Editing Frederick Delius (section)

==Music==
{{For|a complete listing of Delius's works|List of compositions by Frederick Delius}}

===Influences===
[[File:Jubilee singers image-London Ill-450wide.jpg|thumb|The [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]], portrayed during a European tour in the 1870s]]
After the 1929 London festival ''The Times'' music critic wrote that Delius "belongs to no school, follows no tradition and is like no other composer in the form, content or style of his music".<ref name= Times29>{{cite news|title= The Delius Festival: A retrospect|page=10|date= 2 November 1929|newspaper= The Times}}</ref> This "extremely individual and personal idiom"<ref>{{cite news|title= The Delius Festival: First Concert at Queen's Hall|page=16|newspaper= The Times|date= 14 October 1929}}</ref> was, however, the product of a long musical apprenticeship, during which the composer absorbed many influences. The earliest significant experiences in his artistic development came, Delius later asserted, from the sounds of the plantation songs carried down the river to him at Solano Grove. It was this singing, he told Fenby, that first gave him the urge to express himself in music;<ref>Palmer, p. 6</ref> thus, writes Fenby, many of Delius's early works are "redolent of Negro hymnology and folk-song", a sound "not heard before in the orchestra, and seldom since".<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 21</ref> Delius's familiarity with "black" music possibly predates his American adventures; during the 1870s a popular singing group, the [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]] from [[Nashville, Tennessee]], toured Britain and Europe, giving several well-received concerts in Bradford. When Delius wrote to Elgar in 1933 of the "beautiful four-part harmonies" of the black plantation workers, he may have been unconsciously alluding to the spirituals sung by the Fisk group.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Jones|first= Philip|title= Delius and America: a new perspective|jstor=963053|journal= The Musical Times|date= December 1984|pages=701–02|volume=125|doi=10.2307/963053}} {{subscription}}</ref>

At [[Leipzig]], Delius became a fervent disciple of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], whose technique of continuous music he sought to master. An ability to construct long musical paragraphs is, according to the Delius scholar [[Christopher Palmer]], Delius's lasting debt to Wagner, from whom he also acquired a knowledge of chromatic harmonic technique, "an endlessly proliferating sensuousness of sound".<ref>Palmer, pp. 95–96</ref> Grieg, however, was perhaps the composer who influenced him more than any other. The Norwegian composer, like Delius, found his primary inspiration in nature and in folk-melodies, and was the stimulus for the Norwegian flavour that characterises much of Delius's early music.<ref>Palmer, pp. 46–50</ref> The music writer [[Anthony Payne]] observes that Grieg's "airy texture and non-developing use of chromaticism showed [Delius] how to lighten the Wagnerian load".<ref name= grove/> Early in his career Delius drew inspiration from Chopin, later from his own contemporaries Ravel and Richard Strauss,<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 82, Palmer, p. 98</ref> and from the much younger [[Percy Grainger]], who first brought the tune of ''Brigg Fair'' to Delius's notice.<ref>Palmer, pp. 89–90</ref>

According to Palmer, it is arguable that Delius gained his sense of direction as a composer from his French contemporary [[Claude Debussy]].<ref>{{cite journal|last= Palmer|first= Christopher|title= Delius, Vaughan Williams and Debussy|url= http://ml.oxfordjournals.org/content/L/4/475.full.pdf|journal= Music and Letters|year= 1969|pages=475–80|jstor=73162|doi=10.1093/ml/L.4.475}} {{subscription}}</ref> Palmer identifies aesthetic similarities between the two, and points to several parallel characteristics and enthusiasms. Both were inspired early in their careers by Grieg, both admired Chopin; they are also linked in their musical depictions of the sea, and in their uses of the wordless voice. The opening of ''Brigg Fair'' is described by Palmer as "perhaps the most Debussian moment in Delius".<ref name= P138/> Debussy, in a review of Delius's ''Two Danish Songs'' for soprano and orchestra given in a concert on 16 March 1901, wrote: "They are very sweet, very pale – music to soothe convalescents in well-to-do neighbourhoods".<ref>Debussy, Claude, ed. Richard Langham Smith (1988): ''Debussy on Music'' New York, Cornell University Press {{ISBN|0-436-12559-5}} pp. 16–17</ref> Delius admired the French composer's orchestration, but thought his works lacking in melody<ref name= P138>Palmer, pp. 138–41</ref> – the latter a comment frequently directed against Delius's own music.<ref name= Stylistic/><ref name= Cardus/> Fenby, however, draws attention to Delius's "flights of melodic poetic-prose",<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 75</ref> while conceding that the composer was contemptuous of public taste, of "giving the public what they wanted" in the form of pretty tunes.<ref>Fenby (1981), pp. 188–89</ref>

