In a Summer Garden

Composer: DELIUS, Frederick
  • Delius wrote his orchestral rhapsody In a Summer Garden in 1908. He dedicated the work to his wife, painter Jelka Rosen.
  • The published score for In a Summer Garden included the following couplet by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:
    • All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of love.
      To thee I gave while Spring and Summer sang.
  • The score also included the following passage by an unknown author:
    • Roses, lilies, and a thousand scented flowers. Bright butterflies, flitting from petal to petal. Beneath the shade of ancient trees, a quiet river with water lilies. In a boat, almost hidden, two people. A thrush is singing in the distance.1
  • By the time Delius wrote In a Summer Garden, the composer had reached the peak of lyricism and lush sweetness in his compositions.
  • Listen for: the pointillist texture of the orchestration (pointillism was still a popular visual art form for the time).2

Sources

  1. “In a Summer Garden (Delius, Frederick),” IMSLP, accessed June 1, 2026, https://imslp.org/wiki/In_a_Summer_Garden_(Delius%2C_Frederick).
  2. Lionel Carley, Robert Anderson, and Anthony Payne, “Delius, Frederick,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed June 1, 2026, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000049095.

Cut IDs

41033 41573 42061