Delius on BBC4

[gurnemanz]

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this. There's an interesting-looking new Delius film at 7.30 - 9pm on BBC4 on Friday. I was reading about it in today's i paper.
http://www.independent.co.uk/hei-fi/...n-7781493.html

[Lateralthinking1]

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this. There's an interesting-looking new Delius film at 7.30 - 9pm on BBC4 on Friday. I was reading about it in today's i paper.
http://www.independent.co.uk/hei-fi/...n-7781493.html

Thank you for this recommendation. I will watch the programme as Delius is one of my favourite composers. However, when the writer says he was "German by birth", he was born in Britain wasn't he or is this now being disputed? His first 22 years here, then on to America rather than Germany or France. The music itself not at all Germanic to my ears although I could be wrong.

On paper, the arguments set out in the article seem a bit far fetched.

[Bryn]

Thank you for this recommendation. I will watch the programme as Delius is one of my favourite composers. However, when the writer says he was "German by birth", he was born in Britain wasn't he or is this now being disputed? His first 22 years here, then on to America rather than Germany or France. The music itself not at all Germanic to my ears although I could be wrong.

On paper, the arguments set out in the article seem a bit far fetched.

He was not merely born in Britain, he was born in Yorkshire (Bradford, to be precise). Though he died in France, he was buried in England. Sure, his parents were German by birth, but he was not.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Perhaps the Indie thinks that Bradford is in Germany? The "headline" writer certainly hasn't read Jessica Duchen's article, which clearly states that Delius "spent the first 22 years of his life in Bradford" and that "his family came fron Germany".

(Much the same points raised by JD here are also to be found in John Bridcut's article in the current BBC Music Magazine, by the way.)

[VodkaDilc]

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this. There's an interesting-looking new Delius film at 7.30 - 9pm on BBC4 on Friday. I was reading about it in today's i paper.
http://www.independent.co.uk/hei-fi/...n-7781493.html

There was an amusing misprint in the television review section of last Saturday's Guardian: Friday - Delius - BBC1 - 7.30. That would be the day!

[Pabmusic]

He was not merely born in Britain, he was born in Yorkshire (Bradford, to be precise). Though he died in France, he was buried in England. Sure, his parents were German by birth, but he was not.

Not only were his parents German "by birth", they remained German, even after the move to Yorkshire. His father moved for business reasons (the wool trade), from Bielefeld in Westphalia, and they settled into an ex-pat German 'wool community' in Bradford. Fritz Delius was born there in 1862 (he changed his name to Frederick only in 1902, 18 years after he left England). He received violin lessons from a German member of the Halle, and went to music college at Leipzig (under Reinecke). His first language was German, though he had learned English early and had attended Bradford Grammar School. He never seems to have taken to England, though he liked the Yorkshire scenery, and considered an opera based on Wuthering Heights (the North Country Sketches are as far as it got). He wrote this to Granville Bantock in 1911, which seems to encapsulate his view of England:

"I am afraid artistic undertakings are impossible in England - the country is not yet artistically civilised - There is something hopeless about English people in a musical and artistic way and, to be frank, I have entirely lost my interest and prefer to live abroad and make flying visits".

My own view is that Delius was a (the only?) German impressionist, like Debussy was a French one, their music growing out of Chopin, Grieg and Wagner. His Britishness is to be found more in the influence he had on younger composers, most of whom were British. RVW, Moeran, Warlock, Bax all owed him something - and acknowledged it.

The fact that Delius is buried in Surrey was Beecham's doing. He persuaded Jelka to have the body disinterred from Grez-sur-Loing and reburied at Limpsfield, which had no connexion with Delius.

[Pianorak]

Not only were his parents German "by birth", they remained German, even after the move to Yorkshire.

Julius [Frederick's father] moved to England to further his career as a wool merchant, and became a naturalised British subject in 1850 (wikipedia).

His first language was German, though he had learned English early and had attended Bradford Grammar School.

German may have been his "first" language, but English was his language of education and hence presumably his "best" which, together with his English birth, surely makes him English rather than German.

[Brassbandmaestro]

What about a bit of both? His music certainl;y is broadcast on the continent more thyan in this country. I amglad there is a new film about him. I will watch this one!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"I am afraid artistic undertakings are impossible in England - the country is not yet artistically civilised - There is something hopeless about English people in a musical and artistic way and, to be frank, I have entirely lost my interest and prefer to live abroad and make flying visits".

There's the proof: neither German nor (merely) English - Delius was a Yorkshireman through-and-through!

My own view is that Delius was a (the only?) German impressionist, like Debussy was a French one, their music growing out of Chopin, Grieg and Wagner. His Britishness is to be found more in the influence he had on younger composers, most of whom were British. RVW, Moeran, Warlock, Bax all owed him something - and acknowledged it.

(Some "impressionist" influences - at least - on Schreker, perhaps?)

[Serial_Apologist]

(Some "impressionist" influences - at least - on Schreker, perhaps?)

And on Karg-Elert, Berg, and Zemlinsky too. (And I'm sure I'll think of others!)