-American waiters doubled as singers, with daily vocal concerts for patrons and passers-by, giving Delius his introduction to [[Spiritual (music)|spirituals]]. Additionally, ship owners encouraged their deckhands to sing as they worked. "Delius never forgot the singing as he heard it, day or night, carried sweet and clear across the water to his verandah at Solano Grove, whenever a steam-ship passed; it is hard to imagine conditions less conducive to cultivating oranges – or more conducive to composing."<ref name=randel/>

While in Florida, Delius had his first composition published, a polka for piano called ''Zum Carnival''.<ref name=randel/> In late 1885 he left a caretaker in charge of Solano Grove and moved to [[Danville, Virginia]]. Thereafter he pursued a wholly musical career. An advertisement in the local paper announced, "Fritz Delius will begin at once giving instruction in Piano, Violin, Theory and Composition. He will give lessons at the residences of his pupils. Terms reasonable."<ref name=randel/> Delius also offered lessons in French and German. Danville had a thriving musical life, and early works of his were publicly performed there.<ref name=randel/>

===Illegitimate son===
During his time in Florida, Delius is alleged to have fathered a son with a local African-American woman named Chloe.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Webber |first=Julian Lloyd |date=5 January 2012 |title=Delius: beauty in the ear of the beholder |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jan/05/delius-fenby-julian-lloyd-webber |access-date=24 March 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Upon Delius's return to Florida some years later to sell the plantation, it was suggested that Chloe, fearing that he had come to take her son away from her, fled with the child and disappeared.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/9376787/Tamsin-Little-on-Delius-regrets-of-a-lost-composer.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/9376787/Tamsin-Little-on-Delius-regrets-of-a-lost-composer.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Tamsin (sic) Little on Delius: regrets of a lost composer|first=Ivan|last=Hewett|date=4 July 2012|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In the 1990s the violinist [[Tasmin Little]] embarked on a search for descendants of Delius's alleged love-child.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Meirion |url=https://books.google.com.au/books?id=g-FzJC-B51EC&pg=PA249&dq=Delius+love+child+black+girl&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYmpXbr4yFAxX9oK8BHXedCqAQ6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q=Delius%20love%20child%20black%20girl&f=false |title=English Musical Renaissance, 1840-1940 |last2=Stradling |first2=R. A. |date=7 December 2001 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-5830-1 |language=en}}</ref> Little believes that his failure to track down his son had been a significant influence in the tone of his works thereafter.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 July 2012 |title=Tamsin Little on Delius: regrets of a lost composer |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/9376787/Tamsin-Little-on-Delius-regrets-of-a-lost-composer.html |access-date=24 March 2024 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}}</ref>

===Leipzig and Paris===
[[File:Edvard Grieg (1888) by Elliot and Fry - 02.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Edvard Grieg]], who was a strong influence on Delius's earlier music]]
In 1886, Julius Delius finally agreed to allow his son to pursue a musical career, and paid for him to study music formally. Delius left Danville and returned to Europe via New York, where he paused briefly to give a few lessons.<ref name=dnb/> Back in Europe he enrolled at the [[Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre|conservatoire]] in [[Leipzig]], Germany. Leipzig was a major musical centre, where [[Arthur Nikisch]] and [[Gustav Mahler]] were conductors at the [[Leipzig Opera|Opera House]], and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] and [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]] conducted their works at the [[Leipzig Gewandhaus|Gewandhaus]].<ref name=mgobit/> At the conservatoire, Delius made little progress in his piano studies under [[Carl Reinecke]], but [[Salomon Jadassohn]] praised his hard work and grasp of counterpoint; Delius also resumed studies under Hans Sitt.<ref name=dnb/> Delius's early biographer, the composer [[Patrick Hadley]], observed that no trace of his academic tuition can be found in Delius's mature music "except in certain of the weaker passages".<ref name=dnbarchive/> Much more important to Delius's development was meeting the composer Edvard Grieg in Leipzig. Grieg, like Ward before him, recognised Delius's potential. In the spring of 1888, Sitt conducted Delius's ''[[Florida Suite]]'' for an audience of three: Grieg, [[Christian Sinding]] and the composer.{{refn|According to Hadley, the orchestral players were paid in beer.<ref name=dnbarchive/>|group= n}} Grieg and Sinding were enthusiastic and became warm supporters of Delius. At a dinner party in London in April 1888, Grieg finally convinced Julius Delius that his son's future lay in music.<ref name=dnbarchive/>

