The Music of Frederick Delius: Style, Form and Ethos PDF
Preview The Music of Frederick Delius: Style, Form and Ethos
The Music of Frederick Delius The Music of Frederick Delius Style, Form and Ethos Jeremy Dibble the boydell press © Jeremy Dibble 2021 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Jeremy Dibble to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2021 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISBN 978-1-78327-577-9 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-78744-799-8 (ePDF) The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com A catalogue record of this publication is available from the British Library Front cover: photograph of Delius taken in London by Window & Grove, Baker Street, in 1899, courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley/manuscript of the first page of ‘O Du mein Wille!’, the opening chorus of Part I of A Mass of Life, © The British Library Board BL.MS.Mus.1745.2.13.7.f.1v. For my brother, Christopher, his wife Clare, and their four sons, Thomas, James, Charles and Benjamin with love and best wishes, and fond memories of youth. Also, for my dear friend, John Rippin, who brought me to the music of Delius. In the eyes of Delius the primary necessity for an artist was to develop his personality at all costs, to follow the dictates of one’s nature in spite of all opposition and all possible consequences, to realize one’s own peculiar angle of vision – what Cézanne called his petite sensation – however greatly it conflicts with that of the rest of the world. – Cecil Gray, Predicaments. Contents List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi List of Music Examples xiii Preface and Acknowledgements xix List of Abbreviations xxiii part i: the seeds of cosmopolitanism 1 An Unconventional Apprenticeship: Bradford, Florida and Leipzig (1862–1888) 3 2 Creative Self-Communion: Paa Vidderne, Lieder aus dem Norwegischen, Légendes, Drei Symphonische Dichtungen, Songs (1888–1891) 35 3 A Wagnerian Odyssey: Irmelin and The Magic Fountain (1891–1895) 71 4 A Stylistic Fulcrum: Koanga, Danish Songs, Piano Concerto, Folkeraadet (1895–1897) 99 5 A Nietzschean ‘Dance’ Epiphany: Nieztsche Songs, Mitternachtslied Zarathustras, Paris, La Ronde se déroule, Lebenstanz (1898–1901) 141 part ii: the voice of individuality 6 Operatic Innovation: A Village Romeo and Juliet and Margot le Rouge (1898–1902) 177 7 American Apogee: Appalachia and Sea Drift (1902–1903) 221 8 The Nietzschean Obsession: A Mass of Life (1904–1906) 251 9 ‘English’ Interlude: The Partsong as Innovative Genre (1906–1908) 275 10 Symphonic Poems (I): Brigg Fair, In a Summer Garden, Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1907–1912) 291 viii CONTENTS 11 Homage to Jacobsen: Fennimore and Gerda and An Arabesque (1908–1913) 315 part iii: fame and decline 12 Symphonic Poems (II): Two Pieces for Small Orchestra, The Song of the High Hills, North Country Sketches (1911–1914) 347 13 Music of the War Years and After (I): Dance Rhapsody No. 2, Requiem, Eventyr, A Song Before Sunrise, Poem of Life and Love, Hassan (1914–1923) 375 14 Music of the War Years and After (II): Violin Sonata No. 1, Double Concerto, Cello Sonata, String Quartet, Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, Violin Sonata No. 2 (1914–1923) 409 15 The Last Years of Creativity: A Song of Summer, A Late Lark, Cynara, Violin Sonata No. 3, Songs of Farewell, Irmelin Prelude, Fantastic Dance, Idyll (1923–1934) 449 Epilogue 475 Bibliography 483 Index of Works 493 Index 499 List of Illustrations Illustrations can be found between pages 250 and 251. figures 1 Hans Sitt (Delius’s violin teacher in Chemnitz). Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 2 Salomon Jadassohn (Delius’s composition teacher at the Leipzig Conservatorium). Ullstein Bild / ArenaPAL; www.arenapal.com. 3 Studio photograph (Spring, 1888). From left to right: Nina Grieg, Edvard Grieg, Johan Holvorsen, Fritz Delius and Christian Sinding. KODE – Edvard Grieg Museum. 4 Edvard and Nina Grieg. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 5 Christian Sinding. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 6 Florent Schmitt (from a woodcut). Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 7 Maurice Ravel. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 8 Hans Haym (champion of Delius’s music in Germany). Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 9 Julius Buths. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 10 Jelka Delius, c. 1900. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 11 Frederick Delius, London, May 1899. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 12 Gunnar Heiberg (by Blix). Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 13 Alfred Hertz (conductor of Delius’s London concert in 1899). Granger, NYC / TopFoto. 14 Henry and Olga Wood. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 15 Percy Grainger. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 16 Thomas Beecham (Delius’s champion in England). Royal College of Music / ArenaPAL; www.arenapal.com. 17 Balfour Gardiner. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley. 18 Philip Heseltine. Courtesy of The Delius Trust and Lionel Carley.
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