BLIND DELIUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 676, 30 May 1929, Page 14

BLIND DELIUS

Britain’s Graceful Gesture GENIUS RECOGNISED The recent bestowal o£ the title of Companion of Honour on Frederick Delius, the English composer, is a matter for congratulation among English musicians, says Francis Toye in “The London Post.” “Opinions as to the precise merits of his music may reasonably differ,” declared Mr. Toye, “but nobody can or will deny that it is deeply loved by many competent persons and that it enjoys, moreover, some consideration outside this country. Hence his abstract suitability for official recognition Is unquestionable. But there is another reason which I stressed two years ago and which may with advantage be repeated. “Despite Delius’s basic and essential cosmopolitanism in every respect, English music owes him a special debt because he has of his own free will identified himself with it. This may sound a curious statement, but consider the circumstances! Delius was born in Bradford of parents English only by naturalisation. He passed some of his early life in the United States; he completed his studies in Germany, where his genius was first recognised and where much of his most important work is published. He has lived mainly in France. ‘ Essentially English “How easy had it been, particularly in those spacious, passportless days before the war, for him to have identified himself with the musical life of any one of those countries rather than with that in which he was, almost by accident, born. Yet he did -not do so. There are German works, of course, among his output, hut glance through the list of his published compositions and you will be struck by the essentially Anglo-Saxon nature of the bulk of his themes. The titles no less than the spirit of them speak for themselves. “It was no small tribute on the part of one so closely connected with Germany in blood and interests, so exposed to the pressure of German musical opinion (which, as I know from personal experience, always decried England as a kind of musical Nazareth), to choose England as his musical home. He might, taking into consideration the circumstances of his career and environment, quite legitimately have chosen otherwise. In short, Delius is one of the very few musicians who, in spite of all temptations to belong to other nations, can really claim any credit for remaining an Englishman. Therefore, now, when he is old and blind and paralysed. a graceful gesture on our part was indicated—would have been indicated even had his genius been less remarkable than it is.”

Tetrazzini has been paying a brief visit to London with her second husband, Pietro Vernati, who is 35 years old. Since her marriage, nearly three years ago, the great soprano has not sung in public, but she has announced her intention of giving concerts in England in the summer. In the autumn will come her farewell, “and.” she says, “it will be a real farewell, not one of an interminable series.”