George Butterworth
Encyclopedia
George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC
(12 July 18855 August 1916) was an English
composer
best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow
and his song settings of A. E. Housman
's poems
.
, London, his family moved to Yorkshire
not so long after his birth, so that his father Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth could take up an appointment as general manager of the North-East Railway Company, based at York. George received his first music
lessons from his mother, who was a singer, and he began composing at an early age. As a young boy, he played the organ for services in the chapel of his prep school, Aysgarth School
, before gaining a scholarship to Eton College
. He showed early musical promise at Eton, a 'Barcarolle" for orchestra being played during his time there (it is long since lost). He then went to Trinity College, Oxford
, where he became more focused on music, becoming President of the university musical society, and making friends with folk song collector Cecil Sharp
, the composer and folk song enthusiast Ralph Vaughan Williams
, the future Director of the Royal College of Music
, Hugh Allen
and a baritone singer and future conductor, Adrian Boult
. Butterworth and Vaughan Williams made several trips into the English countryside to collect folk songs (Butterworth collected over 450 himself, many in Sussex in 1907, and sometimes using a phonograph) and the compositions of both were strongly influenced by what they collected. Butterworth was also an expert folk dance
r, being particularly keen in the art of morris dancing
. In fact, he was employed for a while by the English Folk Dance and Song Society
(of which he was a founder member in 1906) as a professional morris dancer, a member of the Demonstration Team.
Upon leaving Oxford, Butterworth began a career in music, writing criticism for The Times
, composing, and teaching at Radley College
, Oxfordshire
. He also briefly studied piano and organ at the Royal College of Music
where he worked with Hubert Parry
among others, though he stayed less than a year as the academic life was not for him.
Vaughan Williams and Butterworth became close friends. It was Butterworth who suggested to Vaughan Williams that he turn a symphonic poem
he was working on into his London Symphony
. Vaughan Williams recalled:
When the manuscript for that piece was lost (having been sent to Germany, either to the conductor Fritz Busch
or for engraving, just before the outbreak of war), Butterworth, together with Geoffrey Toye
and the critic Edward J. Dent
, helped Vaughan Williams reconstruct the work. Vaughan Williams dedicated the piece to Butterworth's memory after his death.
, Butterworth (together with several friends including Geoffrey Toye and R. O. Morris
) joined the British Army
as a Private in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
, but he soon accepted a commission as a Subaltern (2nd Lieutenant) in the 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry
, and he was later temporarily promoted to Lieutenant (1st Lieutenant). He was known as G. S. Kaye-Butterworth in the army. Butterworth's letters are full of admiration for the ordinary miners of County Durham who served in his platoon. As part of 23rd Division, the 13th DLI was sent into action to capture the western approaches of the village of Contalmaison
on The Somme
. Butterworth and his men succeeded in capturing a series of trenches near Pozières
on 16–17 July 1916, the traces of which can still be found within a small wood, although Butterworth was slightly wounded in the action. For it Temporary Lt George Butterworth, aged 31, was awarded the Military Cross
, although he never lived to receive it.
The Battle of the Somme was now entering its most intense phase. On 4 August, 23 Division was ordered to attack a communication trench known as Munster Alley that was now in German hands. The soldiers dug an assault trench and named it 'Butterworth Trench' in their officer's honour. In desperate fighting during the night of 4–5 August, Butterworth and his miners captured and held on to Munster Alley, albeit with heavy losses and despite 'friendly fire' from Australian artillery. At 0445 on 5 August, amid the frantic German attempts to recapture the position, Butterworth was shot through the head by a sniper
. He was hastily buried by his men in the side of the trench, but his body was lost in the fierce bombardments of the next two years. The following morning the same trench was the site of Pt. William Short's (Yorkshire Regiment) act of gallantry which was to win him a posthumous Victoria Cross
.
