Songs of Sunset
choral and orchestral work by Frederick Delius
Songs of Sunset is a work by Frederick Delius, written in 1906–07, and scored for mezzo-soprano and baritone soli, SATB chorus and large orchestra. The words are by Ernest Dowson.
It was published in 1911, and a German translation was made by Delius's wife Jelka Rosen, as Sonnenuntergangs-Lieder.
The work was first performed at the Queen's Hall in London on 16 June 1911 at an all-Delius concert in the presence of the composer, conducted by his great champion Thomas Beecham. The soloists were Julia Culp and Thorpe Bates, with the Edward Mason Choir and Beecham Symphony Orchestra. Other works performed that night were Paris: The Song of a Great City, the Dance Rhapsody, and Appalachia.
The occasion was also the first meeting of Delius with Philip Heseltine, then a 16-year-old Eton schoolboy, who had seen a copy of the score and wanted nothing more than to hear it. The school's permission had to be obtained for him to attend the concert. That meeting led to a lifelong friendship between the two, even though Delius was almost 33 years older than Heseltine.
Songs of Sunset was dedicated to the Elberfeld Choral Society, whose chief conductor Hans Haym was one of Delius's greatest supporters in Germany.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7561574. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906 and 1911.
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This entry incorporates text from “Songs of Sunset” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.