===Stylistic development===
From the conventional forms of his early music, over the course of his creative career Delius developed a style easily recognisable and "unlike the work of any other", according to Payne.<ref name = grove/> As he gradually found his voice, Delius replaced the methods developed during his creative infancy with a more mature style in which Payne discerns "an increasing richness of chord structure, bearing with it its own subtle means of contrast and development".<ref name= Stylistic/> [[Hubert J. Foss|Hubert Foss]], the [[Oxford University Press]]'s musical editor during the 1920s and 1930s, writes that rather than creating his music from the known possibilities of instruments, Delius "thought the sounds first" and then sought the means for producing these particular sounds.<ref name= Foss>{{cite journal|last= Foss|first= Hubert|title= The Instrumental Music of Frederick Delius|jstor= 943987|journal= Tempo|publisher= Cambridge University Press|number= 26|date= Winter 1952–53|pages=30–37}} {{subscription}}</ref> Delius's full stylistic maturity dates from around 1907, when he began to write the series of works on which his main reputation rests.<ref name = Stylistic>{{cite journal|author-link= Anthony Payne|last= Payne| first= Anthony|title= Delius's Stylistic Development|url= http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6252204|journal= Tempo|publisher= Cambridge University Press|number= 60|date= Winter 1961–62|pages=6–16|access-date=23 January 2011}} {{subscription}}</ref> In the more mature works Foss observes Delius's increasing rejection of conventional forms such as [[sonata]] or concerto; Delius's music, he comments, is "certainly not architectural; nearer to painting, especially to the ''[[Pointillism|pointilliste]]'' style of design".<ref name= Foss/> The painting analogy is echoed by Cardus.<ref name= Cardus>{{cite journal|author-link= Neville Cardus|last= Cardus|first= Neville|title= Frederick Delius|journal= The Guardian|page=8|date= 25 January 1962}}</ref>

====Towards recognition====
Delius's first orchestral compositions were, in Christopher Palmer's words, the work of "an insipid if charming water-colourist".<ref>Palmer, p. 5</ref> The ''Florida Suite'' (1887, revised 1889) is "an expertly crafted synthesis of Grieg and Negroid Americana",<ref>Palmer, p. 7</ref> while Delius's first opera ''Irmelin'' (1890–1892) lacks any identifiably Delian passages. Its harmony and modulation are conventional, and the work bears the clear fingerprints of Wagner and Grieg. Payne asserts that none of the works prior to 1895 are of lasting interest. The first noticeable stylistic advance is evident in ''[[Koanga]]'' (1895–1897), with richer chords and faster harmonic rhythms; here we find Delius "feeling his way towards the vein that he was soon to tap so surely".<ref name= Stylistic/> In ''Paris'' (1899), the orchestration owes a debt to [[Richard Strauss]]; its passages of quiet beauty, says Payne, nevertheless lack the deep personal involvement of the later works. ''Paris'', the final work of Delius's apprentice years, is described by Foss as "one of the most complete, if not the greatest, of Delius's musical paintings".<ref name= Foss/>
[[File:Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe 1.jpg|thumb|left|Woodcut illustration (1919) of the young lovers from [[Gottfried Keller]]'s original story, which became Delius's opera ''A Village Romeo and Juliet'']]
In each of the major works written in the years after ''Paris'', Delius combined orchestral and vocal forces. The first of these works was ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'', a music drama which departs from the normal operatic structure of acts and scenes and tells its story of tragic love in a series of tableaux. Musically it shows a considerable advance in style from the early operas of the apprentice years. The entr'acte known as "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" is described by Heseltine as showing "all the tragic beauty of mortality&nbsp;... concentrated and poured forth in music of overwhelming, almost intolerable poignancy".<ref name= heseltine>{{cite journal|author-link= Peter Warlock|last= Heseltine|first= Philip|title= Some Notes on Delius and his Music|jstor= 909510|journal= The Musical Times|date= March 1915|pages=137–42|volume=56}} {{subscription}}</ref> In this work Delius begins to achieve the texture of sound that characterised all his later compositions.<ref name= Stylistic/> Delius's music is often assumed to lack melody and form. Cardus argues that melody, while not a primary factor, is there abundantly, "floating and weaving itself into the texture of shifting harmony" – a characteristic which Cardus believes is shared only by Debussy.<ref name= Cardus/>