When Brigadier Page-Croft wrote to Butterworth's family to inform them of his death, it transpired that they had not known that he had earlier been awarded the Military Cross. And likewise, the Brigadier was astonished to learn that Butterworth had been the most promising young English composer of his generation. The Brigadier wrote that Butterworth was: A brilliant musician in times of war and an equally brilliant soldier in times of stress. There is confusion sometimes about exactly what Butterworth was awarded. It is often said that he won the MC twice. That is not correct, but the misunderstanding may have arisen because Butterworth was notable for his bravery in July 1916. Firstly, he was mentioned in despatches early in the month, then he was recommended for the MC "for conspicuous gallantry in action" on 9 July at Bailiff Wood, then again "for commanding his company with great ability and coolness" when wounded on 16–17 July (this was the action for which he was awarded the MC), and Brigadier Page-Croft wrote to Sir Alexander after Butterworth's death that he had 'won' the medal again on the night he died, but since the Military Cross was not awarded posthumously at the time, he could never have been awarded it.
Butterworth's body was never recovered (although his unidentified remains may well lie at nearby Pozieres Memorial
, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission
cemetery), and his name appears on the Thiepval Memorial. George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow has become synonymous for some with the sacrifice of his generation and has been seen by some as an anthem for all 'Unknown Soldiers'. Sir Alexander Butterworth erected a plaque at St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst
, Gloucestershire in memory of his son and of his nephew, Hugh, who died at Loos
in 1915. (Rev. George Butterworth, the composer's grandfather, had been vicar of St Mary's in the previous century.) Sir Alexander also arranged the printing in 1918 of a memorial volume in his son's memory. Almost all Butterworth's manuscripts were left to Vaughan Williams, after whose death Ursula Vaughan Williams lodged the original works in the Bodleian, Oxford, and the folk song collection with the EFDSS.
's collection of poems A Shropshire Lad
are among the best known. Many English composers of Butterworth's time set Housman's poetry, including Ralph Vaughan Williams
.
In 1911 and 1912, Butterworth wrote eleven settings of Housman's poems from "A Shropshire Lad". The poems are:
He used no known folk tunes in the songs, although one ("When I was one and twenty") was said to be based on a folk tune that has defied identification. The songs were were dedicated to Victor Annesley Barrington-Kennett, a friend from Eton and Oxford, who was also to die in France in 1916. They were eventually published in two sets, "Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'" (1-6 above) and "Bredon Hill and Other Songs" (7-11), although the composer never settled on a preferred order. Nine of the songs were first performed at a meeting of the Oxford University Musical Club, organised by Boult. The singer was J. Campbell McInnes, with the composer at the piano. Shortly thereafter Boult sang several of the songs at a private function. At this stage, Butterworth still had not completed "On the idle hill of summer" and did not do so until he was living at Cheyne Gardens in London. It is unusual for the songs to be given publicly in full, although each of the published sets is often performed separately and recorded regularly - in fact, they can be said to be among the most frequently performed English art songs . "Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad" is the more popular set, with "Is My Team Ploughing?" being the most famous song. Another, "Loveliest of Trees", is the basis for his 1912 orchestra
l rhapsody, also called A Shropshire Lad, which quotes two songs from the whole - "Loveliest of Trees" and "With Rue My Heart is Laden"'.
The parallel is regularly made between the often gloomy and death-obsessed subject matter of A Shropshire Lad, written in the shadow of the Second Boer War
, and Butterworth's subsequent death during the Great War. In particular, the song "The lads in their hundreds" tells of young men who leave their homeland to 'die in their glory and never be old'.
"Love Blows as the Wind Blows" is a setting of poems by W. E. Henley. It exists in three forms: for voice and string quartet, voice and piano and voice and small orchestra. The orchestral version differs from the others quite markedly, not least in having only three songs: "In the year that's come and gone", Life in her creaking shoes", and "On the way to Kew" (the other versions include "Fill a glass with golden wine"). The orchestral version was in fact the last music Butterworth worked on before leaving for France, and shows the composer's familiarity with Vaughan Williams's style, as well as with the music of Wagner, Elgar and Debussy .
