Frederick Albert Theodore Delius CH (January 29, 1862, – June 10, 1934) was an English composer born in Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the north of England. The Order of the Companions of Honour is a British and Commonwealth Order. ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... June 10 is the 161st day of the year (162nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total... A composer is a person who writes music. ... This article discusses the city Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. ... The West Riding as an administrative county prior to its abolition in 1974. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total...

Life

Delius's parents were German. Julius and Elise Pauline Delius had moved from Bielefeld, Germany to England to set themselves up in the woollen business. Frederick ('Fritz' to his family, 'Fred' to his friends) Delius was the fourth of their fourteen children. Bielefeld is a district-free town in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...

Although born in England, Frederick Delius felt little attraction for the country of his birth and spent most of his life abroad, in the United States and the continent of Europe, chiefly in France. World map showing the location of Europe. ...

Although Frederick showed early musical promise, his father was very much set against a musical career and wanted Delius to work in the family business.

In America

Julius Delius eventually sent Frederick (apparently at Frederick's request) to be the manager of a grapefruit plantation at Solano Grove on the St Johns River in Florida. There, west of St Augustine and south of Jacksonville, Delius continued to be engrossed in music and in Jacksonville met Thomas Ward who became his teacher in counterpoint and composition. The St. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami Area  Ranked 22nd  - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²)  - Width 361 miles (582 km)  - Length 447 miles (721 km)  - % water 17. ... Five flags have flown over the city since 1565. ... The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony. ... Musical composition is: a piece of music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new piece of music // A piece of music exists in the form of a written composition in musical notation or as a single acoustic event (a live performance or recorded track). ...

Delius apparently had an affair with one of the African-American girls who worked at the grapefruit plantation in Solano Grove. After he returned to England in 1886, Delius discovered that his black mistress had borne him a child. A few years later, tormented by a deep sense of loss, Delius returned to Florida to seek his former mistress and the child. Frightened that he might want to remove the child and take it back to England, the girl fled and Delius never saw her again.^{[citation needed]}.

While in Florida, Delius had his first composition published, and later put his memories into the Florida Suite, written at Leipzig in 1887. The house he lived in from 1884–1885 in Solano Grove was given to Jacksonville University and moved on campus in 1961. The University holds the Delius Festival each year in honour of the composer. After he left Florida, Delius taught music in Danville, Virginia and eventually moved to New York. The Florida Suite by english composer Frederick Delius is one of the most beautiful works of the ninteenth century, and shows a freshness and beauty that only Delius could concieve, displaying a vast array of wonderful orchestral imagery, excellent harmonic qualities, and overall wondrous symphonic power and sound. ... Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... Year 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Jacksonville Dolphins - The Logo of Jacksonville University Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university located in Jacksonville, Florida, on the shore of the St. ... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: River City, City of Churches Motto: A World Class Organization Country United States State Virginia County Independent City  - Mayor R. Wayne Williams, Jr. ... NY redirects here. ...

Europe

After his stay in New York, his father finally agreed to allow him a musical education, and consented to send him to Leipzig to study at the conservatory. He was befriended there by Edvard Grieg, who encouraged him and became a lifelong friend. The Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre, located in Leipzig, Germany was founded by Felix Mendelssohn in 1843 as the Leipzig Conservatory (he acted as its first director); it was the first German Conservatory. ... Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the romantic period. ...

In 1897 Delius met the German painter Jelka Rosen. They soon set up home in the French village of Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau, but only married in 1903. Apart from a short time, when the area was threatened by the advancing German army during the First World War, he lived in Grez for the rest of his life. 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Jelka Delius (née Rosen) (1868–1935) was a German painter, and wife of composer Frederick Delius. ... Grez-sur-Loing is a village and commune of the Seine-et-Marne département, in France. ... Coordinates Administration Country Region Île-de-France Department Seine-et-Marne (sous-préfecture) Arrondissement Fontainebleau Canton Fontainebleau (chief town) Intercommunality Communauté de communes de Fontainebleau-Avon Mayor Frédéric Valletoux (2005-2008) Statistics Altitude 42–150 (avg. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

