MS Mus. 1745/3/8/4

Full score (black ink) in the hand of Eric Fenby, within Boosey & Hawkes buff paper covers.

• Main score: 32-stave 444 x 310 mm.
• Prelude: 18-stave 350 x 270 mm.
• f. 1. Title-page (verso blank), followed by Prelude (ff. 2-7), then main score (ff. 8-26) with a blank page following.
• The score was used as the publisher's Stichvorlage.
• Marked by Beecham throughout in blue pencil (confirmed by Fenby's note on p. 9).
• f. 3r. The first page of the Prelude bears the date '1901', reflecting its origin as the Prelude to Margot la Rouge rather than the date of the manuscript.
• f. 7. A note by Fenby (dated 'Dec. 1967'): Delius decided to open the Idyll with the original prelude to the opera, Margot-la-Rouge, from which the music is derived. This was an after-thought; hence the bars which he asked me to delete on page 10, which were part of the earlier orchestral lead-in to the voices, now, of course, rejected.' Fenby then confirms that the blue pencil markings are by Beecham.
• A photocopy of this full score exhibiting passages occluded in the copying (i.e. 'deleted' by Beecham for performance purposes) can be found in MS Mus. 1745/1/33 (ff. 44-63).