His haunting, richly harmonious works include the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet 1901; the choral pieces Appalachia 1903, Sea Drift 1904, A Mass of Life 1905; orchestral works such as In a Summer Garden 1908 and A Song of the High Hills 1911; chamber music; and songs. Born in Bradford, he tried orange-growing in Florida, before studying music in Leipzig 1888, where he met the Norwegian composer Grieg. From 1890 Delius lived mainly in France and in 1903 married the artist Jelka Rosen. Although blind and paralysed for the last ten years of his life, he continued to compose.