After leaving Leipzig in 1888, Delius moved to Paris where his uncle, Theodore, took him under his wing and looked after him socially and financially.<ref name=dnb/> Over the next eight years, Delius befriended many writers and artists, including [[August Strindberg]], [[Edvard Munch]] and [[Paul Gauguin]]. He mixed very little with French musicians,<ref name=dnb/> although [[Florent Schmitt]] arranged the piano scores of Delius's first two operas, ''Irmelin'' and ''The Magic Fountain'' ([[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] later did the same for his ''[[verismo]]'' opera ''Margot la rouge'').<ref name=mgobit/> As a result, his music never became widely known in France.{{refn|Hadley, writing in 1946, commented that Delius's music remained unknown in France.<ref name=dnbarchive/> The critic [[Eric Blom]] wrote in 1929, while the composer was still alive: "Domiciled in France for nearly three decades, in Paris his name is a blank among the ordinary concert-goers and a curiosity among musicians. In cultivating music lovingly in his quiet riverside home at Grez, he fatally omitted to cultivate the musicians of the capital: the result is an artistic ostracism as rigid as only the injured vanity of Parisian art-circles can decree it."<ref>{{cite journal|author-link= Eric Blom|last= Blom|first= Eric|jstor= 738331|title= Delius and America|journal= The Musical Quarterly|date= July 1929|pages=438–47| doi = 10.1093/mq/xv.3.438|volume=XV}} {{subscription}}</ref> In 2007, the critic Michael White wrote, "European snobbery still prevailed, especially in France, where as late as the 1970s [[Nadia Boulanger]] claimed never to have heard of Delius."<ref>{{cite news|title= So Mighty, So Unmusical: How Britannia Found Its Voice |last=White|first=Michael|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/arts/music/11whit.html |newspaper= The New York Times|date= 11 February 2007|access-date=21 January 2011}}</ref>|group= n}} Delius's biographer [[Diana McVeagh]] says of these years that Delius "was found to be attractive, warm-hearted, spontaneous, and amorous". It is generally believed that during this period he contracted the [[syphilis]] that caused the collapse of his health in later years.<ref name=dnb/><ref>{{cite journal|title= Medical Histories of Prominent Composers: Recent Research and Discoveries|last= Saffle|first= Michael|first2= Jeffrey R. |last2=Saffle|jstor= 932980|journal= Acta Musicologica|pages=77–101|date= July–December 1993|volume=65|doi=10.2307/932980}}{{subscription}}</ref>

Delius's Paris years were musically productive. His symphonic poem ''Paa Vidderne'' was performed in [[Oslo|Christiania]] in 1891 and in Monte Carlo in 1894; Gunnar Heiberg commissioned Delius to provide [[incidental music]] for his play ''Folkeraadet'' in 1897; and Delius's second opera, ''The Magic Fountain'', was accepted for staging at [[Prague]], but the project fell through for unknown reasons.<ref>Beecham (1975), pp. 71–73</ref> Other works of the period were the fantasy overture ''Over the Hills and Far Away'' (1895–1897) and orchestral variations, ''Appalachia: Variations on an Old Slave Song'' (1896, rewritten in 1904 for voices and orchestra).<ref name=grove/>

===First successes===
[[File:Delius-by-Krohg-1897.jpg|thumb|left|Delius in 1897 by [[Christian Krohg]]]]
In 1897, Delius met the German artist [[Jelka Rosen]], who later became his wife. She was a professional painter, a friend of [[Auguste Rodin]], and a regular exhibitor at the [[Salon des Indépendants]].<ref name= dnb/> Jelka quickly declared her admiration for the young composer's music,<ref>Beecham (1975), pp. 77–78</ref> and the couple were drawn closer together by a shared passion for the works of the German philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] and the music of Grieg.<ref name= dnb/> Jelka bought a house in [[Grez-sur-Loing]], a village {{convert|40|mi|km}} outside Paris on the edge of [[Forest of Fontainebleau|Fontainebleau]].<ref name=dnb/> Delius visited her there, and after a brief return visit to Florida, he moved in with her.