The "Rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad" - a sort of postlude to the songs - employs a very large orchestra, and was first performed on 2 October 1913 at the Leeds Festival, conducted by Arthur Nikisch
. It was influential upon Vaughan Williams (A Pastoral Symphony), Gerald Finzi (A Severn Rhapsody) and Ernest Moeran (First Rhapsody). Butterworth's other orchestral works are short and based on folksongs he had collected in Sussex in 1907, Two English Idylls (1911) and The Banks of Green Willow (1913). They are often performed and recorded, "Banks" particularly so. The latter work was premiered by the 24-year-old Adrian Boult
on 27 February 1914, at West Kirby, Liverpool (this was in fact Boult's very first professional concert).
It is thought by many that Butterworth showed real talent that might have flourished but for his early death. The "Two English Idylls" and "Banks" show an ability to handle folksong in a way that eluded many other composers - as the true building blocks of larger forms. His original music (especially the "Rhapsody: A Shropshire Lad" and the orchestral song cycle "Love Blows As The Wind Blows", which was his very last work) have a delicacy that brings to mind Claude Debussy
or Jacques Ibert
. However, there is reasonable evidence that he had put composition behind him by the time he went to France and it is by no means certain that he would have resumed it had he returned. It is certainly likely that he would have faced considerable pressure from friends to compose again, since his orchestral works (particularly the "Rhapsody: A Shropshire Lad") had made a great impression, but he was a single-minded man who was unlikely to bow easily to such pressure. He remains perhaps the most obvious case of "what if...?" that is left to us from the battlefields of northern France, and he joins the Frenchman Albéric Magnard
, the Spaniard Enrique Granados
, and the German Rudi Stephan
as possibly the greatest loss to music from World War 1.
Two English Idylls
A Shropshire Lad: Rhapsody
The Banks of Green Willow
Songs (complete):
(All Butterworth’s songs, including the voice/piano version of Love Blows. It also includes a short silent film of Butterworth morris dancing.)
All eleven Shropshire Lad songs
Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad
I will Make You Brooches
I Fear Thy Kisses
Requiescat
Love Blows as the Wind Blows
(Voice and piano)
(Voice and string quartet)
(Voice and orchestra)
Folk Songs from Sussex
Folk songs collected by Butterworth
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(12 July 18855 August 1916) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow
The Banks of Green Willow
The Banks of Green Willow is a short orchestral piece by George Butterworth. It was composed in 1913, is written in the key of A major, and is around six minutes long. -Composition:...
and his song settings of A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...
's poems
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
.
Early years
Although George Butterworth was born in BayswaterBayswater
Bayswater is an area of west London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the west . It is a built-up district located 3 miles west-north-west of Charing Cross, bordering the north of Hyde Park over Kensington Gardens and having a population density of...
, London, his family moved to Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
not so long after his birth, so that his father Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth could take up an appointment as general manager of the North-East Railway Company, based at York. George received his first music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
lessons from his mother, who was a singer, and he began composing at an early age. As a young boy, he played the organ for services in the chapel of his prep school, Aysgarth School
Aysgarth School
Aysgarth School is one of the leading boys' prep boarding schools in the UK. Aysgarth School is set in the foothills of the Yorkshire Dales near Bedale, North Yorkshire and is the only all-boys boarding and day prep school in the north of England. This independent school was founded in 1877 to...
, before gaining a scholarship to Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
. He showed early musical promise at Eton, a 'Barcarolle" for orchestra being played during his time there (it is long since lost). He then went to Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
, where he became more focused on music, becoming President of the university musical society, and making friends with folk song collector Cecil Sharp
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born in Camberwell, London, the eldest son of...
