CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOG OF THE WORKS OF FREDERICK DELIUS
(prepared by Jeff Gower from Lionel Carley's Delius: A Life in Letters)
1885
Zwei bräune Augen, song (H.C. Andersen)
Over the Mountains High, song (Bjørnson)
Pensées Mélodieuses, piano piece
Zum Carnival, piano piece
1886-1887
Florida (Tropical Scenes for Orchestra)
I. Daybreak - Dance
II. By the River
III. Sunset - Near the Plantation
IV. At Night
1887
Norske Wiser, ?? - July/August
Part songs in German ??
Norwegian Sleigh Ride, piano piece (later to be orchestrated)
Hiawatha, tone poem after Longfellow - begun
1888
Hiawatha, tone poem after Longfellow - completed January
(original score has not survived complete)
Paa Vidderne, melodrama (Ibsen) - begun June, completed
October
Five Songs From the Norwegian:
Slumber Song (Bjørnson), The Nightingale (Welhaven),
Summer Eve (J. Paulsen), Longing (Th. Kjerulf), Sunset (A.
Munck)
Swedish Folk Song Arrangement
Hochgebirgsleben, song (Ibsen)
O schneller, mein Ross!, song (von Geibel)
Zanoni, incidental music (Bulwer-Lytton) - summer, unfinished
Suite for Violin and Orchestra - summer?
Rhapsodic Variations, for large orchestra - September, unfinished
Three pieces for string orchestra - c. September
String Quartet - finished October/November - MS incomplete
1889
Sakuntala, for tenor and orchestra (Drachmann)
Seven Songs from the Norwegian:
Cradle Song (Ibsen), The Homeward Journey (A.O. Vinje),
Evening Voices (Bjørnson), Venevil (Bjørnson),
Minstrels (Ibsen), Secret Love (Bjørnson),
The Bird's Story (Ibsen) (four completed, the rest 1890)
Florida suite - revision of two movements
Romance, for violin
Two piano pieces
Idylle de Printemps, for orchestra
Small Piece, composed jointly by Grieg, Sinding, and Delius -
Jotunheim, August
Draft orchestral piece - Leirungs Hytte, Jotunheim, Norge - August
- incomplete
Chanson de Fortunio, song (Musset) - November
Norwegian Bridal Procession (comp. Grieg) - orchestrated by Delius in
December
Suite d' Orchestre - May
1. Marche [Caprice]
2. La Quadroone (Une Rapsodie Floridienne)
3. Berceuse
4. Scherzo
5. Theme et Variations
(Norwegian) Sleigh Ride - orchestrated
1890
Seven Songs from the Norwegian - completed
Irmelin, opera - begun
Three Small Tone Poems:
Sleigh Ride (1889 orchestrated version)
Summer Evening
Spring Morning
A l'Amore, orchestral fragment - (1890?)
Petite Suite d'Orchestre:
1. Allegretto ma non troppo (G minor)
2. Con moto (G minor)
3. Allegretto (E major)
Légendes (Sagen), for piano and orchestra - draft incomplete
Two piano pieces - completed 1890?
1. Valse
2. Reverie
Skogen gir susende, langsom besked, song (Bjørnson) - 1890/91
Four Heine Songs - begun
Paa Vidderne, symphonic poem - begun
1891
Irmelin, opera - continued
Four Heine Songs - completed
Maud, five songs for tenor and orchestra (Tennyson):
Come into the garden; Go not, happy day; I was walking a mile,
Birds in the high-hall garden
Three Shelley Songs:
Indian Love Song; Love's Philosophy; To the Queen of my Heart
Lyse Naetter, song (Drachmann)
Paa Vidderne - revised
1892
Irmelin, opera - completed
Paa Vidderne, symphonic poem - revised and completed
Sonata in B Major for Violin and Piano
Légende, for violin and orchestra - conceivably completed as a work for
violin and piano in 1892, and orchestrated in 1895
String Quartet - probably begun in 1892
1893
Jeg havde en nyskaaren Seljefløjte, song (Krag)
Nuages, song (Richepin)
Over the Hills and Far Away, "fantasy overture" - begun? - completed
1897?