In 1903 they married, and, apart from a short period when the area was threatened by the advancing German army during the [[First World War]], Delius lived in Grez for the rest of his life.<ref name=dnb/> The marriage was not conventional: Jelka was, at first, the principal earner; there were no children; and Delius was not a faithful husband. Jelka was often distressed by his affairs, but her devotion did not waver.<ref name=dnb/>

In the same year, Delius began a fruitful association with German supporters of his music, the conductors [[Hans Haym]], [[Fritz Cassirer]] and [[Alfred Hertz]] at [[Elberfeld]], and [[Julius Buths]] at [[Düsseldorf]].<ref name=dnbarchive/> Haym conducted ''Over the Hills and Far Away'', which he gave under its German title ''Über die Berge in die Ferne''{{refn|Literally "Over the mountains in the distance"|group=n}} on 13 November 1897, believed to be the first time Delius's music was heard in Germany.<ref name=carley>{{cite journal|title= Hans Haym: Delius's Prophet and Pioneer|last= Carley|first= Lionel|jstor= 734166|journal= Music and Letters|pages=1–24|date= January 1973|volume=54|doi=10.1093/ml/liv.1.1}} {{subscription}}</ref> In 1899 Hertz gave a Delius concert in [[St. James's Hall]] in London, which included ''Over the Hills and Far Away'', a choral piece, ''Mitternachtslied'', and excerpts from the opera ''[[Koanga]]''. This occasion was an unusual opportunity for an unknown composer at a time when any sort of orchestral concert was a rare event in London.<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 104</ref> In spite of encouraging reviews, Delius's orchestral music was not heard again in an English concert hall until 1907.<ref name=carley/>

The orchestral work ''[[Paris: The Song of a Great City]]'' was composed in 1899 and dedicated to Haym. He gave the premiere at Elberfeld on 14 December 1901. It provoked some critical comment from the local newspaper, which complained that the composer put his listeners on a bus and shuttled them from one Parisian night-spot to another, "but he does not let us hear the tuneful gypsy melodies in the boulevard cafés, always just cymbals and tambourine and mostly from two cabarets at the same time at that".<ref name=carley/> The work was given under [[Ferruccio Busoni|Busoni]] in Berlin less than a year later.<ref name=carley/>

Most of Delius's premieres of this period were given by Haym and his fellow German conductors. In 1904 Cassirer premiered ''Koanga'', and in the same year the Piano Concerto was given in Elberfeld, and ''Lebenstanz'' in Düsseldorf. ''Appalachia'' (choral orchestral variations on an old slave song, also inspired by Florida) followed there in 1905. ''[[Sea Drift (Delius)|Sea Drift]]'' (a cantata with words taken from a poem by [[Walt Whitman]]) was premiered at [[Essen]] in 1906, and the opera ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'' in Berlin in 1907.<ref name=dnb/> Delius's reputation in Germany remained high until the First World War; in 1910 his rhapsody ''[[Brigg Fair]]'' was performed by 36 different German orchestras.<ref name=dnbarchive/><ref>Hull, p. 6</ref>