, the composer and folk song enthusiast Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, the future Director of the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
, Hugh Allen
Hugh Allen
Hugh Allen is the name of several prominent people.*Hugh Allen Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1926 to 1935.*Hugh Allen English musician*Hugh Allen Meade former US Congressman....
and a baritone singer and future conductor, Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
. Butterworth and Vaughan Williams made several trips into the English countryside to collect folk songs (Butterworth collected over 450 himself, many in Sussex in 1907, and sometimes using a phonograph) and the compositions of both were strongly influenced by what they collected. Butterworth was also an expert folk dance
Folk dance
The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
r, being particularly keen in the art of morris dancing
Morris dance
Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, handkerchiefs and bells may also be wielded by the dancers...
. In fact, he was employed for a while by the English Folk Dance and Song Society
English Folk Dance and Song Society
The English Folk Dance and Song Society was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society. The EFDSS, a member-based organisation, was incorporated as a Company limited by guarantee in 1935 and became a Registered Charity The English Folk...
(of which he was a founder member in 1906) as a professional morris dancer, a member of the Demonstration Team.
Upon leaving Oxford, Butterworth began a career in music, writing criticism for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, composing, and teaching at Radley College
Radley College
Radley College , founded in 1847, is a British independent school for boys on the edge of the English village of Radley, near to the market town of Abingdon in Oxfordshire, and has become a well-established boarding school...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. He also briefly studied piano and organ at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
where he worked with Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
among others, though he stayed less than a year as the academic life was not for him.
Vaughan Williams and Butterworth became close friends. It was Butterworth who suggested to Vaughan Williams that he turn a symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
he was working on into his London Symphony
A London Symphony
A London Symphony is the second symphony composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work is sometimes referred to as the Symphony No. 2, though it was not designated as such by the composer...
. Vaughan Williams recalled:
We were talking together one day when he said in his gruff, abrupt manner: ‘You know, you ought to write a symphony’. I answered…that I’d never written a symphony and never intended to…I suppose Butterworth’s words stung me and, anyhow, I looked out some sketches I had made for…a symphonic poem about London and decided to throw it into symphonic form...From that moment, the idea of a symphony dominated my mind. I showed the sketches to George bit by bit as they were finished, and it was then that I realised that he possessed in common with very few composers a wonderful power of criticism of other men’s work and insight into their ideas and motives. I can never feel too grateful to him for all he did for me over this work and his help did not stop short at criticism.
When the manuscript for that piece was lost (having been sent to Germany, either to the conductor Fritz Busch
Fritz Busch
Fritz Busch was a German conductor.Busch was born in Siegen, Province of Westphalia. He held posts conducting opera at Aachen, Stuttgart and Dresden. In 1933 he was dismissed from his post at Dresden because of his opposition to the new Nazi government of Germany...
or for engraving, just before the outbreak of war), Butterworth, together with Geoffrey Toye
Geoffrey Toye
Edward Geoffrey Toye , better known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer....
and the critic Edward J. Dent
Edward Joseph Dent
Edward Joseph Dent, generally known by his initials as E. J. Dent was a British writer on music....
, helped Vaughan Williams reconstruct the work. Vaughan Williams dedicated the piece to Butterworth's memory after his death.
First World War
At the outbreak of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Butterworth (together with several friends including Geoffrey Toye and R. O. Morris
R. O. Morris
Reginald Owen Morris , almost universally cited in sources and referred to even by his friends by his initials, as 'R.O. Morris', was a British composer whose compositions have been overshadowed by his formidable reputation as a teacher.He was born in York...
) joined the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
as a Private in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1959. Its lineage is continued today by The Rifles....
, but he soon accepted a commission as a Subaltern (2nd Lieutenant) in the 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry
Durham Light Infantry
The Durham Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1968. It was formed by the amalgamation of the 68th Regiment of Foot and the 106th Regiment of Foot along with the militia and rifle volunteers of County Durham...
, and he was later temporarily promoted to Lieutenant (1st Lieutenant). He was known as G. S. Kaye-Butterworth in the army. Butterworth's letters are full of admiration for the ordinary miners of County Durham who served in his platoon. As part of 23rd Division, the 13th DLI was sent into action to capture the western approaches of the village of Contalmaison
Contalmaison
Contalmaison is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Contalmaison is situated on the D147 and D20 crossroads, some northeast of Amiens.-History:...
on The Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....
