Frederick Delius
Paa Vidderne
On the Heights
Auf dem Hochgebirge
DCW 56
RT III/1
DCE 14
Composer: Frederick Delius
Author: Henrik Ibsen
Translator: L. Passarge
Dedicatee: Edvard Grieg
Delius's only melodrama, a setting of Ibsen's poem of the same name (1859-60), was written after the composer befriended Grieg, and its development owed much to discussions between the two men. Initially conceived for tenor (singing voice), it was revised as a melodrama after Delius expressed dissatisfaction with the work as originally intended. When the melodrama was completed, Grieg and Delius corresponded regarding the difficulties of achieving balance in performance, and the work remained unperformed in Delius's lifetime. However, since the 1980s, it has been recorded and performed with success. A melody used in the work appeared subsequently in the orchestral works Paa Vidderne and Over the Hills and Far Away.
Composition: 1888.
Instrumentation:
Orchestra : picc., 2 fl., 2 ob., cor.ingl., 2 cl. in B flat, 2 fg., 4 cor. in F, 2 tr. in F, 3 trb., tb., timp., cym., bells in E, F sharp, str.
Soloist: voice
Sources
Draft, incomplete
[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, short score, draft, fragment]
Autograph score
[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, score, fair copy, complete]
Title page: Paa Vidderne|Auf dem Hochgebirge|Gedicht von H. Ibsen|Melodrama von Fritz Delius 1888|Edvard Grieg gewidmet.
Underneath the title is a note by the composer urging conductors to pay attention to the balance between the reciter's voice and the orchestral sound.
Typescript translations in English and German
[Classification: text, print]
Collected Edition
[Classification: notated music, print, score, first edition, complete]
Boosey & Hawkes, London 1988.
Performances
| 7 February 1984 |
St John's, Smith Square, London (Kensington Symphony Orchestra; conductor: Leslie Head; narrator: Allan Hendrick). |
Documents
Letters:
| 23 September 1888 |
from Edvard Grieg to Frederick Delius (LC I, pp. 23-5)
|
| 19 October 1888 |
To Edvard Grieg (LC I, pp. 25-6)
|
| 9 December 1888 |
from Edvard Grieg to Frederick Delius (LC I, pp. 28-30)
|
| December 1888 |
To Edvard Grieg (LC I, pp. 30-32)
|
Last changed 2020-10-26T14:17:14+00:00
