Frederick Delius

About

Frederick Delius (1862-1934) was a composer of music from Northern England who is perhaps best known for his lush, exotic compositional style, influenced by his extensive travels abroad. The composer's works were primarily championed by famed British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, which contributed greatly to Delius' esteem amongst the British public as one of the country's greatest living composers. Much of his work is influenced by the chromatic harmonies of Richard Wagner and the various national folk musics of Europe and the United States. As a matter of fact, Delius had lived in Florida for a period of time in the late 19th Century, and his music is influenced greatly by his impressions of the region. Although Delius stands on par with some of the greatest composers of the Late Romantic era of classical music, his music would never reach the popularity of his contemporaries in other nations, such as Edvard Grieg (one of his primary influences) in Norway and Piotr Tchaikovsky in Russia.