Songs of Farewell

Lieder des Abschieds

DCW 76
RT II/9
DCE 13a

Composer: Frederick Delius
Author: Walt Whitman
Translator: Jelka Delius
Dedicatee: Jelka Delius
Scribe: Eric Fenby

This five-movement work for Double Chorus and Orchestra sets poems from Whitman's Leaves of Grass as follows: I. 'Memories' and 'Out of May's Shows Selected'; II. 'From Montauk Point'; III. 'Passage to India' 9, lines 11-20; IV: 'Joy, Shipmate, Joy!'; V: 'Now Finalè to the Shore'. Delius embarked on sketches for the work in 1920/21, but had only drafted the first movement in full score before the work was laid aside. It was completed in 1929, with Fenby undertaking the elaboration and orchestration of the sketches for the remaining four movements at that time.

Composition: Between 1920 and 1930.

Instrumentation:

Orchestra : 2 fl., 2 ob., cor.ingl., 2 cl., cl.b., 3 fg., cfg., 4 cor., 3 tr., 3 trb., tb., timp., cym., arp., str.

Choir SSAATTBB: S., A., T., B.

Sources

Sketch material

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

Autograph sketches in piano score, with some annotations and draft material by Fenby.

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

British Library source record

Pencil draft, no. 1 only

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, score, draft, complete]

Autograph pencil draft full score of no. 1, most details complete.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/2/13/5. Link to external resource

British Library source record

Draft full score, nos. 2-5

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, score, draft]

In the hand of Eric Fenby, draft full scores in pencil of nos. 2-5 of the Songs, inscribed 'THE ORIGINAL MSS. SCORE OF "SONGS OF FAREWELL", DELIUS' LAST CHORAL WORK, TAKEN DOWN AT HIS DICTATION BY ERIC FENBY (1929-1930)'.

AUS-PVgm (Grainger Museum, Melbourne) MG C2/DELI-28.

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. Used as the publisher's Stichvorlage.

GB-Lbl (British Library, London) MS Mus. 1745/3/8/1. 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 English text in black ink, with Jelka Delius's German translation added below in red ink (in Fenby's hand). Used as the publisher's Stichvorlage.

Published score

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

Boosey & Hawkes, London 1931.

Vocal and full scores with English and German texts were published in 1931. This edition became vol. 13a of the Collected Edition, issued by the same publisher in 1988.

Performances

Last changed 2020-10-26T14:17:07+00:00