Despite his artistic promise and interests (by the age of fourteen, for instance, he was accompanying the famous German Expressionist dancer/choreographer, Gertrud Leistikow, and he also moved in the circle of one of Holland's foremost composers of the time, Sem Dresden)[citation needed] he enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in 1938 to study medicine and remained self-taught in music.
[citation needed] In 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands and in 1942, being a Jew, he was forced to interrupt his studies[2] —irrevocably, as it turned out, because his hopes of becoming a neurosurgeon were dashed during World War II due to an exploding carbide lamp, which virtually blinded him in his left eye while in hiding.
[3] Van Delden soon joined the underground students' resistance movement and after the war was commended for his bravery by both the President of the United States of America and the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces.
[1] The first of his works to attract wide attention was Rubáiyát (nine quatrains by Omar Khayyám in Edward FitzGerald's English translation, 1948; for chorus with soprano and tenor solos, 2 pianos and percussion), awarded the prestigious Music Prize of the City of Amsterdam in 1948.
A few of his works have biblical themes, notably Judith (1950; a dance score for flute, clarinet, piano and string trio) and Adonijah's Death (1986; for male chorus and symphonic wind band).