Prelude and Idyll

(Idyll)

DCW 77
RT II/10
DCE 13b

Composer: Frederick Delius
Authors: Walt Whitman, Robert Nichols
Scribe: Eric Fenby

According to Fenby's prefatory remarks to the Collected Edition, this work originated in Delius's desire to see the music of the one-act opera Margot la Rouge performed. Putting the neglect down to the libretto, he asked Robert Nichols to provide a new one, but this idea did not come to fruition. Instead, inspired by the prelude to the opera, Nichols eventually selected words from a number of poems from Whitman's Leaves of Grass, while Fenby assisted Delius in making selections and adaptations of the vocal score of Margot la Rouge to fit the new composite text. The first performance in 1933 consisted of the Idyll only. Afterwards, Delius favoured the retention of the original operatic prelude to the work, and it is in this form that the work appears in the Collected Edition.

Is related to:

Margot la Rouge

Composition: 1932.

Instrumentation:

Orchestra : 2 fl., 2 ob., cor.ingl., 2 cl. in B flat/A, 2 fg., 4 cor., 2 tr., 3 trb., tb., timp., arp., str.

Soloists: S., Bar.

Text incipit: 'Once I passed through the populous city'

Musical incipit for this work

Sources

Authorised vocal score (Eric Fenby)

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

Music and English text by Eric Fenby in black ink, with German text by Jelka Delius added in red ink. Entitled 'Idyl' (sic). Bearing some performance markings by Beecham in blue pencil. Used as the publisher's Stichvorlage.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/3/8/4. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Authorised full score (Eric Fenby)

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

Full score, music and text in black ink in Fenby's hand, marked by Beecham throughout in blue pencil. Used as the publisher's Stichvorlage. The first page of the 'Prelude' section bears the date '1901', because of its origin as the prelude to Margot la Rouge.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/3/8/4. British Library source record
Photostat copy

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/1/33. British Library source record

Published vocal score

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

Boosey & Hawkes, London 1933.

Fenby's vocal score, English and German words.

Collected Edition

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

Editor: Thomas Beecham and Eric Fenby

Boosey & Hawkes, London 1988.

Constituting vol. 13b of the Collected Edition and following a 1976 study score produced by the same publisher. English and German words.

Performances

Last changed 2020-10-26T14:17:03+00:00