. Butterworth and his men succeeded in capturing a series of trenches near Pozières
Pozières
Pozières is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The commune is situated on the D929 road, some northeast of Amiens between Albert and Bapaume, on the Pozières ridge.-Population:-History:...
on 16–17 July 1916, the traces of which can still be found within a small wood, although Butterworth was slightly wounded in the action. For it Temporary Lt George Butterworth, aged 31, was awarded the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, although he never lived to receive it.
The Battle of the Somme was now entering its most intense phase. On 4 August, 23 Division was ordered to attack a communication trench known as Munster Alley that was now in German hands. The soldiers dug an assault trench and named it 'Butterworth Trench' in their officer's honour. In desperate fighting during the night of 4–5 August, Butterworth and his miners captured and held on to Munster Alley, albeit with heavy losses and despite 'friendly fire' from Australian artillery. At 0445 on 5 August, amid the frantic German attempts to recapture the position, Butterworth was shot through the head by a sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
. He was hastily buried by his men in the side of the trench, but his body was lost in the fierce bombardments of the next two years. The following morning the same trench was the site of Pt. William Short's (Yorkshire Regiment) act of gallantry which was to win him a posthumous Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
.
When Brigadier Page-Croft wrote to Butterworth's family to inform them of his death, it transpired that they had not known that he had earlier been awarded the Military Cross. And likewise, the Brigadier was astonished to learn that Butterworth had been the most promising young English composer of his generation. The Brigadier wrote that Butterworth was: A brilliant musician in times of war and an equally brilliant soldier in times of stress. There is confusion sometimes about exactly what Butterworth was awarded. It is often said that he won the MC twice. That is not correct, but the misunderstanding may have arisen because Butterworth was notable for his bravery in July 1916. Firstly, he was mentioned in despatches early in the month, then he was recommended for the MC "for conspicuous gallantry in action" on 9 July at Bailiff Wood, then again "for commanding his company with great ability and coolness" when wounded on 16–17 July (this was the action for which he was awarded the MC), and Brigadier Page-Croft wrote to Sir Alexander after Butterworth's death that he had 'won' the medal again on the night he died, but since the Military Cross was not awarded posthumously at the time, he could never have been awarded it.
Butterworth's body was never recovered (although his unidentified remains may well lie at nearby Pozieres Memorial
Pozieres Memorial
The Pozieres Memorial is a World War I memorial, located near the commune of Pozieres, in the Somme département of France. The memorial lists 14,692 names of British and South African soldiers with no known grave who were killed between 21 March 1918 and 8 August 1918 during the Second Battle of...
, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
cemetery), and his name appears on the Thiepval Memorial. George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow has become synonymous for some with the sacrifice of his generation and has been seen by some as an anthem for all 'Unknown Soldiers'. Sir Alexander Butterworth erected a plaque at St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst
St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst
St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst, near Gloucester, England, is unusual in that it contains many elaborate Anglo-Saxon details, including carvings and sculpture. At the beginning of the 9th century land was granted to Deerhurst, and it is generally accepted that significant work was carried out...
, Gloucestershire in memory of his son and of his nephew, Hugh, who died at Loos
Loos
Loos may refer to:Places* Loos, Nord, France* Loos-en-Gohelle, France* Loos Islands, also known as Îles de Los, Guinea* Loos, British Columbia, Canada* Los, SwedenPeople*Loos Other...
in 1915. (Rev. George Butterworth, the composer's grandfather, had been vicar of St Mary's in the previous century.) Sir Alexander also arranged the printing in 1918 of a memorial volume in his son's memory. Almost all Butterworth's manuscripts were left to Vaughan Williams, after whose death Ursula Vaughan Williams lodged the original works in the Bodleian, Oxford, and the folk song collection with the EFDSS.
