George Butterworth
TWO SONGS for voice and piano (or orchestra)
Goodmusic GM548
Two Songs: Bredon Hill & Loveliest of Trees edited by Peter Lawson
These songs can be performed with orchestra (GMCL244 - orchestration by Peter Lawson)
Between 1910 and 1911 George Butterworth set a total of eleven songs from A E Housman's set of 63 poems called A Shropshire Lad. Although originally written for a Baritone voice, the range of the two songs between C and G would also suit a Tenor.
Loveliest of Trees could be sung by any female voice from Contralto to Soprano, as could Bredon Hill, with only three words needing alteration.
Bredon Hill describes a couple of lovers who, on Sunday mornings, would walk up the hill - the highest outlier on the Cotswold hills. They'd lie down on the limestone turf, listening to the church bells ringing from various counties around them, hoping one day to be married at their local church. The mood darkens as the snow-topped hill is described: My love rose up so early / And stole out unbeknown / And went to church alone. / They tolled the one bell only, / Groom there was none to see, / The mourners followed after / And so to church went she. The bells were no longer associated with joy, but with the pain of losing a loved one.
Loveliest of Trees refers to the white flowers of the wild cherry blossom, of which the poet would never tire. Butterworth used the song’s thematic material again in his elegiac orchestral rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad. Like Housman, the composer had developed a love of the wild Shropshire landscape.
Butterworth enlisted in the Great War and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at Pozieres, only to be tragically killed in the battle of the Somme in 1916 at the age of 31. Like many, his body was never recovered. Such was the untimely loss of a budding musical genius. His few works are still loved today by many. Peter Lawson
Duration 7 minutes
These songs can be performed with orchestra (GMCL244 - orchestration by Peter Lawson)
Between 1910 and 1911 George Butterworth set a total of eleven songs from A E Housman's set of 63 poems called A Shropshire Lad. Although originally written for a Baritone voice, the range of the two songs between C and G would also suit a Tenor.
Loveliest of Trees could be sung by any female voice from Contralto to Soprano, as could Bredon Hill, with only three words needing alteration.
Bredon Hill describes a couple of lovers who, on Sunday mornings, would walk up the hill - the highest outlier on the Cotswold hills. They'd lie down on the limestone turf, listening to the church bells ringing from various counties around them, hoping one day to be married at their local church. The mood darkens as the snow-topped hill is described: My love rose up so early / And stole out unbeknown / And went to church alone. / They tolled the one bell only, / Groom there was none to see, / The mourners followed after / And so to church went she. The bells were no longer associated with joy, but with the pain of losing a loved one.
Loveliest of Trees refers to the white flowers of the wild cherry blossom, of which the poet would never tire. Butterworth used the song’s thematic material again in his elegiac orchestral rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad. Like Housman, the composer had developed a love of the wild Shropshire landscape.
Butterworth enlisted in the Great War and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at Pozieres, only to be tragically killed in the battle of the Somme in 1916 at the age of 31. Like many, his body was never recovered. Such was the untimely loss of a budding musical genius. His few works are still loved today by many. Peter Lawson
Duration 7 minutes
