Frederick Delius (1862–1934) was an English composer who resisted the attempts by his father to recruit him to commerce, although he briefly managed an orange plantation in Florida. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany he settled in France, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
The lyricism in Delius’s early compositions reflected the music he had heard in America and the influences of European composers such as Grieg and Wagner. As his skills matured, he developed a style which became uniquely his own.
In Britain, Delius’s music has been only intermittently popular. All the same, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring has become part of the standard English concert repertory.
Some people look upon Sketches as the high-water mark of Delius’s compositional skill, although Eric Fenby, who assisted Delius during his last years, when he suffered from the effects of syphilis, thought that Eventyr (Once Upon a Time) was his best work. Other notable compositions are A Village Romeo and Juliet, Appalachia, Sea Drift, Brigg Fair and A Mass of Life.
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912) was inspired by a Norwegian folk song that Grieg had used previously as one of his 19 Norwegian Folk Songs, Op. 66.
The tune is called ‘I Ola-dalom, i Ola-kjønn’ (In Ola valley, In Ola tarn) and recounts that ringing of church bells was used in vain to recover a missing child believed to be abducted by sprites into a small lake.
Surely, Delius’s version turned out to be very far removed from Grieg’s arrangement (which imitates bell-ringing) as well as from the theme of the traditional folk song, where there is no cuckoo indeed.
The sound clip is computer generated using sampled sounds (AI). Transcriptions and descriptions are not AI-generated.
Set contains one score and one copy of each part, as download or on paper. Copying allowed by acquiring band for their performances only. Additional copies may be obtained from the J. W. Pepper webshop.
Fun fact: The male’s song, goo-ko, starts as a descending minor third in April, and evolves to a major third or a fourth as the season progresses. Cuckoos in Europe and Asia leave for Africa south of Sahara in September. The bird doesn’t live in America and Australia.
Frederick Delius (1862–1934) was an English composer who resisted the attempts by his father to recruit him to commerce, although he briefly managed an orange plantation in Florida. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany he settled in France, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
