Frederick Delius: The pioneering composer born in an unassuming house in Yorkshire
Fritz Theodor Albert (he later preferred Frederick) Delius was born on the south side of Claremont, Bradford, on 29th January 1862, the fourth child of Julius Delius, a German immigrant who became a wealthy wool merchant in the city.
There were 12 Delius children, all of them highly musical.
Frederick began violin lessons at the age of seven, learned to play the piano by ear, and a family string quartet was formed – he played second violin.
After leaving Bradford Grammar School, Frederick reluctantly became apprenticed to the Delius business, but travelling in Europe as a sales agent allowed him to expand his knowledge of music.
It also fuelled a desire to live elsewhere.
At the age of 22, with his father’s backing, he moved to Florida and became an orange grower but soon found his true passion was for composing music and was influenced by the African-American tunes he was hearing.
Relocating to Leipzig in Germany, he met Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and began to write works that would make him one of the most important composers of the English music revival.
Moving to Paris, his first success was Légende for violin and orchestra (1895).
Acclaimed operas and choral and orchestral works followed, including A Village Romeo, Appalachia and Sea Drift, A Mass of Life (1904-05), and On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring (1909).
Blind and paralysed by his 60s, Frederick Delius died at Grez-sur-Loing, south of Paris, on 10th June 1934.
His birthplace, off Bradford’s Great Horton Road, is now occupied by the Council for Mosques.