A web of influence and borrowing exerted itself in the friendships between Edvard Grieg, Frederick Delius, and Percy Grainger. Grieg's Norwegian folksong settings served as models for Grainger's own folksong arrangements, and specific musical quotations exist in Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, a meditation on Grieg's "I Ola Dalom." Delius quotes the melody from Grieg's setting, but was also influenced by his textures, harmonic structure, free variation, and development. It has also been noted that Delius's composition has a resemblance to Grieg's "The Students' Serenade" from Moods, Op. 73, No. 6. Furthermore, the interval of a descending minor third from leading tone to dominant is borrowed from Grieg. This melodic interval resembles a cuckoo call and was likely to have prompted Delius to use Grieg's setting as a model from which to draw.

Works: Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (13, 15-19).

Sources: Grieg: Norwegian Folk Songs, Op. 66: "Je gaar I tusind tanker" (12),"I Ola Dalom (12-18), Moods, Op. 73, No. 6, "The Student's Serenade" (17-18).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes, Tong Cheng Blackburn