From the very outset of his career, undeterred by an incomprehension that might have crushed the spirit of even the most indomitable fanatic, Delius was convinced not only of his sacred vocation as a musician but of the supreme dignity of what Bizet termed ‘this celestial art’. For on one occasion he wrote: ‘Music is a cry from the soul! It is a revelation, a thing to be reverenced’. Perhaps no modern composer reveals so lofty and disinterested a conception of his art.