A Shropshire Lad, and other compositions
Butterworth did not write a great deal of music, and before and during the war he destroyed many works he did not care for, lest he should not return and have the chance to revise them. Of those that survive, his works based on A. E. HousmanA. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...
's collection of poems A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad is a cycle of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman . Some of the better-known poems in the book are "To an Athlete Dying Young", "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now" and "When I Was One-and-Twenty".The collection was published in 1896...
are among the best known. Many English composers of Butterworth's time set Housman's poetry, including Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
.
In 1911 and 1912, Butterworth wrote eleven settings of Housman's poems from "A Shropshire Lad". The poems are:
- Loveliest of trees
- When I was one and twenty
- Look not in my eyes
- Think no more, lad
- The lads in their hundreds
- Is my team ploughing?
- Bredon Hill
- Oh fair enough are sky and plain
- When the lad for longing sighs
- On the idle hill of summer
- With rue my heart is laden
He used no known folk tunes in the songs, although one ("When I was one and twenty") was said to be based on a folk tune that has defied identification. The songs were were dedicated to Victor Annesley Barrington-Kennett, a friend from Eton and Oxford, who was also to die in France in 1916. They were eventually published in two sets, "Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'" (1-6 above) and "Bredon Hill and Other Songs" (7-11), although the composer never settled on a preferred order. Nine of the songs were first performed at a meeting of the Oxford University Musical Club, organised by Boult. The singer was J. Campbell McInnes, with the composer at the piano. Shortly thereafter Boult sang several of the songs at a private function. At this stage, Butterworth still had not completed "On the idle hill of summer" and did not do so until he was living at Cheyne Gardens in London. It is unusual for the songs to be given publicly in full, although each of the published sets is often performed separately and recorded regularly - in fact, they can be said to be among the most frequently performed English art songs . "Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad" is the more popular set, with "Is My Team Ploughing?" being the most famous song. Another, "Loveliest of Trees", is the basis for his 1912 orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l rhapsody, also called A Shropshire Lad, which quotes two songs from the whole - "Loveliest of Trees" and "With Rue My Heart is Laden"'.
The parallel is regularly made between the often gloomy and death-obsessed subject matter of A Shropshire Lad, written in the shadow of the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, and Butterworth's subsequent death during the Great War. In particular, the song "The lads in their hundreds" tells of young men who leave their homeland to 'die in their glory and never be old'.
"Love Blows as the Wind Blows" is a setting of poems by W. E. Henley. It exists in three forms: for voice and string quartet, voice and piano and voice and small orchestra. The orchestral version differs from the others quite markedly, not least in having only three songs: "In the year that's come and gone", Life in her creaking shoes", and "On the way to Kew" (the other versions include "Fill a glass with golden wine"). The orchestral version was in fact the last music Butterworth worked on before leaving for France, and shows the composer's familiarity with Vaughan Williams's style, as well as with the music of Wagner, Elgar and Debussy .
The "Rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad" - a sort of postlude to the songs - employs a very large orchestra, and was first performed on 2 October 1913 at the Leeds Festival, conducted by Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch ; 12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London and - most importantly - Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt...
. It was influential upon Vaughan Williams (A Pastoral Symphony), Gerald Finzi (A Severn Rhapsody) and Ernest Moeran (First Rhapsody). Butterworth's other orchestral works are short and based on folksongs he had collected in Sussex in 1907, Two English Idylls (1911) and The Banks of Green Willow (1913). They are often performed and recorded, "Banks" particularly so. The latter work was premiered by the 24-year-old Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
on 27 February 1914, at West Kirby, Liverpool (this was in fact Boult's very first professional concert).
It is thought by many that Butterworth showed real talent that might have flourished but for his early death. The "Two English Idylls" and "Banks" show an ability to handle folksong in a way that eluded many other composers - as the true building blocks of larger forms. His original music (especially the "Rhapsody: A Shropshire Lad" and the orchestral song cycle "Love Blows As The Wind Blows", which was his very last work) have a delicacy that brings to mind Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
or Jacques Ibert
Jacques Ibert
Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...
