Delius - On hearing the first Cuckoo in spring

Wahey! The first Cuckoos have arrived back in Britain on the south coast, and don't forget that you can track the migration of a few satellite-tagged birds returning from Africa on the BTO's website.

So, because everything I ever do lacks originality and is just one massive cliché after another, this week's piece is On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring by Frederick Delius (1862-1934). It was written in 1912 and originally one of two pastoral pieces, the other being Summer Night on the River, which has been largely forgotten.

Last week's post was The Curlew by Peter Warlock, who was a particularly big fan of Delius's Cuckoo. After hearing it he wrote this letter to Delius:

The first piece is the most exquisite and entirely lovely piece of music I have heard for many a long day—it almost makes me cry, for the sheer beauty of it: I play it often on the piano, and it is continually in my head, a kind of beautiful undercurrent to my thoughts. For me, the deep, quiet sense of glowing happiness, and the mysterious feeling of being at the very heart of Nature, that pervades the piece, is too lovely for words.

I'm not sure I agree entirely with Warlock, I mean, it's okay. Nice enough piece of music, but a bit too English for me. Strolling through meadows, cricket on the village green, rowing down the Thames, a cold bath at 5am, Anglican church hymns and setting a pack of dogs on a fox. Yep, that's what being English is all about.






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