English composer, born in Bradford, Yorkshire, of German parents. His parents intended him for a commercial career, but unwilling to follow their desires, Delius went to the U.S., where he was an orange grower in Florida from 1884 to 1886. He studied music with Thomas F. Ward (1856?-1912), an organist, in Jacksonville. Returning to Europe, he later studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1888 Edvard Grieg, the Norwegian composer, persuaded Delius's father to permit Frederick to follow a musical career, and two years later he settled in Paris. Delius's music was appreciated first in Germany. Later, through the efforts of Sir Thomas Beecham, the English conductor, his music became known in Great Britain and in the U.S. Delius suffered paralysis and blindness in 1926 and thereafter composed by dictating.

The music of Delius is characterized by poetic atmosphere and subtle evocation of moods and by lyric and rich harmonic qualities rather than by contrapuntal or rhythmic values. Among his works are the operas A Village Romeo and Juliet (1900-1) and Fennimore and Gerda (1910); the works for orchestra Brigg Fair (1907) and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912); the Concerto for Violin (1916); and chamber music and songs.