Epilog

In a little white house near the Forest of Fontainebleau an aged, paralytic blind-man has lain for months listening to the poems of Walt Whitman. Sometimes his wife would read them to him, sometimes young Eric Fenby, a Yorkshireman like himself. But it was always Whitman the blindman asked for, preferably the later poems written when Whitman was paralyzed, dying. In Queen's Hall, London, last week, a great crowd marveled at the Songs of Farewell which blind Frederick Delius had written for double choir and orchestra. The words were Whitman's: How sweet the silent backward tracings! The wanderings as in dreams--the meditation of old times resumed -- their loves, joys, persons, voyages. . . Now finale to the shore, Now land and life finale and farewell. The music, dictated by Delius note by note to his young friend Eric Fenby, was accepted by Britishers as a worthy epilog to a quiet, distinguished musical career. Fifty years ago Delius' parents did all they could to thwart their musical son. They wanted him for the stuff & yarn trade. When he refused they sent him to Florida to tend an orange grove. Thereafter Delius spent little time in England. He studied in Leipzig for a while, settled finally in France to write gentle, sombre music, much of it reminiscent of England.

Twenty-five years ago most Britishers had never heard of Delius. Sir Thomas Beecham undertook to make him known. Few Britishers remember seeing him hale and active. Two years ago when Sir Thomas conducted a six-day Delius festival, the composer was already paralyzed, nearly blind, had to attend the concerts in a wheel chair. Two months ago in honor of his 70th birthday British Broadcasting Corp. radioed Delius music far & wide.

Because Sir Thomas Beecham is in Manhattan now, conducting the Philharmonic Symphony, he had no hand in performing the Songs of Farewell. But with the Philharmonic he played three of Delius' best-known works: Brigg Fair, Summer Night on the River, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring.

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