Frederick Delius

Started by tjguitar, May 14, 2007, 05:44:52 PM

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Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Szykneij on January 19, 2021, 08:36:03 AM
Motivated by discussion on another thread, I pulled out a vinyl copy of "Sir Thomas Beecham-Music of Delius" I bought used some time ago. Inside I discovered an undated page removed from a copy of the magazine "Southern Living". I thought it might be of interest to Delius fans here.
Isn't that fun when you find old articles in LPs or books?  :)

PD

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Irons on January 21, 2020, 11:54:26 PM
Beecham's wife was pianist on a recording they made together.

At one time I visited a specialist of music for films record shop in Brighton. The only occasion in donkey years of collecting that an owner of a vinyl emporium actually gave me a record as he liked it so much. He is right the Jean Pougnet Delius VC is one of the finest Delius recordings.


Awww!  How kind and special!  Were you by any chance a youngster then?  :)

PD

SonicMan46

Quote from: Szykneij on January 19, 2021, 08:36:03 AM
Motivated by discussion on another thread, I pulled out a vinyl copy of "Sir Thomas Beecham-Music of Delius" I bought used some time ago. Inside I discovered an undated page removed from a copy of the magazine "Southern Living". I thought it might be of interest to Delius fans here.

Tony - nice find! Southern Living is a popular magazine around these parts, so did a search and could not tract down that article which you already posted - BUT, came across another one on the JSTOR Website of an 18 page article (see pics below) on Delius in America - published in Jul 1971 in 'The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography' - a bunch of options (paid and not) to read the feature; I was able to setup a 'free' account using my academic credentials and read it - a lot on the Florida orange industry in the late 19th century around Jacksonville (as one would expect) - the second part of the first trip was spent briefly in Danville, VA (just over an hour from me near the NC border) - Dave :)

 


Szykneij

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 19, 2021, 09:37:02 AM
Quite interesting. I knew that there was a Delius festival, but I'm not a member of the Delius Society, so I'm not sure what the frequency of these festivals have been in years past. Also, I doubt I would've gone anyway as usually the sun is rather unforgiving to my pasty skin. :) Although, it would certainly be awesome to meet other fans in real life and converse with them about the man and his music.

I found this link while trying to date the article.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjf-fG556juAhW0FVkFHWI6DSYQFjAAegQIAxAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthompsonian.info%2Fdelfest.html&usg=AOvVaw213SMdLAQkBBbFWMVa6315
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige


vers la flamme

#905
@Mirror Image, I hope you'll see the humor in this, as I mean no offense. But this post from a year ago reads quite funny in light of your new avatar:



:laugh: In any case I'm glad you now count yourself among the admirers! I too once disliked Delius's music, but now greatly enjoy it, when in the right mood.

Edit: Reading back a little further, I can see we've already had this conversation last year. Sorry to bring it up again.

Anyway, I never realized there was a Delius house in Jacksonville. If I'd known Delius's music when I lived in Tallahassee, I'm sure I'd have already made that pilgrimage. Still would be interesting to see.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

 :o :o :o :o  :o

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 19, 2021, 09:13:30 AM
Absolutely! He loved African American music. In fact, it was the singing of Black spirituals that inspired him to become a composer. He heard this music when he was in Florida (where he owned an orange plantation) and he heard this music from the workers on his plantation. He would hear them sing and this echoed down the river while Delius sat on his porch in the evening hours. It was also in the US where he received his first actual music lessons from a man named Thomas Ward with whom he said later on that he learned more from him than anything he learned from the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied not long after leaving the US. It was Delius' father who gave him the financial support in order to study in Leipzig, but the most interesting aspect of this was that none other than Edvard Grieg (who became a friend and supporter of Delius upon hearing his Florida Suite) was the one who convinced his doubting father that young Frederick's true calling was not taking over the Delius wool business, but as a composer. Anyway, I see I'm getting away from you initial question, which I believe I already answered. ;) ;D


Symphonic Addict

Quote from: vers la flamme on January 19, 2021, 12:24:55 PM
@Mirror Image, I hope you'll see the humor in this, as I mean no offense. But this post from a year ago reads quite funny in light of your new avatar:



He changes his mind as frequently as his avatars.  ;)
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Mirror Image

Quote from: vers la flamme on January 19, 2021, 12:24:55 PM
@Mirror Image, I hope you'll see the humor in this, as I mean no offense. But this post from a year ago reads quite funny in light of your new avatar:



:laugh: In any case I'm glad you now count yourself among the admirers! I too once disliked Delius's music, but now greatly enjoy it, when in the right mood.

