Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1078 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Frederick Delius: Music, Art and Literature.(Review)
Author: Philip Jones
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1999
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 55Issue: 4Page: 933(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
Contents: Appalachia * Sea Drift ... Read more

Book Description
The Eton schoolboy, Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), was not yet 17 when he first met his musical hero Frederick Delius at a concert of his works given by Sir Thomas Beecham at Queen's Hall in 1911.The next day he wrote an ecstatic letterto Delius enthusing over `such perfect performances of such perfect music'.Flattered and intrigued by the young admirer, Delius replied in warm and encouraging terms.And so began a correspondence that was to last until Heseltine's untimely death in 1930.It is fortunate that each composer kept the others' letters and, now placed in chronological order, they give a fascinating picture, not only of the two men and their music, but also of musical life in England and Europe.In their often frank writing the characters and interaction of the two men is highlighted and in their informal and often gossipy way they illuminate the musical life and many personalities of the time.Barry Smith, the author of a recent highly regarded biography of Peter Warlock, has fully researched the background of the correspondence and by means of generous annotations and linking narrative has produced a compelling story of an unusual and unique friendship between two composers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

PYRRHONISTS
Some biographies, notably Boswell's life of Johnson, are as interesting on account of the biographer as because of the subject. For me, Beecham's biography of Delius is very definitely in this category. Beecham was not greatly in sympathy with English music (unless you count Handel), but as a young man he had been `electrified' (his own word) on first hearing Delius. The association that developed between an interpreter universally acknowledged as great in his field and a composer whose stature is still subject to discussion has no parallel that I can think of. They became close companions as well as artistic colleagues, and Beecham delivered the funeral eulogy on the friend whose inspiration had done so much to set his own alight. The composer's widow had first suggested such a book to Beecham, perhaps with slightly unrealistic expectations as to what it might consist of. Bereaved companion and wholehearted admirer Beecham might have been, but, in a highly characteristic sentence, Beecham finally went about the task long after the death of Jelka Delius in the conviction that `the temptation to burden Frederick with a load of highly undesirable virtues must be sternly resisted.'

In fact Beecham skates delicately around the two most notorious aspects of his subject's life - his death from syphilis and his highly suspect belief in some species of Caucasian supremacy. Regarding the latter, Beecham offers his own belief that Delius had no really coherent philosophical outlook other than a wholesale contempt for and rejection of religion. This world-view Beecham terms `Pyrrhonism', and it takes no great reading between the lines to sense that it was an outlook that he shared, albeit from a more worldly and tolerant standpoint. I myself share entirely Beecham's opinion that the Mass of Life, to poetry by Nietzsche, is Delius's greatest composition, while reserving judgment as to whether it can legitimately be compared with Bach's B minor Mass. I am much clearer that neither the text nor the music have any political dimension whatsoever, and that this great work can certainly stand alongside Mahler's eighth symphony. As regards the affliction that brought Delius to physical ruin, I suppose it would take Beecham to describe it as the way in which Aphrodite Pandemos repaid her devotee in his younger days, and in general Beecham is very brief and summary regarding Delius's relations with women.

Nobody, I suppose, was in as good a position as Beecham was to portray his friend in detail. He makes reference to such earlier biographical studies as then existed, notably the hagiographical production of Philip Heseltine, the composer Peter Warlock, a work that Beecham characterises as `juvenile', and indeed Heseltine was a lifelong juvenile. His own study is affectionate and closely observed, with Beecham's characteristic humour and wit in the description of Delius's manner of speaking, with a Yorkshire accent overlaid with strange locutions deriving from the polyglot composer's long absences from England or America in Scandinavia, Germany and France. One respect in which this book is particularly enlightening is the account of Delius's financial history, a matter in which Beecham, himself the son of an industrial magnate in northern England, has the background and experience to know what he is talking about.

Beecham explicitly disavows any intention of offering a critical study of Delius's music, but you can take that with more than a pinch of salt. As you would expect, he does not subject us to any tedious catalogue raisonne, but the compositions are discussed seriatim as the composer produced them. My own grasp of the music of Delius is a lot better than it was just a few years ago, and not before time either, and I was enthralled to read Beecham's insights and check them against my own provisional views. As when he discusses his subject personally, Beecham is sympathetic but far from uncritical towards the music, and I have been left with a great deal to ponder as regards not only individual compositions but the oeuvre of Delius taken as a whole, not to mention some enlightening and often highly entertaining reflections on contemporary music generally. From Beecham's standpoint in the late 1950's I seemed to get a picture of Delius as a potential rival to Strauss in popularity, and I'm far from sure that this is the impression I have today. Delius is known mainly from some smaller orchestral bonbons, and it seems to me that he has not really made a universal breakthrough as Strauss has. I have certainly come round to the view that Delius is fully of the stature of Strauss or Mahler, and I certainly share Beecham's hope that his stature will someday be fully appreciated, but what the odds are against this outcome I would not like to guess.

As a writer Beecham is nothing short of superlative. His style is aloof, Augustan and elegant, with a consciously old-fashioned persona projected to disguise the impish wit that was a famous trait of this great musician. Whether Delius will finally `make it' as he fully deserves I simply do not know. He has made it so far as I am concerned, and probably no composer benefits as he has done from a biography of the quality of this. I can only observe, all the same, that not only has the quality of the music failed to impress all listeners to the extent it has me, but that this outstanding biography is only now receiving its first review on this august website. May times change. ... Read more

Book Description
In his introduction Mr. Foss gives us a short sketch of Delius; contributions by Rogber Quilter, Charles Kennedy and Percy Scott. ... Read more

Book Description
Frederick Delius is among the most celebrated English composers of the 20th century.Widely studied and performed, his works are considered models of the British impressionist school and continue to fascinate students and scholars centuries later.But there is no currently available annotated bibliography to his life and work. The body of the book will be increased from 1500 to 2000 entries, with particular emphasis on the last decade's explosion of book-length works on Delius and his music. The goal will be to produce a guide that serves as a ready reference for students and scholars, but will also be interesting to read and useful for anyone who wants to know where to begin to learn more about this important composer.
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1105 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Frederick Delius and Peter Warlock: A Friendship Revealed.(Review)
Author: Jeremy Dibble
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 58Issue: 1Page: 97

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Exemplary Biography of a Forgotten American
Since his achievements as a music publisher are familiar, may I recall that Don Gillespie's biography is a masterpiece of historical recreation--personal and yet factual, detailed and yet thorough--about an obscure but influential music figure in American music a century ago. For those who don't already know, Ward taught Delius, assigned to manage a plantation in northern Florida, more than he learned at the Leipzig music academy a few years later.One charm of Gillespie's book is incorporating his research efforts into the narrative. Indeed, were I a professor of graduate musicology, this is the sort of book I would give to my best students as an example of how to do uniquely valuable scholarship with otherwise forgotten eminences. The awards this book did not receive upon publication are hereby discredited ... Read more