The Music of Frederick Delius

JEREMY DIBBLE is an Emeritus Professor of Music at Durham University where he taught for 30 years. He is the author of C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music (1998), Charles Villers Stanford: Man and Musician (original edition, 2002), Michele Esposito (2010). With the Boydell Press, Dibble has published John Stainer: A Life in Music (2007), Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath (2013), British Musical Criticism and Intellectual Thought, 1850-1950 (2018) (with Julian Horton) and The Music of Frederick Delius (2021).

This book examines Delius's individual approaches to genre, form, harmony, orchestration and literary texts which gave the composer's musical style such a unique voice.

PART 1 THE SEEDS OF COSMOPOLITANISM1 An unconventional apprenticeship: Bradford, Florida and Leipzig (1862-1888)2 Creative self-communion: Paa Vidderne, Lieder aus dem Norwegischen, Légendes, Drei Symphonische Dichtungen, Songs (1888-1891)3 A Wagnerian odyssey: Irmelin and The Magic Fountain (1891-1895)4 A stylistic fulcrum: Koanga, the Danish Songs, the Piano Concerto and Folkeraadet (1895-1897)5 A Nietzschean 'dance' epiphany: Nieztsche Songs, Mitternachtslied Zarathustras, Paris, La Ronde se déroule, Lebenstanz (1898-1901)PART 2 THE VOICE OF INDIVIDUALITY6 Operatic innovation: Romeo und Juliet auf dem Dorfe and Margot le Rouge (1898-1902)7 American apogee: Appalachia (1902) and Sea Drift (1902-3)8 The Nietzschean obsession: A Mass of Life (1904-6)9 'English' interlude: the partsong as innovative genre: Songs of Sunset, 'On Craig Ddu', 'Wanderer's Song', 'Midsummer Song', 'To be sung of a summer night on the river' (1906-8)10 The symphonic poem (I): Brigg Fair, In a Summer Garden, Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1907-1912)11 Homage to Jacobsen: Fennimore and Gerda, An Arabesque (1908-1913)PART 3 FAME AND DECLINE12 Symphonic poem (II): Two Pieces for Small Orchestra, Song of the High Hills, North Country Sketches (1911-1914)13 Music of the war years and after (I): Dance Rhapsody No. 2, Requiem, Eventyr, A Song Before Sunrise, Poem of Life and Love, Hassan14 Music of the war years and after (II): Sonatas and Concertos: A Stylistic Paradox: Violin Sonata No. 1, Double Concerto, Cello Sonata, String Quartet, Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, Violin Sonata No. 2 (1914-1923)15 The last years of creativity: Song of Summer, A Late Lark, Cynara, Violin Sonata No. 3, Songs of Farewell, Irmelin Prelude, Fantastic Dance, Idyll (1923-1934)EpilogueBibliography