The ''Florida Suite'' is an orchestral suite by English composer

Frederick Delius Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...

. He composed the work in 1887 at

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, after his time as manager of an orange grove in Florida, inspired by its landscape and culture, mainly centred on the

St. Johns River The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...

. During this time, Delius also studied music with an organist in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

. This suite is one of the composer's more popular works. The "Daybreak" movement includes a version of the tune "La Calinda", which Delius later used in his opera ''

Koanga ''Koanga'' is an opera written between 1896 and 1897, with music by Frederick Delius and a libretto by Charles Francis Keary, inspired partly by the book '' The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life'' by George Washington Cable (1880). Inspiratio ...

''.

Hans Sitt Hans Sitt (born Jan Hanuš Sitt on 21 September 1850, Prague – 10 March 1922, Leipzig), was a Bohemian violinist, violist, teacher, and composer. During his lifetime, he was regarded as one of the foremost teachers of violin. Most of the orchest ...

led the first performance of the work in 1888 in

. Sir

Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...

was a noted champion and had a copyist's score, which he used for himself, made from the composer's original manuscript. The suite was first published in 1963. A corrected edition of the score was published in 1986. It is an example of the type of

programme music Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program notes ...

for which Delius was both lauded and disparaged.A Village Romeo and Juliet (theatre programme). Opera North. 6 June 1984.

Movements

The suite consists of four movements: #Daybreak — Dance #By the River #Sunset — Near the Plantation #At Night

References

Compositions by Frederick Delius Orchestral suites 1887 compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra {{classical-composition-stub