View source for Cynara (Delius)

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'''''Cynara''''' is a setting by [[Frederick Delius]] of a poem by [[Ernest Dowson]], for solo [[baritone]] voice and orchestra.
Delius worked on the piece in 1907 as part of his score for ''[[Songs of Sunset]]'', but abandoned this setting as he felt it did not fit with the other poems by Dowson.  He left it incomplete. The sketches were rediscovered in 1929 by Delius's assistant, [[Eric Fenby]]<ref>{{cite book|last= Fenby|first= Eric|title= Delius as I Knew Him|publisher= Faber and Faber|year= 1981|location= London|isbn= 0-571-11836-4|pages= 68–70}}</ref> (the composer [[Peter Warlock|Philip Heseltine]], otherwise Peter Warlock, also claimed credit for the discovery).<ref>{{cite book|author-link= Barry Smith (organist)|last= Smith|first= Barry|title= Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|year= 1994|isbn= 0-19-816310-X|pages= [https://archive.org/details/peterwarlocklife00smit_0/page/262 262]|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/peterwarlocklife00smit_0/page/262}}</ref> Delius dictated to Fenby a setting of the final four lines, and the completed score was sent to Heseltine who was assisting Sir [[Thomas Beecham]] in the organisation of a Delius Festival to be held in London during October 1929.
''Cynara'' was premiered at the [[Queen's Hall]] on 18 October 1929; John Goss was the soloist, with the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra|BBC Orchestra]] conducted by Beecham.<ref>{{cite book|last= Beecham|first= Thomas|title= Frederick Delius|publisher= Severn House|location= Sutton, Surrey|year= 1975|isbn= 0-7278-0099-X|pages= 203}}</ref>
There are several available recordings of the work.<ref>{{cite web|title= Delius: Cynara|url= http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/139436/Frederick-Delius-Cynara|publisher= Presto Classical|accessdate= 10 October 2012}}</ref>
==References==
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==External links==
* {{IMSLP2|work=http://imslp.org/wiki/Cynara_(Delius,_Frederick)|cname=Cynara}}
{{Frederick Delius}}
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[[Category:1929 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions by Frederick Delius]]
[[Category:Orchestral songs]]
[[Category:Musical settings of poems by Ernest Dowson]]