MS Mus. 1745/1/31

1. A Poem of Life and Love (ff. 1-22, and 23-32v).

Thelfall, VI/25.

An incomplete full score, in Delius's autograph, followed by an incomplete full score (a fair copy) in the hand of Jelka Delius that omits Delius's deletions and copies his amendments. Delius's manuscript was found unbound and in no discoverable order; the present foliation was determined (by Rachel Lowe) by comparison with the two-piano arrangement by Balfour Gardiner and Eric Fenby (MS Mus. 1745/1/32).

• ff. 1-22r. Composer's autograph score (incomplete).
• f. 1. Title-page: 'Poem of Life & Love / for orchestra / Frederick Delius / 1918'.
• f. 2. Title, signature and date appear again at the head of the page.
• ff. 2-10. Scored in ink, with whole page deletions and amendments in pencil.
• ff. 10v-14v. Draft score (pencil).
• ff. 15-17v. Scored in ink (f. 17v deleted by pencil).
• f. 18 is scored in pencil.
• ff. 18v and the following folio (recto and verso) are blank.
• ff. 19-22 are scored in ink with some pencil amendments.
• f. 22v is blank.
• ff. 23-32v. Fair copy (incomplete) in the hand of Jelka Delius. Whilst this score is based upon ff. 1-22, the copy was evidently made from more than one version (see Lowe, Catalogue, p. 98). At the head of f. 23, a signed note (ink) by Fenby: 'Copy of original MSS. of A Poem of Life and Love in Jelka Delius's hand.' For further pages from JD's copy score, see MS Mus. 1745/2/8.

Delius's autograph score is dispersed as follows:

• composer's paginated pp. 1-31 and and 48-50 are ff. 1-22 above;
• pp. 32-43 can be found in the Delius Trust Beecham Accession (MS Mus.1745/2/8);
• pp. 44-47 are held by the Bodleian Library, presented by Delius in 1930 (Western MSS, Don. b. 2) but are also available, with Delius's covering letter, as photostats at the back of the present volume (see below).

2. A Song of Summer (ff. 33-42).

Threlfall, VI/26. Publication: 1931, Boosey & Hawkes (full score 6931). Performance: 17 September 1931, London, Queen's Hall, BBC Orchestra, Sir Henry J. Wood.

Sketches (ff. 33-35) dictated by Delius to Fenby (1929), and a full score fair copy (incomplete, in Fenby's autograph) of the first version of the work.

• f. 33. Headed 'A Song of Summer' (top right corner of folio torn away with some loss of score to top stave on f. 33v). Workings in pencil and in ink, annotated at the bottom of the page by Fenby: 'rejected sketch for ending / dictated to Eric Fenby'.
• f. 33v. Two dictated sketches (ink and pencil) of 10 bars and 9 bars duration, followed by a blank folio.
• ff. 34 and 35 rectos are sketch material (ink and pencil) corresponding to pp. 8-10 of the published score - annotated by Fenby (1929) at the foot of each page as 'sketch for A Song of Summer'.
• ff. 34 and 35 versos are scored upside down, and comprise a full score sketch fragment (ink) of another work, Hassan [prelude to Act V]. With an identifying note by Fenby on f. 34v.
• ff. 36-42. The first fair copy of A Song of Summer (full score, blue ink), which differs from the published version and is incomplete. Headed (black ink): 'A Song of Summer / Copy of MSS. by Eric Fenby'.
• ff. 36-42 are paginated by Fenby as pp. 1-11.
• f. 41v comprises only a 2-bar pencil score relating to p. 13 of the published score.
• f. 42, the concluding page of the the work, is paginated p. 18. (Thus, the score lacks Fenby's pp. 12-17. For 'his' pp. 12-15, see the supplementary photostat material in Delius's hand referred to below and bound at the back of the present volume. Fenby's pp. 16-17 are one and the same as f. 22 above, in Delius's hand, from A Poem of Life and Love; the folio was repaginated by Fenby from Delius's original pp. 48-49 to become Fenby's pp. 16-17, and the folio shows its re-numbering in Fenby's blue ink. Although f. 22 was found with Fenby's manuscript, it was subsequently restored to its original position in Delius's score. For further details, see Lowe, Catalogue, pp. 97-9.)
• f. 42 is followed by 2 blank folios.

3. A Song of Summer: Supplementary Material (ff. 43-48)

Bound into the volume at the back are 6 leaves of photostat material copied from original material held at the Bodleian Library, comprising:

• ff. 43-44. Autograph letter (2 leaves, 26 May 1930) from Delius to Michael E Sadler, presenting: 'a double sheet of orchestral manuscript in my own handwriting. It is a sketch, at least, part of a sketch for my latest orchestral work "A Song of Summer". This work has only just been completed and is not yet published.'
• ff. 45-48. Autograph score (4 leaves). A fragment from A Song of Life and Love, originally numbered by Delius as pp. 44-47, but subsequently re-numbered by Fenby as pp. 12-15 of A Song of Summer.