- Biography
- In a Summer Garden
- Summer Night on the River
- Brigg Fair
- On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Biography
Delius was an extraordinary character, born into a very wealthy family, the son of a highly successful Prussian industrialist who settled in Bradford.
He rebelled against his father’s wishes for him to follow in his footsteps and ended up running an orange plantation in Florida.
His time in the United States had a great effect on him and it was whilst sailing down a river one summer’s evening that he heard some Negroes singing in close harmony, which inspired him to write music himself.
He had lessons with a local teacher, whom Delius claimed taught him more in three months than he had learnt in three years in Leipzig, where he undertook a formal training in music.
Delius was a truly cosmopolitan character, travelling the world throughout his life, enjoying collecting the influences of different cultures that went to make up his own style – something of a cross between the best of both the English and French schools of composers writing at the time.
He spent quite a time in Scandinavia, France and Germany and frequently visited England for performances of his works, many of which were championed by the great conductor Sir Thomas Beecham.
His music is largely rhapsodic in nature – some would say it has no form – but for his devotees that is exactly what is attractive about it.
Usually dreamy, colourful and atmospheric, this is music that has proved to be extremely influential on those who have followed.
His use of chords and sense of harmony is very individual and his orchestrations produce wonderfully evocative textures that have blatantly been copied by today’s film-score composers.
Delius wrote beautifully for the orchestra and also had a good degree of success composing for the voice; his other works include sonatas and concertos for both violin and cello as well as a selection of songs.
In a Summer Garden
Orchestral
Quiet and thoughtful, Delius’s In a Summer Garden evokes the image of an evening in an English country garden, which is created by a smooth and layered foundation of string sounds over which we occasionally hear the bird-calls of an oboe and flute.
Summer Night on the River
Orchestral
Delius seems to have found a lot of inspiration in the seasons, particularly those of summer and spring. Summer Night on the River lives up to its title perfectly where, with eyes closed, we can almost imagine an exceptionally lazy time afloat, probably engaged in some twilight punting, gently pushing through the lilies and swans.
Brigg Fair
1907, Orchestral
Very much an ‘English Rhapsody’, this orchestral work is an exact and unpretentious set of variations on a Lincolnshire folk song.
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
1912, Orchestral
Although this symphonic poem is based on a Norwegian folk song, with a title clearly indicating a season, the music seems to conjure up an Edwardian image of tea on the lawn on an English summer afternoon. The piece is short but highly evocative.