Dance for Harpsichord

DCW 53
RT IX/6
DCE 33

Composer: Frederick Delius
Dedicatee: Mrs Violet Gordon Woodhouse

This curious work was the product of Delius securing an introduction to the renowned harpsichordist Violet Gordon Woodhouse. In the opinion of Lee-Browne and Guinery, the work is only successful when transferred to piano, as 'the harpsichord favours uncluttered textures, underpinned by harmony that alters relatively infrequently, and it is therefore unsuited to Delius's style and keyboard technique, with its swiftly changing chromaticism and densely voiced chords demanding to be sustained.' (Martin Lee-Browne and Paul Guinery, Delius and his Music (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2014), 397-8). The various fragmentary sketches, according to Threlfall, suggest that the melody used predates the finished work by a considerable period (RT.1986, 115).

Composition: 1919.

Instrumentation: Soloist: cemb.

Musical incipit for this work

Sources

Notes and sketches

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, score, sketch, fragment]

On a page of notes headed 'American Suite', the melody of the Dance for Harpsichord is noted down, with additional sketch material for the work at a later point in the same manuscript.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/2/10. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Sketch material

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, score, sketch, fragment]

Amid sketch material for two other works (Fantastic Dance and an unfinished piano work), material for the Dance for Harpsichord.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/2/9. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Sketch

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, score, sketch]

A single folio of sketch material, crossed through and headed by Fenby: 'Dance for Harpsichord rejected sketch'.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/1/39. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Autograph score

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

Delius's autograph score in black ink, with some pencil markings and corrections, headed 'With graceful dance movement, rather quick'.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) Add. MS 50497. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Autograph score, copy

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

Scribe: Evlyn Howard-Jones

Delius Trust, London Acc. 208.

Published score

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

Published in Music & Letters I/1 (January 1920), pp. 73-5, entitled 'Harpsichord piece, composed for Mrs. Gordon Woodhouse, 1919. With graceful dance movement, rather quick'.

Engraved score

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

Universal Edition, Wien 1922.

The first engraved edition contains minor changes to the first publication in Music & Letters. It was transferred to Boosey & Hawkes in 1939. This item was reissued as part of the Collected Edition vol. 33, Works for Piano Solo.

Last changed 2020-10-26T14:16:55+00:00