Delius's next work, ''Appalachia'', introduces a further feature that recurred in later pieces – the use of the voice instrumentally in wordless singing, in this case depicting the distant plantation songs that had inspired Delius at Solano Grove.<ref name= Stylistic/> Although Payne argues that ''Appalachia'' shows only a limited advance in technique, Fenby identifies one orchestral passage as the first expression of Delius's idea of "the transitoriness of all mortal things mirrored in nature". Hereafter, whole works rather than brief passages would be informed by this idea.<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 55</ref> The transitional phase of the composer's career concludes with three further vocal pieces: ''[[Sea Drift (Delius)|Sea Drift]]'' (1903), ''[[A Mass of Life]]'' (1904–05), and ''[[Songs of Sunset]]'' (1906–07). Payne salutes each of these as masterpieces, in which the Delian style struggles to emerge in its full ripeness.<ref name= Stylistic/> Fenby describes ''A Mass of Life'' as standing outside the general progression of Delius's work, "a vast parenthesis", unlike anything else he wrote, but nevertheless an essential ingredient in his development.<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 58</ref>

====Full flowering====
''Brigg Fair'' (1907) announced the composer's full stylistic maturity, the first of the pieces for orchestra that confirm Delius's status as a musical poet, with the influences of Wagner and Grieg almost entirely absent.<ref name= Stylistic/> The work was followed in the next few years by ''[[In a Summer Garden]]'' (1908), ''Life's Dance'', ''Summer Night on the River'' (both 1911) and ''[[On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring]]'' (1912). The critic R. W. S. Mendl described this sequence as "exquisite nature studies", with a unity and shape lacking in the earlier formal tone poems.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mendl |first=R.W.S. |title=The Art of the Symphonic Poem |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=443–462 |date=July 1932 |doi=10.1093/mq/xviii.3.443}} {{subscription}}</ref> These works became part of the standard English concert repertory, and helped to establish the character of Delius's music in the English concert-goer's mind, although according to [[Ernest Newman]], the concentration on these works to the neglect of his wider output may have done Delius as much harm as good.<ref>{{cite news |last=Newman |first=Ernest |author-link=Ernest Newman |title=His Country At Last Acclaims Delius |newspaper=The New York Times Quarterly |date=16 March 1930 |pages=SM7}}</ref> The typical mature Delian orchestral sound is apparent in these works, through the division of the strings into ten or more sections, punctuated by woodwind comments and decorations.<ref name= Stylistic/> In the ''North Country Sketches'' of 1913–14, Delius divides the strings into 12 parts, and harps, horns, clarinets and bassoons evoke a lifeless winter scene.<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 72</ref> In Payne's view, the ''Sketches'' are the high-water mark of Delius's compositional skill,<ref name= Stylistic/> although Fenby awards the accolade to the later ''[[Eventyr (Once Upon a Time)]]'' (1917).<ref>Fenby (1971), p. 74</ref>