Edit: Reading back a little further, I can see we've already had this conversation last year. Sorry to bring it up again.

Anyway, I never realized there was a Delius house in Jacksonville. If I'd known Delius's music when I lived in Tallahassee, I'm sure I'd have already made that pilgrimage. Still would be interesting to see.

Hah! I had forgotten about that particular post. Actually, I have written even more nasty things about Delius prior to that post (good luck digging those up :P). Anyway, I've never had a composer tear me from one side to another quite like Delius. I know the problem is completely my own of course. I'm sure there are many composers with whom someone enjoys one week and finds absolutely no enjoyment in the next week. I think he's an exceptionally fine composer, but he does have some weaknesses and I think a lot of the time it comes from the lack of formal structure in the music, which I did touch on in that old post of mine. He's a rhapsodic composer and composes music with a stream-of-consciousness, which while unique to him, it makes it sometimes difficult to understand where exactly he's going and the fact that he uses this type of writing style in so many pieces makes each work difficult to distinguish from each other. He's definitely a mood composer for sure and someone I can't listen to for long periods of time, but I do think he's a fascinating figure in 20th Century music.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on January 19, 2021, 01:44:43 PM
He changes his mind as frequently as his avatars.  ;)

QFT. I can't refute the truth! ;D

Mirror Image


vers la flamme

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 19, 2021, 02:09:04 PM
QFT. I can't refute the truth! ;D

Great pic of Béla. Do you happen to know when it was taken?

Mirror Image

#912
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 19, 2021, 03:39:19 PM
Great pic of Béla. Do you happen to know when it was taken?

Some time in the 40s. I'm not sure of the exact year, but here's the full photo (w/ conductor Fritz Reiner):


Scion7

#913
link to the chapter on this complex composer by deceased writer/philosopher Colin Wilson from his book, On Music from 1963 - enjoy

https://www.mediafire.com/file/8d84bd73km9b429/Delius_chapter_Colin_Wilson.pdf/file
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

J

Remember reading the essay probably over 40 years ago in "Chords & Discords" by Wilson. It's not without insight, and delivers some humorously pithy lines, - I like Wilson's suggestion that Delius' music is most suitable for individuals with a private income who live in seclusion.

Wilson had what? - like 40,000
recordings (mostly LP's) by the end of his life, and opinions on everyone and everything.  Enjoyed reading this chip off the block once again after so long a time (sure I got rid of the book ages ago), so thanks for posting it.

Scion7

You're welcome, J. I have the entire book on a scanned pdf.  I like Wilson's reply to some of the more ignorant critics of Delius.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

J

Stumbled onto this talk about Delius by Jeremy Dibble (summarizing his recent book on the composer):

   http://youtu.be/WLXU6_uOtI4

kyjo

I was listening to Delius' A Mass of Life recently (the Charles Groves recording) and found the vast remainder of the work to be very much a letdown after the magnificently majestic and life-affirming opening movement. Anyone else have the same experience? I wish Delius had composed more music in a "muscular" vein which is found in the opening movement of the Mass - I find that a little of his typically rhapsodic, subdued, chromatically "wandering" style goes a long way...
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

VonStupp

Yes indeed-y. I love that Groves recording, but the work (one I swing back-and-forth on a pleasurability scale) could definitely use a stricter multi-movement structure to cut down on the rambling. Of course, that wouldn't be Delius! :P

VS
"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

Roasted Swan

For those interested, I listened in the last few days to this new recording of The Mass of Life



Delius will always be a "marmite" composer (you love him, you hate him) but I think this is this work's finest all-round performance bar none.  For sure its a warts and all piece but the moments/movements of genius outweigh for me any passing longeurs.  But Elder's direction is superb and the playing/singing/engineering in Bergen shows the work in its best possible light.  Tremendous stuff I reckon.