In 1907 he met Sir (then Mr) Thomas Beecham, who was to be the greatest champion of his music during his lifetime in the English-speaking world. Until then Delius's audience was German, principally due to the conductors Fritz Cassirer and Hans Haym. Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Delius's latter years were spent chiefly at the home he and his wife set up in Grez. These years were marred by increasing ill-health. As a young man (possibly in Paris) he had caught syphilis; the long term effects of which were to rob him of his sight and to cause him to become increasingly paralysed, eventually needing to use a wheelchair. He therefore employed Eric Fenby, who originally wrote Delius a fan letter, as his amanuensis and the great works of Delius's final years were dictated to Fenby, who later wrote a book about the experience of working with Delius. Fenby also wrote the screen adaptation from the book for a film, Song of Summer, directed by Ken Russell, starring Max Adrian as the blind composer. [1] Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum. ... Eric Fenby (1906–1997) is best known for transcribing the works of Frederick Delius from 1928 to 1934. ... Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell, known as Ken Russell (born July 3, 1927), is a controversial English film director, particularly known for his films about famous composers. ... Max Adrian (Max Bor) by Cecil Beaton, 1949, National Portrait Gallery Max Adrian was an acclaimed actor of the middle of the twentieth century. ...

Death and burial

Delius died at Grez in 1934 and was buried in a nearby cemetery on the Marlotte road out of Grez. The interment ceremony was unusual insofar as there was no priest, prayers or music (Delius was a devout atheist and admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche). In 1935 his remains were exhumed and brought from France to the UK, where an Anglican interment ceremony took place at the Church of Saint Peter in Limpsfield, Surrey. When Jelka Delius died the same year, she was interred with her husband. Coincidentally, Sir Thomas Beecham is buried in the same churchyard, approximately 10 metres away from Delius' grave. Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (IPA: ) was a German philosopher. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... Limpsfield is a pretty village in the east of the county of Surrey, England near Oxted at the foot of the North Downs. ... Should not be confused with Surry. ... Jelka Delius (née Rosen) (1868–1935) was a German painter, and wife of composer Frederick Delius. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Music

Delius's musical style is one of the most unusual in Western musical history. Characterized by a curious mixture of pentatonic figures and chromaticism, although still largely tonal, it reflects a move from the textbook post-romanticism of the years following the death of Richard Wagner (1883) to a style that was unique to Delius, blending Impressionism with the slightly older post-romanticism and northern European and African-American folk idioms. His use of luscious harmonies - mainly slow moving, and constantly evolving melody, with the frequent use of leitmotifs - is what prompted Sir Thomas Beecham to describe him as "the last great apostle of romantic beauty in music." His harmony and melody were influenced greatly by African-American music of the time, using blues harmony and melodic characteristics that would become distinctly jazz and blues 20 years later. In music, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. ... In music, chromatic indicates the inclusion of notes not in the prevailing scale and is also used for those notes themselves (Shir-Cliff et al 1965, p. ... The adjective tonal can refer to: tonality in music a tonal language the opposite of Nagual, in the specific context of Carlos Castaneda, the tonal is what makes the world. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ... Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists, who began exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s. ... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in music. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A leitmotif (also spelled leitmotiv) is a recurring musical theme, associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. ...

Some of his best-known works include the brief orchestral piece On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Brigg Fair ('An English Rhapsody'), In A Summer Garden, North Country Sketches, A Mass of Life to Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra, Florida Suite, Sea Drift, a setting of text by Walt Whitman, for baritone, chorus and orchestra, A Late Lark, setting of text by William Ernest Henley, Songs of Farewell, another setting of Whitman texts, for chorus and orchestra, Cynara and Songs of Sunset, both settings of texts by Ernest Dowson, Koanga, which as an opera with a black principal character antedates George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess by four decades and is roughly contemporaneous with Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, an atheist Requiem, four concertos: a violin concerto, a cello concerto, a double concerto for violin and cello, and a piano concerto (also somewhat Gershwinesque); the colourful, picturesque tone poem Paris: Song of a Great City, and the beautifully exuberant symphonic composition Life's Dance. Orchestral excerpts from his operas, for example La Calinda from Koanga — which originated in the Florida Suite — and The Walk to the Paradise Garden from A Village Romeo and Juliet, are also played and recorded reasonably often. There are a number of chamber works (three mature violin sonatas, a cello sonata and a string quartet). On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is a tone poem composed in 1912 by Frederick Delius; it was first performed in Leipzig on October 2, 1913. ... Brigg Fair is an English folk song. ... The cover for the first part of the first edition. ... Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819–March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ... William Ernest Henley (August 23, 1849 - July 11, 1903) was a British poet, critic and editor. ... Whitman could refer to: Marcus Whitman, an American physician and missionary. ... Ernest Christopher Dowson (2 August 1867-23 February 1900), an English poet who was associated with the Decadent Movement, was born at Lee, south-east of London. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... The cast of Porgy and Bess during the Boston try-out prior to the Broadway opening. ... Scott Joplin (born between June 1867 – January 1868[1]; died April 1, 1917) was an American musician and composer of ragtime music. ... The cover of the original Treemonisha score. ... A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. ... A violoncello concerto is a concerto for solo violoncello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. ... The term concerto (plural concertos or concerti) usually refers to a musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... The violoncello, usually abbreviated to cello, or cello (the c is pronounced as in the ch of check), is a bowed stringed instrument, the lowest-sounding member of the violin family. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ... A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... A violin sonata is a musical composition for solo violin, often (but not always) accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque. ... A cello sonata usually denotes a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. ... The resident string quartet of the Library of Congress in 1963 A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments—usually two violins, a viola and cello—or a piece written to be performed by such a group. ...

