title: Frederick Delius: controversies regarding his neurological disorder and its impact on his compositional output.
abstract: Frederick Delius was born in Yorkshire, England, on June 29, 1862, the son of German immigrants. He showed early musical talent but his father, a wealthy wool merchant, insisted he pursue a business career. After several failures, including an assignment managing an orange grove near Jacksonville, Florida, his father agreed to support his musical studies in Leipzig, assuming he would then become self-sufficient. Delius spent most of his adult life in France, living with and ultimately marrying Jelka Rosen, a painter of independent means, composing prolifically, and being sexually promiscuous both before and after starting life with Jelka. He contracted syphilis in 1895 and manifestations of neurosyphilis appeared in 1910. Despite periods of relative good health over the ensuing 10 years, he became progressively disabled from 1920 on, ultimately quadriparetic and blind but with preserved cognition and musical inspiration. In his final years, he completed several compositions aided by a young British musician, Eric Fenby, who served as his amanuensis and caregiver, along with Jelka, to his death on June 10, 1934.
authors: Department of Neurology, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. Electronic address: ledermr@ccf.org.
authors: Richard J
authors: RJ
authors: Lederman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003405:Creativity; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000266:history; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000266:history* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009494:Neurosyphilis / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology
keywords: British composers; Frederick Delius; neurological disorders; neurosyphilis; sexually transmitted disease; tabes dorsalis