On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
This guide follows Delius’s On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912) in one part.
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Follow all 3 sections as they play
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 .
- A
- 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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