Frederick Delius: Air & Dance for string orchestra

Frederick Delius’ (1862-1934) Air and Dance is a ‘wartime’ work that was composed in 1915 whilst the composer and his wife were living at Grove Mill House near Watford. Thomas Beecham had most likely taken a lease on this house, which was near his estate, to allow the couple to escape the rigours of the war in Grez-sur-Loing. Whilst at Watford, Delius also wrote his Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra.

The Air and Dance remained unpublished until the score was ‘discovered’ by Peter Warlock when visiting Delius at Grez during 1929. The work was originally scored for string orchestra, however a number of arrangements have been made subsequently, including for piano solo by Eric Fenby and for flute and piano by James Galway.

The premiere was at a private concert held at Lady Cunard’s London house during 1915 under Sir Thomas Beecham. The first public performance was given at the Aeolian Hall in London on 16 October 1929 also conducted by Beecham. Alan Jefferson in his study of the composer stated that the work’s dedication to the National Institute for the Blind dated from 1929 and was not ‘any premonition of…his [Delius’] impending blindness’ during the First World War.

The form of this delightful work is extremely simple. The piece opens with a dreamy, reflective tune that meanders towards the livelier ‘dance’. However near the end of the work the original air is reprised for a few bars before the piece closes on a positive note. It is a touching work that fully reflects Frederick Delius’s mature style.

Listen to the Academy of St Martin’s in the Field, under the baton of Neville Marriner performing Delius’s Air and Dance, on YouTube, here. The video includes the score.

With thanks to the English Music Festival where this note was first published.