Cynara is a setting by Frederick Delius of a poem by Ernest Dowson, for solo baritone voice and orchestra.
Delius worked on the piece in 1907 as part of his score for Songs of Sunset , but abandoned this setting as he felt it did not fit with the other poems by Dowson. He left it incomplete. The sketches were rediscovered in 1929 by Delius's assistant, Eric Fenby [1] (the composer Philip Heseltine, otherwise Peter Warlock, also claimed credit for the discovery). [2] Delius dictated to Fenby a setting of the final four lines, and the completed score was sent to Heseltine who was assisting Sir Thomas Beecham in the organisation of a Delius Festival to be held in London during October 1929.
Cynara was premiered at the Queen's Hall on 18 October 1929; John Goss was the soloist, with the BBC Orchestra conducted by Beecham. [3]
There are several available recordings of the work. [4]
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce. He was sent to Florida in the United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation. He soon neglected his managerial duties, and in 1886 returned to Europe.
Philip Arnold Heseltine, known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was a British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects Heseltine's interest in occult practices, was used for all his published musical works. He is best known as a composer of songs and other vocal music; he also achieved notoriety in his lifetime through his unconventional and often scandalous lifestyle.
Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley was a British composer.
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is a tone poem composed in 1912 by Frederick Delius. Together with Summer Night on the River it is one of Delius's Two Pieces for Small Orchestra. The two were first performed in Leipzig on 23 October 1913, conducted by Arthur Nikisch.On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is the longer of the two pieces, with a typical playing time of between six and seven minutes. There have been numerous recordings of the piece, which Delius's champion Sir Thomas Beecham described as much the best known of the composer's works.
Paris: The Song of a Great City is a nocturne for orchestra composed by Frederick Delius over the period of 1899–1900. Hans Haym, to whom Delius dedicated the work, conducted the premiere on 14 December 1901 in Elberfeld, Germany. Sir Thomas Beecham conducted the UK premiere of the work in Liverpool on 11 January 1908. The critical edition of the score, published in the late 1980s, incorporated revisions by Beecham, and included editorial work from Eric Fenby and Norman Del Mar.
Hélène Sophie Emilie Rosen, later known as Jelka Delius, was a German painter, best known as the wife of the English composer Frederick Delius.
A Song of Summer is a tone poem for orchestra by Frederick Delius, completed in 1931.
Koanga is an opera written between 1896 and 1897, with music by Frederick Delius and a libretto by Charles Francis Keary, inspired partly by the book The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life by George Washington Cable (1880). Inspiration also came from Delius's own experiences as a young man, when his family sent him to work in Florida. It was Delius's third opera, and he thought better of it than of its predecessors, Irmelin and The Magic Fountain, because of the incorporation of dance scenes and his treatment of the choruses. Koanga is reputed to be the first opera in the European tradition to base much of its melodic material on African-American music.
Edward Geoffrey Toye, known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer.
Cecil William Turpie Gray was a Scottish music critic, author and composer.
Sea Drift is among the larger-scale musical works by the composer Frederick Delius. Completed in 1903–04 and first performed in 1906, it is a setting for baritone, chorus and orchestra of words by Walt Whitman.
The Requiem by Frederick Delius was written between 1913 and 1916, and first performed in 1922. It is set for soprano, baritone, double chorus and orchestra, and is dedicated "To the memory of all young artists fallen in the war". The Requiem is Delius's least-known major work, not being recorded until 1968 and having received only seven performances worldwide by 1980.
Songs of Sunset is a work by Frederick Delius, written in 1906–07, and scored for mezzo-soprano and baritone soli, SATB chorus and large orchestra. The words are by Ernest Dowson.
This is a summary of 1929 in music in the United Kingdom.
This is a summary of 1927 in music in the United Kingdom.
This is a summary of 1925 in music in the United Kingdom.
Irmelin is an opera in three acts with music by Frederick Delius. Composed between 1890 and 1892, it was the first opera which he finished. But it wasn't premiered until 1953, nearly twenty years after his death. The libretto was by the composer, and weaves together two mythical stories. Philip Heseltine described the opera as a "fairy-tale of quite ordinary kind" and "its form dramatically rather below the level of the conventional operatic text. Though the music was much praised by Grieg and Messager... its performance was never seriously contemplated by the composer". Delius had however assimilated Wagnerian influence in his music, with use of key motifs and a sense of flow through the three acts.
Summer Night on the River is a tone poem composed in 1911 by Frederick Delius. Together with On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring it is one of Delius's Two Pieces for Small Orchestra. The two were first performed in Leipzig on 23 October 1913, conducted by Arthur Nikisch.
John Goss was a baritone recital singer and teacher. He was a key figure in 1920s English musical life, befriending composers such as Rebecca Clarke, Frederick Delius, Bernard van Dieren, E J Moeran and Peter Warlock. He became well known for his concerts mixing classical lieder and English art song with what he called "sociable songs" - folk song, popular drinking songs, army songs and sea shanties. He moved to Canada in 1939, where he stayed until 1950.