Music for Symphony Orchestra

Program Note

Winter Night (originally titled Sleigh Ride) is one of a series of short orchestral tone poems by Frederick Delius, each intended to evoke the character of a different season. Of the projected four, three are extant: Spring Morning, Summer Evening, and this work, Winter Night. Two others from this set, Summer Evening and Spring Morning, still exist, while a fourth (presumably titled Autumn Afternoon) is known only through surviving documentation and is presumed lost.

Delius composed the original version of Winter Night as a piano piece while studying at the Leipzig Conservatory in the late 1880s. Even in this early stage of his career, his music shows the influence of the German Romantic tradition, hinting at the atmospheric, harmonically rich style that would become his hallmark. Later orchestrated, Winter Nightstands apart from his larger symphonic works for its intimacy and clarity, offering a more delicate kind of storytelling through sound. The score bears a programmatic note written by the composer (translated from the original German), giving insight into the scene he aimed to capture:

On Christmas eve, I stood outside in the open air, while the moon shone brightly over the rolling landscape. In the distance one could hear the sound of an approaching sleigh, but it soon passed by and disappeared, until gradually, the night was again still, bright, and peaceful.

Editor’s Note: This edition is a digital engraving of the work. Errata, where present in the original, have been corrected in this version. The original Clarinet in A part has been transposed into B-flat (though a Clarinet in A part is still provided). The original work also had two trumpet plus two cornet parts (both pitched in A). While many passages were simply doublings, some contained 4-part harmony. In many cases, these “extra” notes were already accounted for in other brass instruments, but in the few instances where this was not the case, the notes have been resolved into horn or trombone parts to account for the pitches within the harmony.