===Growing reputation===
[[File:Beecham-1910-crop.jpg|thumb|right|[[Thomas Beecham]] in 1910]]
By 1907, thanks to performances of his works in many German cities, Delius was, as [[Thomas Beecham]] said, "floating safely on a wave of prosperity which increased as the year went on".<ref name="Beecham 1975, p. 155">Beecham (1975), p. 155</ref> [[Henry Wood]] premiered the revised version of Delius's Piano Concerto that year. Also in 1907, Cassirer conducted some concerts in London, at one of which, with Beecham's [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]], he presented ''Appalachia''. Beecham, who had until then heard not a note of Delius's music, expressed his "wonderment" and became a lifelong devotee of the composer's works.<ref>Beecham (1944), pp. 63–64</ref> In January 1908, he conducted the British premiere of ''Paris: The Song of a Great City''.<ref name=greene>{{cite thesis |last= Greene|first= Mary E.|url= http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1247&context=oa_theses&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Djelka%2BH%25C3%25A9l%25C3%25A8ne%2BSophie%2BEmilie%2BRosen%2Bbelgrade%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D8%26ved%3D0CFIQFjAH%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscholarlyrepository.miami.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1247%2526context%253Doa_theses%26ei%3DpSUIUaLEKYWPiAe1roC4Dg%26usg%3DAFQjCNHSFinGSdZ8_uLt5PjLIZK37i_RQw%26bvm%3Dbv.41524429%2Cbs.1%2Cd.dGY#search=%22jelka%20H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne%20Sophie%20Emilie%20Rosen%20belgrade%22 |type= Master of Music |date= May 2011 |title= Before the Champions: Frederick Delius' Florida Suite for Orchestra |page =33 |publisher=University of Miami }}</ref> Later that year, Beecham introduced ''Brigg Fair'' to London audiences,<ref>{{cite journal|title= New Symphony Orchestra|jstor= 902996|journal= The Musical Times|page=324|date= May 1908|volume=49}} {{subscription}}</ref> and [[Enrique Fernández Arbós]] presented ''Lebenstanz''.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Mr. Delius's Dance of Life |jstor=904923 |journal= The Musical Times|page=111|date= February 1908 |volume=49}} {{subscription}}</ref>

In 1909, Beecham conducted the first complete performance of ''[[A Mass of Life]]'', the largest and most ambitious of Delius's concert works, written for four soloists, a double choir, and a large orchestra.<ref name=dnb/> Although the work was based on the same [[Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Nietzsche work]] as Richard Strauss's ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)|Also sprach Zarathustra]]'', Delius distanced himself from the Strauss work, which he considered a complete failure.<ref name=carley/> Nor was Strauss an admirer of Delius, as he was of [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]]; he told Delius that he did not wish to conduct ''Paris'' – "the symphonic development seems to me to be too scant, and it seems moreover to be an imitation of [[Gustave Charpentier|Charpentier]]".<ref name=butler>{{cite journal|title= Review|last= Butler|first= Christopher|jstor= 735537 |journal= Music and Letters|pages=78–80|date= January 1986|volume=67|doi=10.1093/ml/67.1.78}} {{subscription}}</ref>

In the early years of the 20th century, Delius composed some of his most popular works, including ''Brigg Fair'' (1907), ''[[In a Summer Garden]]'' (1908, revised 1911), ''[[Summer Night on the River]]'' (1911), and ''[[On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring]]'' (1912), of which McVeagh comments, "These exquisite idylls, for all their composer's German descent and French domicile, spell 'England' for most listeners."<ref name=dnb/> In 1910, Beecham put on an opera season at the [[Royal Opera House]] in London. Having access to the Beecham family's considerable fortune, he ignored commercial considerations and programmed several works of limited box-office appeal, including ''A Village Romeo and Juliet''.{{refn|Other operas in this season included Richard Strauss's ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'', which made a profit, and [[Ethel Smyth]]'s ''[[The Wreckers (opera)|The Wreckers]]'' and [[Arthur Sullivan]]'s ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]],'' which did not.<ref>Reid, p. 107</ref>|group= n}} The reviews were polite, but ''[[The Times]]'', having praised the orchestral aspects of the score, commented, "Mr. Delius seems to have remarkably little sense of dramatic writing for the voice".<ref>{{cite news|title= Music, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, 'The Village Romeo And Juliet'|newspaper= The Times|page=13|date= 23 February 1910}}</ref> Other reviewers agreed that the score contained passages of great beauty, but was ineffective as drama.<ref>See, for example, "Mr. Delius's Opera", ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', 23 February 1910, p. 14; and "The Beecham Opera Season", ''[[The Observer]]'', 27 February 1910, p. 9</ref>