During this period Delius did not confine himself to purely orchestral works; he produced his final opera, ''[[Fennimore and Gerda]]'' (1908–1910), like ''A Village Romeo and Juliet'' written in tableau form, but in his mature style. His choral works of the period, notably ''An Arabesque'' and ''[[A Song of the High Hills]]'' (both 1911) are among the most radical of Delius's writings in their juxtapositions of unrelated chords.<ref name= grove/> The latter work, entirely wordless, contains some of the most difficult choral music in existence, according to Heseltine.<ref name="Some Notes"/> After 1915, Delius turned his attention to traditional sonata, chamber and concerto forms, which he had largely left alone since his apprentice days. Of these pieces Payne highlights two: the Violin Concerto (1916), as an example of how, writing in unfamiliar genres, Delius remained stylistically true to himself; and the Cello Sonata of 1917, which, lacking the familiarity of an orchestral palate, becomes a melodic triumph.<ref name= Stylistic/> Cardus's verdict, however, is that Delius's chamber and concerto works are largely failures.<ref name= Cardus/> After 1917, according to Payne, there was a general deterioration in the quantity and quality of Delius's output as illness took hold, although Payne exempts the incidental music to ''Hassan'' (1920–1923) from condemnation, believing it to contain some of Delius's best work.<ref name= grove/><ref name= Stylistic/>

====Final phase====
The four-year association with Fenby from 1929 produced two major works, and several smaller pieces often drawn from unpublished music from Delius's early career. The first of the major works was the orchestral ''[[A Song of Summer]]'', based on sketches that Delius had previously collected under the title of ''A Poem of Life and Love''.<ref>Fenby (1981), p. 132</ref> In dictating the new beginning of this work, Delius asked Fenby to "imagine that we are sitting on the cliffs in the heather, looking out over the sea".<ref>Fenby (1971) p. 70</ref> This does not, says Fenby, indicate that the dictation process was calm and leisurely; the mood was usually frenzied and nerve-wracking.<ref>Fenby (1981), pp. 145–47</ref> The other major work, a setting of [[Walt Whitman]] poems with the title ''Songs of Farewell'', was an even more alarming prospect to Fenby: "the complexity of thinking in so many strands, often all at once; the problems of orchestral and vocal balance; the wider area of possible misunderstandings&nbsp;..." combined to leave Delius and his helper exhausted after each session of work – yet both these works were ready for performance in 1932.<ref name= F88>Fenby (1971), pp. 88–89</ref> Of the music in this final choral work, Beecham wrote of its "hard, masculine vigour, reminiscent in mood and fibre of some of the great choral passages in ''[[A Mass of Life]]''".<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 208</ref> Payne describes the work as "bracing and exultant, with in places an almost [[Gustav Holst|Holstian]] clarity".<ref name= Stylistic/>

