Frederick Delius

Summer Nights (On the Sea Shore)

Lyse Nætter

DCW 61
RT III/4
DCE 15a

Composer: Frederick Delius
Author: Holger Drachmann

Setting of Holger Drachmann's poem 'Lyse Nætter'. Delius returned to the words that form the basis of this song on several occasions, making its history more complex than that of the other parts of the Seven Danish Songs, and prompting Threlfall in his 1977 catalogue to allot a separate work number to 'Lyse Nætter'. Here, the separate records are retained, and the history of Delius's settings may be explained briefly as follows: Delius composed two settings of the original Danish words for voice and piano. While the second of these bears close resemblance to the orchestral setting, there are sufficient differences that these settings are allotted a separate catalogue number (DCW 108), and the final, orchestral setting in English only is addressed here. 

Composition: 1897.