===War and post-war===
During the First World War, Delius and Jelka moved from Grez to avoid the hostilities. They took up temporary residence in the south of England, where Delius continued to compose. In 1915, ''[[The Musical Times]]'' published a profile of him by his admirer, the composer [[Peter Warlock|Philip Heseltine]] (known as "Peter Warlock"), who commented:
<blockquote>
[H]e holds no official position in the musical life of the country [i.e. Britain]; he does not teach in any of the academies, he is not even an honorary professor or doctor of music. He never gives concerts or makes propaganda for his music; he never conducts an orchestra, or plays an instrument in public (even [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]] played the tambourine!)<ref name=heseltine/>
</blockquote>

Heseltine depicted Delius as a composer uncompromisingly focused on his own music. "There can be no superficial view of Delius's music: either one feels it in the very depths of one's being, or not at all. This may be a part of the reason why one so seldom hears a really first-rate performance of Delius's work, save under Mr. Beecham".<ref name="Some Notes">{{cite journal|title= Some Notes on Delius and His Music|last= Heseltine|first= Philip|jstor= 909510|journal= The Musical Times|pages=137–42|date= March 1915|volume=56|doi=10.2307/909510|url= https://zenodo.org/record/1450006/files/article.pdf}} {{subscription}}</ref>{{refn|Heseltine first met Delius in 1911 when, as a schoolboy, he attended a Beecham concert of Delius's works. From this meeting a friendship and correspondence developed that lasted for the remainder of Heseltine's life (he died in 1930). Delius was a profound influence on Heseltine's own early compositions.<ref name= Warlock>{{cite dictionary|last= Smith|first= Barry|title= Warlock, Peter [Heseltine, Philip (Arnold)]|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/29912?q=Peter+Warlock&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit|dictionary= Oxford Music Online|access-date= 3 September 2012}} {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}}
[[File:Flecker Cambridge crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[James Elroy Flecker]] (1884–1915). Delius provided incidental music to Flecker's ''Hassan'', premiered in 1923.]]
One of Delius's major wartime works was his ''[[Requiem (Delius)|Requiem]]'', dedicated "to the memory of all young Artists fallen in the war". The work owes nothing to the traditional Christian liturgy, eschewing notions of an afterlife and celebrating instead a pantheistic renewal of Nature. When [[Albert Coates (musician)|Albert Coates]] presented the work in London in 1922, its atheism offended some believers. This attitude persisted long after Delius's death, as the ''Requiem'' did not receive another performance in the UK until 1965, and by 1980 had still had only seven performances world-wide. In Germany, the regular presentation of Delius's works ceased at the outbreak of the war, and never resumed.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Frederick Delius|last= Cardus|first= Neville|journal= The Guardian|page=8|date= 25 January 1962}}</ref> Nevertheless, his standing with some continental musicians was unaffected; Beecham records that [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]] and [[Zoltán Kodály|Kodály]] were admirers of Delius, and the former grew into the habit of sending his compositions to Delius for comment and tried to interest him in both Hungarian and Romanian popular music.<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 191</ref>

By the end of the war, Delius and Jelka had returned to Grez. He had begun to show symptoms of syphilis that he had probably contracted in the 1880s. He took treatment at clinics across Europe, but by 1922 he was walking with two sticks, and by 1928 he was paralysed and blind. There was no return to the prosperity of pre-war years: Delius's medical treatment was an additional expense, his blindness prevented him from composing, and his royalties were curtailed by the lack of continental performances of his music. Beecham gave discreet financial help, and the composer and musical benefactor [[H. Balfour Gardiner]] bought the house at Grez and allowed Delius and Jelka to live there rent-free.<ref name=dnb/> <!-- SERIOUS CITEVAR PROBLEM HERE; PAGE NUMBER LACKING; AND IN WRONG POSITION CHRONOLOGICALLY In 1929, Delius was appointed a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]], which gave him great pleasure. By now too frail to travel to London to receive it in person, he received the insignia from [[Nevile Henderson|Sir Nevile Henderson]] on 21 July.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Lyndon |title=While Spring and Summer Sang: Thomas Beecham and the Music of Frederick Delius |publisher=[[Ashgate]] |year=2005 |location=Aldershot}}</ref>-->