. However, there is reasonable evidence that he had put composition behind him by the time he went to France and it is by no means certain that he would have resumed it had he returned. It is certainly likely that he would have faced considerable pressure from friends to compose again, since his orchestral works (particularly the "Rhapsody: A Shropshire Lad") had made a great impression, but he was a single-minded man who was unlikely to bow easily to such pressure. He remains perhaps the most obvious case of "what if...?" that is left to us from the battlefields of northern France, and he joins the Frenchman Albéric Magnard
Albéric Magnard
Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, sometimes referred to as the "French Bruckner", though there are significant differences between the two composers...
, the Spaniard Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
, and the German Rudi Stephan
Rudi Stephan
Rudi Stephan , was a German composer of great promise who shortly before the First World War was considered one of the leading talents among his generation....
as possibly the greatest loss to music from World War 1.
List of compositions
Butterworth's complete extant works are:- Two English Idylls for orchestra (1910–1911)
- Two English Idylls (arranged for piano duet by John Mitchell)
- A Shropshire Lad, Rhapsody for orchestra (1911)
- A Shropshire Lad, Rhapsody (arranged for piano solo by John Mitchell)
- The Banks of Green WillowThe Banks of Green WillowThe Banks of Green Willow is a short orchestral piece by George Butterworth. It was composed in 1913, is written in the key of A major, and is around six minutes long. -Composition:...
for orchestra (1913) - Love Blows As The Wind Blows, song cycle for voice and piano, voice and string quartet (both 1911-1912) or voice and small orchestra (1914) [words W. E. Henley]
- Suite for String Quartet (1910)
- Eleven Songs from A Shropshire Lad (i.e., Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, and Bredon Hill and Other Songs) ([words A. E. HousmanA. E. HousmanAlfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...
] 1910-1911) - Eleven Songs from A Shropshire Lad (with accompaniment for small orchestra arranged by Phillip Brookes)
- Folk Songs From Sussex (1912)
- Haste On, My Joys!, song (date unknown, probably pre-1906) [words Robert BridgesRobert BridgesRobert Seymour Bridges, OM, was a British poet, and poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.-Personal and professional life:...
] - I Will Make You Brooches (date unknown) [words Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
] - I Fear Thy Kisses (1909) [words Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
] - Requiescat, song (1911) [words Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
] - In The Highlands, for female voices and piano (poss. 1912) [words R. L. Stevenson]
- On Christmas Night, for male chorus (poss. 1912) [folksong]
- We Get Up In The Morn, for male chorus (poss. 1912) [folksong]
- Morris Dance Tunes, books 8 & 9 (with Cecil Sharp)
Recordings
All three orchestral works- Boult/LPO (rec. 1973); Lyrita SRCD 245
- Llewellyn/RLPO (rec. 1991); Decca 436 401-2
- Boughton/English String Orch; Nimrod NI 5068
- Marriner/ASMF (rec. 1975); Decca 468 802-2
- Elder/Hallé Orchestra (rec. 2002); Hallé CD HLL 7503
Two English Idylls
- Boult/British Symphony Orch. (No. 1 only) (rec. 1922); HMV Cc1129
- Dilkes/English Sinfonia (rec. 1971); HMV ESD 7101
- Tate/English Chamber Orchestra (rec. 1987); EMI CDC7 47945-2
- Horvay/Prague Radio SO (no. 2 only); Artist’s Rifles CD41
- Kleiber/Chicago SO (no. 1 only) (rec. 1983)
- Wilson/Royal Liverpool PO (rec. 2011) Avie
A Shropshire Lad: Rhapsody
- Boult/British Symphony Orch. (rec. 1920); HMV 4618AF
- Boult/Hallé Orchestra (rec. 1942); VAI Audio VAIA 1067-2
- Stokowski/NBC SO (rec. 1944); Cala CACD 0528
- Goossens/Sydney SO (rec 1952); HMV DB 9792-3
- Boult/LPO (rec. 1954); Belart CD 461354-2
- Barbirolli/ Hallé Orchestra (rec. 1956); Barbirolli Society SJB 1022
- Barbirolli/ Hallé Orchestra; EMI 4577672
- Dilkes/English Sinfonia (rec. 1971); HMV CSD 3696
The Banks of Green Willow
- See the separate pageThe Banks of Green WillowThe Banks of Green Willow is a short orchestral piece by George Butterworth. It was composed in 1913, is written in the key of A major, and is around six minutes long. -Composition:...
