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On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

19128 min

This guide follows Delius’s On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912) in one part.

Recording: Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko (2024)

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With easy flowing 0:34–8:27

After three slow in C major, the A section sets off "with easy flowing " in a gently rocking 6/4: soft chords shift beneath the cuckoo's falling call, which passes between the oboe and the divided strings. The B section brings the Norwegian folk song "In Ola Valley" in the first violins, interwoven with a second melody. In A′ the clarinet takes up the cuckoo calls again, the thins, and the piece fades to a quiet, very slow .

  1. A
  2. B

Section boundaries in music are not always sharp; a transition may be felt over a pause or a held chord.

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In listening paths

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Path 03

Calm classical music

Twelve slow, quiet pieces, from Chopin's lullaby to Pärt's Fratres.

Chopin → Liszt → Wagner → Debussy → Massenet → Fauré → Grainger → Delius → Vaughan Williams → Rachmaninoff → Pärt

12 works · 1 h 25 min

In the catalog

Frederick DeliusOrchestral worksLate Romantic period

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