List of works

Operas

• Irmelin (1890-92; premiere 1953)
• The Magic Fountain (1893-95)
• Koanga (1895-97; UA 1904)
• A Village Romeo and Juliet (1900-01; premiere in Berlin 1907, London 1910 )
• Margot la rouge (1902)
• Fennimore and Gerda (1909-10; premiere 1919)

Koanga, the very first African-American opera, was written by Frederick Delius between 1896 and 1897. ... A Village Romeo and Juliet is an opera by Frederick Delius, first performed at the Komische Oper, Berlin on 21 February 1907. ...

Incidental music

• Zanoni (1888)
• Folkeraadet (1897)
• Hassan (1920-23)

Concertos

• Suite for Violin and Orchestra (1888)
• Légende for Violin and Orchestra (1895)
• Piano Concerto in C minor (1897)
• Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (1915-16)
• Violin Concerto (1916)
• Cello Concerto (1921)
• Caprice and Elegy for Cello and Orchestra (1930)

Orchestral works

• Florida Suite (1887)
• Three Pieces (Schlittenfahrt and March caprice) (1887-88)
• Hiawatha - tone poem (1888)
• Idylle de Printemps (1889)
• Little Suite (1889-90)
• Three Small Tonepoems (Summer Evening, Winter Night, Spring Morning) (1890)
• Paa Vidderne (Sur les cimes) - Symphonic Poem after Ibsen (1890-92; version with speaker 1888))
• Over the Hills and Far Away - Fantasy Overture (1895-97)
• Appalachia for Orchestra (1896)
• La Ronde Se Déroule - Symphonic Poem (1899)
• Paris: The Song of a Great City (1899)
• Brigg Fair: An English Rhapsody (1907)
• In a Summer Garden - Rhapsody (1908)
• Dance Rhapsody no. 1 (1908)
• Life's Dance (1908?)
• Two Pieces for Small Orchestra (On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, 1912; Summer Night on the River, 1911)
• North Country Sketches (1913-14)
• Air and Dance for Strings (1915)
• Dance Rhapsody no. 2 (1916)
• Eventyr (Once Upon a Time) (1917)
• A Song Before Sunrise for Small Orchestra (1918)
• A Song of Summer (1929-30)
• Irmelin Prelude (1931)
• Fantastic Dance (1931)

The Florida Suite by english composer Frederick Delius is one of the most beautiful works of the ninteenth century, and shows a freshness and beauty that only Delius could concieve, displaying a vast array of wonderful orchestral imagery, excellent harmonic qualities, and overall wondrous symphonic power and sound. ... Ibsen redirects here. ... Brigg Fair is an English folk song. ... In a Summer Garden is a fantasy for orchestra composed in 1908 by Frederick Delius; it was first performed in London under the composers baton on December 11 of that year. ... On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is a tone poem composed in 1912 by Frederick Delius; it was first performed in Leipzig on October 2, 1913. ... Eventyr (Once Upon a Time) is a tone poem for orchestra composed by Frederick Delius in 1917; it was given its premiere in London on January 11, 1919, under the direction of Henry J. Wood. ... A Song of Summer is a tone poem for orchestra by Frederick Delius. ...

Vocal works

• Six German Partsongs for Choir (1887)
• Sakuntala for Tenor and Orchestra (1889)
• Maud for Tenor and Orchestra (1891)
• Mitternachtslied for Baritone, Male Choir und Orchestra (1898)
• Appalachia for Choir und Orchestra (1898-1903)
• Sea Drift for Baritone, Choir and Orchestra (1903-04)
• A Mass of Life for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra (1904-05)
• Songs of Sunset for Mezzo-soprano, Baritone, Choir and Orchestra (1906-07)
• Cynara for Baritone und Orchestra (1907; completed 1929)
• On Craig Dhu for Choir and Piano (1907)
• Midsummer Song for Choir and Piano (1908)
• Wanderer's Song for Male Choir and Piano (1908)
• An Arabesk for Baritone, Choir and Orchestra (1911)
• A Song of the High Hills for Choir and Orchestra (1911)
• Two Songs for a Children's Album (1913)
• Requiem for Soprano, Baritone, Choir and Orchestra (1914-16)
• Two Songs to be sung of a Summer Night on the Water for Choir (1917)
• The splendour falls on castle walls for Choir (1923)
• A Late Lark for Voice und Orchestra (1925)
• Songs of Farewell for Choir and Orchestra (1930)
• Idyll: Once I passed through a populous city for Soprano, Baritone and Orchestra (1930-32)

A Song of the High Hills is a work for chorus and orchestra by Frederick Delius. ...

