Editing Frederick Delius (section)

====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/>