George Butterworth
A SHROPSHIRE LAD for orchestra
Goodmusic Concert Classics GMCL245
Catalogue Number: GMCL245
Difficulty level: D What's this?
ISMN: 9790222337992
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Orchestration: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, Cor Anglais [optional], 2 Clarinets in Bb, Bass Clarinet in Bb [optional], 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 2 Trumpets in Bb, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Harp
Strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Bass)
Between 1909 and 1911 George Butterworth set a total of eleven songs from A E Housman’s set of 63 poems called A Shropshire Lad. This elegiac rhapsody quotes extensively from the first of the eleven songs, Loveliest of Trees. Housman refers to the flowers of the wild cherry blossom which he associated with happy times in his early years in Worcestershire, where there were cherry trees in his garden and nearby woods. Like Housman in Worcestershire, Butterworth loved the wild Shropshire landscape.
The orchestral Rhapsody was being composed at the same time as 'an orchestral epilogue' to the song settings. It received its first performance at the Leeds Festival in 1913. Ralph Vaughan Williams, who knew Butterworth well, was in the audience and the work was received with great acclaim.
The obvious poignancy and sense of the loss of a way of life, never to return, was later compounded by Butterworth being tragically killed at the age of 31 in the battle of the Somme in 1916. Shortly before this, he had been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at Pozieres. As with so many others, his body was never recovered. Such was the untimely loss of a budding musical genius. His precious few works are still loved today by so many.
In this edition the original Trumpets in C are replaced by B flat Trumpets and the important phrases of the Cor Anglais and Bass Clarinet are cued into other instruments. Many extra dynamics, metronome marks and tempi instructions are added, as well as pedal instructions in the Harp. In some of the more florid Harp passages I have reorganised the allocation of the notes between the hands, to assist in easier assimilation for performance. Peter Lawson
Duration 9 minutes
A PACK includes a full score plus a full set of wind, brass and percussion parts plus strings 4/4/3/4/2
Strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Bass)
Between 1909 and 1911 George Butterworth set a total of eleven songs from A E Housman’s set of 63 poems called A Shropshire Lad. This elegiac rhapsody quotes extensively from the first of the eleven songs, Loveliest of Trees. Housman refers to the flowers of the wild cherry blossom which he associated with happy times in his early years in Worcestershire, where there were cherry trees in his garden and nearby woods. Like Housman in Worcestershire, Butterworth loved the wild Shropshire landscape.
The orchestral Rhapsody was being composed at the same time as 'an orchestral epilogue' to the song settings. It received its first performance at the Leeds Festival in 1913. Ralph Vaughan Williams, who knew Butterworth well, was in the audience and the work was received with great acclaim.
The obvious poignancy and sense of the loss of a way of life, never to return, was later compounded by Butterworth being tragically killed at the age of 31 in the battle of the Somme in 1916. Shortly before this, he had been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry at Pozieres. As with so many others, his body was never recovered. Such was the untimely loss of a budding musical genius. His precious few works are still loved today by so many.
In this edition the original Trumpets in C are replaced by B flat Trumpets and the important phrases of the Cor Anglais and Bass Clarinet are cued into other instruments. Many extra dynamics, metronome marks and tempi instructions are added, as well as pedal instructions in the Harp. In some of the more florid Harp passages I have reorganised the allocation of the notes between the hands, to assist in easier assimilation for performance. Peter Lawson
Duration 9 minutes
A PACK includes a full score plus a full set of wind, brass and percussion parts plus strings 4/4/3/4/2