===Reception===
Recognition came late to Delius; before 1899, when he was already 37, his works were largely unpublished and unknown to the public. When the symphonic poem ''Paa Vidderne'' was performed at [[Monte Carlo]] on 25 February 1894 in a programme of works from British composers, ''[[The Musical Times]]'' listed the composers as "...&nbsp;[[Michael William Balfe|Balfe]], [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Mackenzie]], Oakeley, [[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]]&nbsp;... and one Delius, whoever he may be".<ref>{{cite journal|title= Foreign Notes|jstor= 3361873|journal= The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular|date= April 1894|pages=266–67|volume=35}} {{subscription}}</ref> The work was well received in Monte Carlo, and brought the composer a congratulatory letter from [[Alice Heine|Princess Alice]] of [[Monaco]], but this did not lead to demands for further performances of this or other Delius works.<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 63. (Beecham misdates the concert to February 1893)</ref> Some of his individual songs (he wrote more than 60) were occasionally included in vocal recitals; referring to "the strange songs of Fritz Delius", ''[[The Times]]'' critic expressed regret "that the powers the composer undoubtedly possesses should not be turned to better account or undergo proper development at the hands of some musician competent to train them".<ref>{{cite news|title= New Songs|newspaper= The Times|date= 9 August 1899|page=13}}</ref>
[[File:Stjameshall.gif|thumb|[[St James's Hall]], London, the venue for Delius's first London concert, May 1899]]
Of the May 1899 concert at [[St. James's Hall]], London, ''The Musical Times'' reviewer remarked on the rawness of some of the music, but praised the "boldness of conception and virile strength that command and hold attention".<ref name= MT99>{{cite journal|jstor= 3367034|title= Mr. Fritz Delius|journal= The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular|date= July 1899|page=472|volume=40}} {{subscription}}</ref> Beecham, however, records that despite this "fair show of acclaim", for all the impetus it gave to future performances of Delius's work the event might never have happened; none of the music was heard again in England for many years.<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 106</ref> Delius was much better received in Germany, where a series of successful performances of his works led to what Beecham describes as a Delius vogue there, "second only to that of Richard Strauss".<ref>Beecham (1975), p. 114</ref>

In England, a performance of the [[Piano Concerto (Delius)|Piano Concerto]] on 22 October 1907 at the Queen's Hall was praised for the brilliance of the soloist, [[Theodor Szántó]], and for the power of the music itself.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Mr Delius's Pianoforte Concerto|jstor= 904474|journal= The Musical Times|date= November 1907|page=739|volume=48}} {{subscription}}</ref> From that point onwards the music of Delius became increasingly familiar to both British and European audiences, as performances of his works proliferated. Beecham's presentation of ''A Mass of Life'' at the Queen's Hall in June 1909 did not inspire Hans Haym, who had come from Elberfeld for the concert,<ref name=carley/> though Beecham says that many professional and amateur musicians thought it "the most impressive and original achievement of its genre written in the last fifty years"<ref name="Beecham 1975, p. 155"/> Some reviewers continued to doubt the popular appeal of Delius's music, while others were more specifically hostile.{{refn|''[[The Observer]]'' wrote of "a charm and fascination entirely its own&nbsp;... but whether his contemplative and reticent musical spirit will ever make an appeal to the great public is another question".<ref>{{cite journal|title= Concerts of the Week|journal= The Observer|page=6|date= 25 January 1914}}</ref> [[Samuel Langford]] in ''The Manchester Guardian'' wrote that Delius's music had "the modern note without the ancient form and grace. The instruments come in, as it were, anywhere, like little toy reeds pulled by some childish [[Pan (god)|Pan]]."<ref>{{cite journal|title= The Beecham Promenade Concerts|last=Langford|first=Samuel|journal= The Manchester Guardian|page=3|date= 3 October 1917}}</ref>|group= n}}

From 1910, Delius's works began to be heard in America: ''Brigg Fair'' and ''In a Summer Garden'' were performed in 1910–11 by the [[New York Philharmonic Orchestra]] under [[Walter Damrosch]]. In November 1915 Grainger gave the first American performance of the Piano Concerto, again with the New York Philharmonic. The ''[[New York Times]]'' critic described the work as uneven; richly harmonious, but combining colour and beauty with effects "of an almost crass unskillfulness and ugliness".<ref>{{cite news|title= Philharmonic Concert: Percy Grainger, soloist, plays Delius's Piano Concerto|url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/11/27/105048805.pdf|newspaper= The New York Times|date = 27 November 1915}}</ref>