Chamber music

• String Quartet (1888)
• Romance for Violin and Piano (1889)
• Violin Sonata B-major (1892)
• String Quartet (1893)
• Romance for Cello and Piano (1896)
• Violin Sonata No. 1 (1905-14)
• String Quartet (1916)
• Cello Sonata (1916)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 (1923)
• Violin Sonata No. 3 (1930)

Piano and harpsichord music

• Dance for Cembalo (1919)
• Five Pieces for Piano (1922-23)
• Three Preludes for Piano (1923)

Songs

• Five Songs from the Norwegian (1888)
• Seven Songs from the Norwegian (1889-90; 2 orchestral songs)
• Three English Songs (1891)
• Two Songs after Verlaine (1895; with orchestra)
• Seven Danish Songs (1897; with orchestra)
• Four Songs after Nietzsche (1898)
• Im Glück wir lachend gingen (1898)
• The Violet (1900; with orchestra)
• Autumn (1900)
• Black Roses (1901)
• Summer Landscape (1902; with orchestra)
• The nightingale has a lyre of gold (1910)
• La lune blanche (1911; with orchestra)
• Chanson d'automne (1911)
• I-Brasil (1913)
• Four Old English Lyrics (1915-16)
• Avant que tu ne t'en ailles (1919)
• 18 unpublished songs

Bibliography

• Delius as I knew him by Eric Fenby, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28768-5
• Delius: A Life in Letters, Vols 1 & 2 ed. Lionel Carley, Scolar Press, ISBN 1-85928-178-8
• Frederick Delius by Sir Thomas Beecham, Severn House Publishers, ISBN 0-7278-0099-X
• "Frederick Delius," by Anthony Payne, in The New Grove Twentieth-Century English Masters. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986, pp. 69-96. Reprint of article from The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Stanley Sadie, editor. London and Washington, D.C.: Macmillan, 1980.
• Frederick Delius by Peter Warlock

Peter Warlock was a pseudonym of Philip Arnold Heseltine (October 30, 1894 - December 17, 1930), an Anglo-Welsh composer and music critic. ...

As an inspiration for other artists

• The song Delius by Kate Bush (from her 1980 album Never For Ever). A specially-recorded video for the song was played for a bemused Fenby on the Russell Harty Show on the 25th November 1980.
• The characters Robert Frobisher and Vyvyan Ayrs appear to have been loosely inspired by Fenby / Delius in the 2004 Booker-nominated novel Cloud Atlas (ISBN 0-340-82277-5) by British author David Mitchell

Kate Bush (Born Catherine Bush on 30 July 1958, Bexleyheath, Greater London) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. ... Never for Ever (1980) is Kate Bushs third album. ... Frederic Russell Harty (5 September 1934 – 8 June 1988) was an English television presenter with a distinctly camp turn of phrase; his name has been used as Cockney rhyming slang for party. ... The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland. ... Cover design Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel, the third book by British author David Mitchell. ... David Mitchell in Poland, Warsaw, April 7, 2006 David Mitchell (born January, 1969) is an English novelist. ...

External links

• synopsis of Delius's life and musical style by musicologist J. Marshall Bevil, with specific comments on Florida Suite, Koanga, and "A Late Lark"
• A Delius page, including the Delius Society
• Photo of Delius' grave
• A site with lots of information, including lists of works, bibliographies, etc.
• [2] A page on Tasmin Little's site relating to the Delius festival held in Bradford in July 2006
• The Lost Child A BBC film suggesting that Delius had a mistress in Florida who bore him a child and profoundly influenced his music
• Delius page by Tore Frantzvåg Steenslid
• Delius page by guitarist Jeff Gower
• A Summer Garden by playwright, Steve Newman, is a drama about the meeting in 1933 between Sir Edward Elgar and Delius. The play is published by Humdrumming Ltd [3]
• Circumstantial evidence suggesting that the music of Delius was particularly effective in deterring troublemakers in the Newcastle Metro
• Cello Sonata performance
• Free scores by Delius in the International Music Score Library Project (Public domain)