String Quartet - completed?
1894
The Magic Fountain, opera - begun mid 1894
Anatomie et Physiologie de l'Orchestre, booklet by Delius and Papus
Irmelin (piano arrangement by Florent Schmitt) - May
1895
The Magic Fountain, opera - completed
Deux Mélodies, songs (Verlaine):
Il pleure dans mon coeur; Le ciel est par dessus la toit
The Page sat in the lofty Tower, song (Jacobsen) - 1895?
Légende, for violin and orchestra - orchestrated 1895?
The Magic Fountain (piano arrangement by Florent Schmitt) - 1895?
1896
Koanga, opera (C.F. Keary) - begun
Appalachia, American Rhapsody for Orchestra RT (an early version of
the later orchestral variations)
Romance, for cello and piano
1897
Koanga, opera - completed early 1897
Piano Concerto in C Minor (first version entitled Fantasy for Orchestra
and Pianoforte) - Florida, spring 1897; completed Paris, late 1897
Folkeraadet, incidental music to Gunnar Heiberg's play
- summer/autumn
Seven Danish Songs, with orchestral or piano arrangement - largely
completed in 1897:
On the Seashore (Drachmann); Through long, long years
(Jacobsen); Wine Roses (Jacobsen); Let Springtime Come
(Jacobsen); Irmelin Rose (Jacobsen); In the Seraglio Garden
(Jacobsen); Silken Shoes (Jacobsen)
Koanga (piano arrangement by Florent Schmitt) - 1897/8?
A Village Romeo and Juliet (draft libretto prepared by C.F. Keary)
1898
The Magic Fountain, opera - minor revision
Koanga, opera - some revision
Seven Danish Songs - some revision/completion?
Four Nietzsche Songs - completed early 1898?:
Der Wanderer und sein Schatten; Der Einsame; Der Wanderer;
Nach neuen Meeren
Mitternachtslied Zarathustras, for baritone solo, male chorus, and
orchestra
Traum Rosen, song (Marie Heinitz)
Im Glück wir lachend gingen, song (Drachmann)
La ronde se déroule, symphonic poem after Helge Rode RT - begun
1899
La ronde se déroule - completed
Paris, Nocturne (The Song of a Great City), for large orchestra
A Village Romeo and Juliet, opera - composition substantially begun
towards end of 1899
1900
La ronde se déroule (Dansen gaar) - undergoes revision
A Village Romeo and Juliet, opera - continued
Two songs: The Violet and Autumn (Ludvig Holstein)
1901
A Village Romeo and Juliet, opera - completed
Lebenstanz, symphonic poem for large orchestra - Now completed in its
first version, this was a substantial reworking of the earlier La
ronde se déroule .
Black Roses, song (Ernst Josephson)
Jeg hører i Natten, song (Drachmann)
Margot la Rouge, one-act opera (Rosenval, i.e. Berthe Gaston-Danville)
- begun late 1901?
1902
Margot la Rouge, one-act opera - completed
Summer Landscape, song (Drachmann) - April
Appalachia, Variations on an Old Slave Song, with final Chorus, for
large orchestra - reworking, begun this year, of the American
Rhapsody of 1896
A Village Romeo and Juliet (piano arrangement by Florent Schmitt)
Margot la Rouge (piano arrangement by Maurice Ravel) - Autumn
1903
Appalachia - revised work completed?
Sea Drift, for baritone solo, mixed chorus and large orchestra
(Whitman) - begun this year?
1904
Sea Drift - completed this year?
A Mass of Life, for soloists, mixed double chorus and large orchestra
(Nietzsche) - begun (one Dance Song completed in May)
1905
A Mass of Life - completed
Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano - sketched in part
1906
Piano Concerto in C Minor - further revision
Songs of Sunset, for soprano and baritone solo, mixed chorus and
orchestra (Ernest Dowson) - begun
1907
Piano Concerto in C Minor - further revision, Jan/Feb.