Beecham was temporarily absent from the concert hall and opera house between 1920 and 1923, but Coates gave the first performance of ''[[A Song of the High Hills]]'' in 1920, and Henry Wood and [[Hamilton Harty]] programmed Delius's music with the [[Queen's Hall]] and Hallé Orchestras.<ref name=dnbarchive/> Wood gave the British première of the Double Concerto for violin and cello in 1920, and of ''A Song Before Sunrise'' and the ''Dance Rhapsody No. 2'' in 1923.<ref>Jacobs, p. 447</ref> Delius had a financial and artistic success with his incidental music for [[James Elroy Flecker]]'s play ''Hassan'' (1923), with 281 performances at [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]].<ref name=grove/> With Beecham's return the composer became, in Hadley's words, "what his most fervent admirers had never envisaged – a genuine popular success". Hadley cites, in particular, the six-day Delius festival at the Queen's Hall in 1929 under Beecham's general direction, in the presence of the composer in his [[bath-chair]]. "[T]he cream of his orchestral output with and without soli and chorus was included", and the hall was filled.<ref name=dnbarchive/> Beecham was assisted in the organisation of the festival by Philip Heseltine, who wrote the detailed programme notes for three of the six concerts.<ref name= Warlock/><ref>{{cite journal|title= The Published Writings of Philip Heseltine on Delius|url= http://www.delius.org.uk/images/journals/pdfs/journal94t.pdf|journal= The Delius Society Journal|issue= 94|date=Autumn 1987|access-date= 5 September 2012|archive-date= 23 September 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213430/http://www.delius.org.uk/images/journals/pdfs/journal94t.pdf|url-status= dead}}</ref> The festival included chamber music and songs, an excerpt from ''A Village Romeo and Juliet'', the Piano and Violin Concertos, and premières of ''Cynara'' and ''A Late Lark'', concluding with ''A Mass of Life''.<ref name=grove/>
The ''[[The Guardian|Manchester Guardian]]''{{'s}} music critic, [[Neville Cardus]], met Delius during the festival. He describes the wreck of the composer's physique, yet "there was nothing pitiable about him&nbsp;... his face was strong and disdainful, every line graven on it by intrepid living". Delius, Cardus says, spoke with a noticeable Yorkshire accent as he dismissed most English music as paper music that should never be heard, written by people "afraid of their feelin's".<ref>Cardus, p. 254</ref>