Songs (complete):
- The Complete Butterworth Songbook: Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
(All Butterworth’s songs, including the voice/piano version of Love Blows. It also includes a short silent film of Butterworth morris dancing.)
All eleven Shropshire Lad songs
- Cameron/Moore; Dutton
- Luxon/Willison (rec. 1976); Decca 468 802-2
- Luxon/Willison (rec. 1990); Chandos CHAN 8831
- Williams/Burnside; Naxos 8.572426
- Rolfe-Johnson/Johnson; Hyperion CDD22044
- Terfel/Martineau(rec. 1995); DG 445946
- Allen/Parsons (rec. 2001) EMI 67428
- Maltman/Vignoles; Hyperion CDA 67378
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad
- Henderson/Moore (rec. 1941); Dutton CDLX 7038
- Shirley-Quirk/Isepp (rec. 1966); Saga STXID5260
- Rayner Cook/Benson; Unicorn
- Gehrman/Farmer; Nimbus NI 5033
- Rolfe-Johnson/Willinson; EMI
- Lemalu/Burnside (rec. 2003); BBC MM298
- Allen/Martineau; Wigmore Hall Live WHLIVE0002
- Polegato/Burnside CBC Records
- Trew/Vignoles; Meridian CDE84185
- Varcoe/Hickox/City of London Sinfonia (orch. Lance Baker) (rec. 1989); Chandos CHAN 8743
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
I will Make You Brooches
- Williams/Burnside; Naxos 8.572426
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
I Fear Thy Kisses
- Williams/Burnside; Naxos 8.572426
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
Requiescat
- Varcoe/Benson; Hyperion CDA 6621/2
- Williams/Burnside; Naxos 8.572426
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
Love Blows as the Wind Blows
(Voice and piano)
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
(Voice and string quartet)
- Oxenham/Bingham String Quartet; Meridian DUOCD 89026
- Lemalu/Belcea Quartet (rec. 2005); EMI 5 58050
(Voice and orchestra)
- Tear/Handley/CBSO; EMI CDM7 64731-2
- Varcoe/Hickox/City of London Sinfonia (rec. 1989); Chandos CHAN 8743
Folk Songs from Sussex
- Williams/Burnside; Naxos 8.572426
- Stone/Barlow; Stone Records 5060192780024
Folk songs collected by Butterworth
- Triple Echo by Coope, Boyes and Simpson contains songs from the Butterworth collection. The Banks of Green Willow, The Cuckoo and The Turtle Dove are given with all verses. There are also songs collected by Vaughan Williams and Grainger. (Rec 2005); No Masters NMCD22
Roads
Three roads are named after Butterworth:- Butterworth Road, Trichirappali, Tamil Nadu, India (10.830471°N 78.69789°W).
- Butterworth Close in Newport, south Wales (51.59082°N 2.934842°W), one of several named after composers. (George Butterworth Lane; 50.041172°N 2.733112°W), at Pozières on the Somme battlefield.
See also
- Charles James MottCharles James Mott- Biography :Charles James Mott was born in Hornsey, North London, the son of Henry Isaac Mott, a surveyor's clerk, and Eliza Brockley, a singing teacher. He was one of a large family. His early music was as a choirboy at St. James' Church in Muswell Hill...
- "ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Baritone" (died of wounds in 1918)