Songs of Sunset - completed
Brigg Fair, An English Rhapsody, for orchestra
On Craig Dhu, part-song for unaccompanied chorus (Symons)
- December
Cynara, for baritone solo and orchestra (Dowson) - draft full score
1908
Part-songs for unaccompanied chorus (Symons):
Wanderer's Song; Midsummer Song
In a Summer Garden, Rhapsody for full Orchestra - Spring
A Dance Rhapsody No. 1, for orchestra
Fennimore and Gerda, opera "in eleven pictures" (Delius, after J. P.
Jacobsen) - begun
1909
Fennimore and Gerda, opera - continued
1910
Fennimore and Gerda, opera - continued
1911
Fennimore and Gerda, opera - completed (later revised)
Chanson d'automne, song (Verlaine)
Summer Night on the River, for small orchestra
An Arabesque, for baritone solo, mixed chorus and orchestra (J.P.
Jacobsen) - autumn
The Song of the High Hills, for orchestra and wordless chorus - begun
1912
The Song of the High Hills - completed
Lebenstanz, symphonic poem for large orchestra - revised
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, for small orchestra
1913
Fennimore and Gerda, opera - revision/addition of new ending
I-Brasil, song (Fiona Macleod)
Two Songs for Children, for chorus with pianoforte accompaniment
(Tennyson and May Morgan)
Requiem, for soprano and baritone, double chorus and orchestra
(Heinrich Simon) - begun
North Country Sketches, for orchestra - begun
1914
North Country Sketches - Nos. 3 and 4 completed
Requiem - continued
Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano - completed
1915
Four Old English Lyrics, songs (various authors) - No. 2-4 completed
Double Concerto for violin, violoncello and orchestra RT
Air and Dance, for string orchestra
Eventyr ("Once Upon A Time", after Asbjornsen's folklore) for
orchestra - sketched
1916
Requiem - completion of last movement
String Quartet - three movements completed
A Dance Rhapsody No. 2
Four Old English Lyrics - No. 1 completed
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Sonata for Violoncello and Pianoforte
1917
To be sung of a summer night on the water, two unaccompanied part
songs (wordless) for mixed voices - late spring
String Quartet - general revision, and Scherzo added
Eventyr - completed
1918
A Song Before Sunrise, for orchestra
Poem of Life and Love, for orchestra
Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano - first movement sketched
1919
Avant que tu ne t¹en ailles, song (Verlaine) - sketched
Dance for Harpsichord
1920
Songs of Farewell, for double chorus and orchestra - sketched
Hassan, incidental music to James Elroy Flecker¹s drama in 5 acts -
begun
1921
Avant que tu ne t¹en ailles, song (Verlaine) - some revision ?
Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra
Hassan - original version completed
1922
Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano - begun
Five Piano Pieces - begun
1. Mazurka
2. Waltz for a Little Girl
3. Waltz
4. Lullaby for a Modern Baby
5. Toccata
Three Preludes, for piano - begun
1923
Five Piano Pieces - completed
Hassan - final version completed
The Splendour falls on Castle Walls, unaccompanied part song for mixed
voices
Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano - completed
Three Preludes, for piano - completed
1924
A Late Lark, for tenor and orchestra (W.E. Henley) - begun
Fantastic Dance, for orchestra - sketched ?
Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano - sketches for 2nd and 3rd movements
1925 - 1928
(No serious composition was undertaken during the years 1925 - 1928.)
1929
Hassan suite (arranged for orchestra) - begun January, completed May
Cynara - completed
A Late Lark - completed
A Song of Summer (revision of Poem of Life and Love)
1930
Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano - completed
Songs of Farewell, for double chorus and orchestra (Whitman) -
completed
Caprice and Elegy, for violoncello and chamber orchestra
1931
Irmelin, prelude for orchestra - autumn
Fantastic Dance, for orchestra - completed
1932
Idyll ("Once I passed thro' a populous City"), for soprano, baritone,
and orchestra (text adapted from Whitman by Robert Nichols) -
(a reshaping of music from Margot la Rouge) - October
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