Sung composers that you just "don't get"

[semloh]

For decades, I also thought of Delius as a meandering drone and was bored stiff by it. Nowadays, I rather enjoy not going anywhere, and I just relax into the sloshy atmosphere he creates. It's a musical equivalent of an episode of Last of the Summer Wine ...  a couple of minor highlights, otherwise not much happening, but all located in an atmosphere of unruffled acceptance, and quiet good humour. Despite the American and European influences of which the musicologists speak, to my ears Delius is emblematic of English reserve, and even Paris - Song of a Great City, sounds to me like a portrait of an English county town - on a Sunday! 

[eschiss1]

As to Delius actually a (no longer in my possession) commercial tape of his 3 violin sonatas and cello sonata much improved my opinion of him, for what that's worth. (Sorabji, who was very much a Delius fan, didn't care for several of those works, I think (seem to recall reading that he wrote), finding Delius often though not always hemmed in by a perceived need to conform to pre-existing formal rules when the word sonata or concerto popped up - the violin concerto, for instance, excepted.  ... .Anyway.)

[jerfilm]

I'm glad I'm not the only Delius lover.  You can't account for taste.  he was not a great symphonist and no one would argue that he was.  By the same token, he was something of a miniaturist- short, lovely tone pictures.  And among my favorites are Sea Drift and Idyll: I Once Passed Through a populous city.......

Jerry

[Jimfin]

I love Delius, but definitely need to be in the right mood. And I can see that he is not to everyone's taste and never will be

[Gauk]

A good piece to try is the piano concerto. A Delius piano concerto seems almost like a contradiction in terms, but it's a great piece with a really beautiful "big tune".

A piece I would love to hear again is "The Shocking Affair" by Arthur Hutchings. It consists of a set of variations on "Widdecombe Fair", each in the style of a different British composer, from Purcell to Walton. The Delius variation is hilarious. It ends with a "pom tiddly-om-pom, pom pom!" in long drawn-out harmonies: "po-om tid-elly om pommm, po-o-o-om pommmmmm". (I hope that is intelligible!)

[Pickler_MZ]

I'm from Bradford, so I feel I have to go in and bat for our native composer... but there could be a more incongruous composer/birthplace combination then Delius and Bradford?

I tend to prefer the shorter 'popular' pieces such as 'First Cuckoo in Spring', 'Summer Night on the River', 'Walk to the Paradise Garden' etc.  Apparently the Paradise Garden was a pub, so I'm all in favour of that.

When I do hear his bigger pieces, I'm always surprised at just how big they are.  And a tough prospect so sit through, I have to say.

[eschiss1]

I thought the Paradise Garden was an excerpt from A Village Romeo and Juliet (the interlude between scenes 5 and 6 - " Self‑conscious, they leave the fair, and make for the Paradise Garden, another dancing place. ...   Scene VI. The vagabonds are heard in the distance before the curtain rises. When it does, it is to reveal a dilapidated country house, now used as an inn."... (Synopsis to A Village Romeo and Juliet)

[petershott@btinternet.com]

"...could be a more incongruous composer/birthplace combination then Delius and Bradford?"

How about Havergal Brian and Stoke-on-Trent? Dreadful place! No wonder Brian got out when young.

And Eric of course is quite right - the 'Walk to the Paradise Garden' is an interlude to the opera A Village Romeo & Juliet (though that interlude is often performed in orchestral concerts).

I've felt mildly guilty since posting that dismissive comment on Delius a few hours ago, and have been thinking I'll give this opera another go. Somewhere in the store room is the Argo recording conducted by Mackerras - and from 20 years ago or so I remember it as a quite wonderful thing. (The other Delius operas just aren't in the same league).

[eschiss1]

I'm curious about "A Mass of Life", myself- a Delius work much praised by Brian.  Going to put that on my listening list... (unsung music by a sung composer?)

[Mark Thomas]

How about Havergal Brian and Stoke-on-Trent? Dreadful place!

Seems an entirely appropriate place, then, to me.

[eschiss1]

Why, did Brian go through a Rastafarian period?

[Mark Thomas]

  Very good, Eric!

[Gauk]

I'm curious about "A Mass of Life", myself- a Delius work much praised by Brian.  Going to put that on my listening list... (unsung music by a sung composer?)

Hardly unsung, I would say. Besides, it's a choral piece, of course it is sung!

[Alan Howe]

A Mass of Life has been recorded, but is definitely unsung. Not the same thing at all.

[giles.enders]

Handel, Reger and Bruckner.  I've really tried to understand all three of these composers even going to concerts to see if it makes any difference  I have to switch off Handel at times, almost injuring myself in the process. It is torture for me.  Reger just bores and as for Bruckner, it is all much of the same, it doesn't seem to lead anywhere, though I don't feel the necessity to rush to the off switch, which I do with Handel and The Archers signature tune.