Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, a biography
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius was born on January 29 in the North of England, in Bradford, Yorkshire, to be fair. He died on June 10. His family was wealthy. They were engaged in mercantile business. Julius, his father, was a prosperous businessman in one of Yorkshire’s great Victorian industries, wool to be exact. Frederick hated commerce and his family never convinced him to become a businessman. Anyway his family managed to send him to the United States to deal with an orange plantation. Some historians said that he himself persuaded his father to let him go to America and take care of the plantation, although this is not very credible. Once in the United States, of course, he ignored his …show more content…
He returned to Europe in 1886. Keeping in mind black melodies, he started composing. When the Negro workers sang, the sound that they produced truly inspired Frederick. One could said that Frederick was a pioneer as white man learning and playing Delta Blues, a kind of music that would be performed by extraordinary musicians as Robert Johnson in the 1920’s.
Then Frederick went to Germany to study music for a short period of time in 1886. He studied in the prestigious Leipzig Conservatorium from 1886-8. Now he is found in Paris engaged on a full-time career as a composer. Then he chose to live in Grez-sur-Loing in North Central France. He and his wife Jelka lived there for the rest of their lives, except when the First World War started and made the situation unbearable.
Frederick started composing simple songs and instrumental and orchestral pieces to develop the operas Irmelin, The Magic Fountain, and Koanga. Some of these works were solo voices as Paa Videme, Sakuntala and Maud. In 1889 he finished the symphonic poem Life’s Dance and also the nocturne Paris. Needless to say that he was a prolific composer. A kind of sublime eclecticism can be felt in these works. He derived his inspiration from the literature of England, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and the United States. A mixture of Scandinavian flavors and North American Indians and Negros shaped his music. His musical arrangements exude medieval romances and also the rhythm of the Breton Lais of Mary of