For the rest of his lifetime Delius's more popular pieces were performed in England and abroad, often under the sponsorship of Beecham, who was primarily responsible for the Delius festival in October–November 1929. In a retrospective comment on the festival ''The Times'' critic wrote of full houses and an apparent enthusiasm for "music which hitherto has enjoyed no exceptional vogue", but wondered whether this new acceptance was based on a solid foundation.<ref name= Times29/> After Delius's death Beecham continued to promote his works; a second festival was held in 1946, and a third (after Beecham's death) at Bradford in 1962, to celebrate the centenary of Delius's birth. These occasions were in the face of a general indifference to the music;<ref>{{cite journal|last= Cooper|first= Martin|title= Question Mark Over Delius Lovers|journal= The Daily Telegraph|date= 7 April 1962}}</ref> writing in the centenary year, the musicologist [[Deryck Cooke]] opined that at that time, "to declare oneself a confirmed Delian is hardly less self-defamatory than to admit to being an addict of cocaine and marihuana".<ref name= Cooke>{{cite journal|author-link= Deryck Cooke|last= Cooke|first= Deryck|title= Delius the Unknown|jstor= 765994|journal= Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association|page=17|date= 18 December 1962}} {{subscription}}</ref>

Beecham had died in 1961, and Fenby writes that it "seemed to many then that nothing could save Delius's music from extinction", such was the conductor's unique mastery over the music.<ref name= F257/> However, other conductors have continued to advocate Delius, and since the centenary year, the Delius Society has pursued the aim of "develop[ing] a greater knowledge of the life and works of Delius".<ref name= DSoc>{{cite web|title= About the Society|url= http://www.delius.org.uk/aboutus.htm|publisher= The Delius Society|access-date= 18 January 2010|archive-date= 16 May 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130516150515/http://www.delius.org.uk/aboutus.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref> The music has never become fashionable, a fact often acknowledged by promoters and critics.{{refn|Deryck Cooke chose the title "Delius the Unknown" for his December 1962 address to the Royal Musical Association, recognising, Cooke says, the extent to which the composer was out of fashion.<ref name= Cooke/> In 1991 the sleeve note of the Naxos recording of the Violin Concerto and other works ends: "Delius is now out of fashion, for our times do not favour art that is never vulgar, never strident."<ref>{{cite web|title= About this Recording: 8.557242 – Delius: Violin Concerto (Tintner Edition 10)|url= http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.557242&catNum=557242&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English|publisher= Naxos|year= 1991|access-date= 19 January 2011|archive-date= 20 January 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120120164701/http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.557242&catNum=557242&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English|url-status= dead}}</ref> In a comment on the BBC Symphony Orchestra's projected October 2010 Elgar and Delius concert at London's [[Barbican Centre]], the critic David Nice observes that while Elgar is in vogue, Delius is "desperately out of fashion".<ref>{{cite web|last= Nice|first= David|title= BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis, Barbican|url= http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/bbc-symphony-orchestra-sir-andrew-davis-barbican |website= The Arts Desk|date= 9 October 2010|access-date= 18 January 2011}}</ref>|group= n}} To suggestions that Delius's music is an "acquired taste", Fenby answers: "The music of Delius is not an acquired taste. One either likes it the moment one first hears it, or the sound of it is once and for ever distasteful to one. It is an art which will never enjoy an appeal to the many, but one which will always be loved, and dearly loved, by the few."<ref>Fenby (1981), p. 208</ref> Writing in 2004 on the 70th anniversary of Delius's death, the ''Guardian'' journalist Martin Kettle recalls Cardus arguing in 1934 that Delius as a composer was unique, both in his technique and in his emotionalism. Although he eschewed classical formalism, it was wrong, Cardus believed, to regard Delius merely as "a tone-painter, an impressionist or a maker of programme music". His music's abiding feature is, Cardus wrote, that it "recollects emotion in tranquillity&nbsp;... Delius is always reminding us that beauty is born by contemplation after the event".<ref>{{cite journal|author-link= Martin Kettle|last= Kettle|first= Martin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jul/09/classicalmusicandopera.proms2004|title=Three-act tragedy|journal= The Guardian|date=9 July 2004|access-date=30 January 2011}}</ref>