A Late Lark

Die Lerche am Abend

DCW 67
RT III/6
DCE 15b

Composer: Frederick Delius
Author: William Ernest Henley
Translator: Jelka Delius
Scribe: Eric Fenby

Delius's last orchestral song is a setting of a poem from William Ernest Henley's Life and Death (Echoes). Like Cynara, it was completed with the help of Fenby for Beecham's 1929 Delius Festival, having originally been drafted with Jelka's help in 1924. Though the draft score from this original composition process is lost, Jelka wrote to Percy Grainger in January 1924 mentioning progress on the work (RT, 82; RT.1986, 47). Fenby himself indicated that 'There were one or two minor adjustments to be made before it finally satisfied him, and several lines in the voice part which had yet to be filled in; this he did by dictation' (Eric Fenby, Delius As I Knew Him, 71).

Composition: Between 1924 and 1929.

Instrumentation:

Orchestra : fl., ob., cor.ingl., 2 cl., 2 fg., 2 cor., tr., 3 trb., str.

Soloists: T., vl.

Text incipit: 'A late lark twitters from the quiet skies'

Musical incipit for this work

Sources

Draft material

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, draft]

15 bars of a pencil draft and 21 bars of a full pencil draft, both in the hand of Jelka Delius, and a piano score of the final work in the hand of Philip Heseltine.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/2/6. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Authorised score

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, score, fair copy, complete]

Manuscript full score in ink of the completed work, with Beecham's markings in blue pencil throughout.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/1/33. British Library source record
Fenby's fair copy

Fair copy of the previous item, also with Beecham's markings added, as well as the German translation in Jelka's hand beneath the score.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/3/11. British Library source record

Stichvorlage, piano version

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, piano score, engraver's copy, complete]

Boosey & Hawkes, London 1931.

Piano score by Eric Fenby in his hand. Jelka Delius's German text added in red ink in her hand.

Published score

[Classification: notated music, print, score, first edition, complete]

Boosey & Hawkes, London 1931.

The first edition of the full score incorporates Thomas Beecham's performance markings added to Fenby's manuscript full score.

Collected Edition

[Classification: notated music, print, score, later edition, complete]

Boosey & Hawkes, London 1987.

A Late Lark is included in vol. 15b of the Collected Edition: Songs with Orchestra, Part 2.

Performances

Bibliography

Last changed 2020-10-26T14:17:05+00:00