===Last years===
A young English admirer, [[Eric Fenby]], learning that Delius was trying to compose by dictating to Jelka, volunteered his services as an unpaid amanuensis. For five years, from 1928, he worked with Delius, taking down his new compositions from dictation, and helping him revise earlier works. Together they produced ''Cynara'' (a setting of words by [[Ernest Dowson]]), ''A Late Lark'' (a setting of [[William Ernest Henley|W. E. Henley]]), ''[[A Song of Summer]]'', a third violin sonata, the ''Irmelin'' prelude, and ''Idyll'' (1932), which reused music from Delius's short opera ''Margot la rouge'', composed thirty years earlier. McVeagh rates their greatest joint production as ''The Songs of Farewell'', settings of Whitman poems for chorus and orchestra, which were dedicated to Jelka.<ref name=dnb/> Other works produced in this period include a ''Caprice and Elegy'' for cello and orchestra written for the distinguished British cellist [[Beatrice Harrison]], and a short orchestral piece, ''Fantastic Dance'', which Delius dedicated to Fenby.<ref name= F88/> The violin sonata incorporates the first, incomprehensible, melody that Delius had attempted to dictate to Fenby before their ''modus operandi'' had been worked out. Fenby's initial failure to pick up the tune led Delius to the view that "[the] boy is no good&nbsp;... he cannot even take down a simple melody".<ref>Fenby (1981), pp. 31–33</ref>{{refn|A complete list of the works created or revised during the Delius–Fenby collaboration is provided in Fenby (1981), pp. 261–62.|group= n}} Fenby later wrote a book about his experiences of working with Delius. Among other details, Fenby reveals Delius's love of cricket. The pair followed the [[Australian cricket team in England in 1930|1930 Test series]] between England and Australia with great interest, and regaled a bemused Jelka with accounts of their boyhood exploits in the game.<ref>Fenby (1981), pp. 102–03</ref> In 1932, Delius was awarded the Freedom of the City of Bradford.<ref name="WhatDoTheyKnow">{{Whatdotheyknow.com|https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/freedom_of_the_city_list_3#incoming-2135991|Email from Bradford City Council on 29 September 2022|891779|Bradford City Council|29 September 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Delius grave.jpg|thumb|alt=A slate headstone in a grassy churchyard|Delius's grave at St Peter's Church in [[Limpsfield]], Surrey, photographed in 2013]]
In 1933, the year before both composers died, Elgar, who had flown to Paris to conduct a performance of his [[Violin Concerto (Elgar)|Violin Concerto]], visited Delius at Grez. Delius was not on the whole an admirer of Elgar's music,{{refn| Delius said of Elgar's [[Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)|First Symphony]]: "It starts with a theme out of the ''[[Parsifal (opera)|Parcival]]'' Prelude a little altered. The slow movement is a theme out of [[Requiem (Verdi)|Verdi's Requiem]] a little altered. The rest is [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]] and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], thick and without the slightest orchestral charm – gray – and they all shout 'Masterwork'!"<ref name=butler/> He also called ''[[The Dream of Gerontius]]'' nauseating; he admired Elgar's ''[[Falstaff (Elgar)|Falstaff]]'', however.<ref name=dnb/>|group= n}} but the two men took to each other, and there followed a warm correspondence until Elgar's death in February 1934.<ref name=grove/> Elgar described Delius as "a poet and a visionary".<ref>Redwood, p. 94, ''quoted'' in McVeagh, ODNB</ref>

Delius died at Grez on 10 June 1934, aged 72. He had wished to be buried in his own garden, but the French authorities forbade it. His alternative wish, despite his atheism, was to be buried "in some country churchyard in the south of England, where people could place wild flowers".<ref name=grove/> At this time Jelka was too ill to make the journey across the [[English Channel|Channel]], and Delius was temporarily buried in the local cemetery at Grez.<ref>Fenby (1981), p. 227</ref>

By May 1935, Jelka felt she had enough strength to undertake the crossing to attend a reburial in England. She chose [[Church of St Peter, Limpsfield|St Peter's]] church, [[Limpsfield]], [[Surrey]] as the site for the grave.{{refn|According to Beatrice Harrison's sister Margaret, there was some question whether Anglican churches would be willing to accept the body of a professed atheist for burial. The Harrison family, who lived nearby, secured the agreement of the vicar of Limpsfield, and Jelka chose St Peter's churchyard for her husband's reinterment.<ref>Harrison, Margaret. "[http://www.delius.org.uk/journals/uploads/journal87.pdf Margaret Harrison remembers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802140507/http://www.delius.org.uk/journals/uploads/journal87.pdf |date=2 August 2019 }}", The Delius Society Journal, Autumn 1985, No. 87, p. 18</ref>|group= n}} She sailed to England for the service, but became ill ''en route'', and on arrival was taken to hospital in Dover and then Kensington in London, missing the reburial on 26 May.<ref>Fenby (1981), p. 230</ref> The ceremony took place at midnight; the headline in the ''Sunday Dispatch'' was "Sixty People Under Flickering Lamps In A Surrey Churchyard".<ref>Fenby (1981), pp. 106–07 (Fig. 16)</ref> The vicar offered a prayer: "May the souls of the departed through the mercy of God rest in peace."<ref>Fenby (1981), pp. 233–34</ref> Jelka died two days later, on 28 May. She was buried in the same grave as Delius.<ref name=dnb/>