Hiawatha

Tone-poem for orchestra

ein Tongedicht für Orchester nach Longfellows Gedicht

DCW 17
RT VI/2
DCE Supp. vol. 6

Composer: Frederick Delius
Editor: Robert Threlfall

The early tone-poem Hiawatha, after the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, remained unperformed and unpublished for many years because of two missing sections of the autograph score. Two short linking passages were composed by Robert Threlfall, allowing the work to be published in 2008. The autograph score is headed by a quotation from Longfellow's poem, with two other quotations written into the score at later points. There were originally further quotations written in, but these were erased from the manuscript. Lowe notes reminiscences of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and Delius's own Florida, and a thematic link with Paris (RL, 17-19).

Composition: 1888.

Instrumentation:

Orchestra: picc.fl., 2 fl., 2 ob., 2 cl., 2 fg., 4 cor., 2 tr., 3 trb., tb., timp., trgl., tam., arp., str.

Tranquillo, allegretto

Musical incipit for this work

Sources

Sketch material

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

Both items contain pencil sketches in pencil of material for Hiawatha.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/1/38. British Library source record
GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/2/10. British Library source record

Autograph score

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

Paginated 1-90 by the composer, and lacking pp. 4-17 and 46-53. P. 86 bears the Longfellow quotation 'Westward, westward Hiawatha|Sailed into the fiery sunset|Sailed into the purple vapors|Sailed into the dusk of evening'. P. 87 bears the quotation: 'Thus departed Hiawatha|Hiawatha thy Beloved|In the glory of the sunset|In the purple mists of evening'.

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

British Library source record

Collected edition

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

Editor: Robert Threlfall

Boosey & Hawkes, London 2008.

This edition contains linking passages composed by Threlfall to efface the missing sections and retains the quotations from the poem written into the autograph score.

Performances

Last changed 2020-10-26T14:17:01+00:00