# George Butterworth



## Wood

Butterworth morris dancing with Cecil Sharp in 1912 four years before his death.






George Butterworth first appears after 58 seconds..


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## starthrower

Some cows grazing in the meadow music.






Of course he was killed in the Great War.


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## Taggart

Wood said:


> Butterworth morris dancing with Cecil Sharp in 1912 four years before his death.
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> George Butterworth first appears after 58 seconds..


This is folk royalty. Butterworth does a set with Cecil Sharp, Maud and Helen Karpeles. Maud collaborated with Sharp in collecting folk songs in the Appalachians and after Sharp's death became his literary executor. Helen married Douglas Kennedy who became director of EFDSS in 1924 after Sharp's death. If Butterworth had survived the war, he had been expected to take over from Sharp.


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## Taggart

*George Butterworth (1885 - 1916)*

Butterworth was born in London but the family moved to York when he was six. His mother had been a professional singer before her marriage. He went to prep school at Aysgath, got a scholarship to Eton and then went to Trinity College, Oxford. At Oxford he became President of the University Music Society. He was influenced by Hugh Allen (a future supporter of the Oxford Folk Music Society) and by the Professor of Music Sir Hubert Parry. At this time Parry was also Director at the Royal College of Music, where he taught Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Parry was one of the four Vice-Presidents of the newly formed Folk-Song Society. Butterworth joined that Society in 1906 and was a founder member of the Folk-Dance Society formed in 1911. For a time he was employed by the society as a professional dancer to demonstrate Morris dance.

After University, he worked for a short while as a music critic for The Times and also contributed to the second edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1904-1910). Following a brief teaching post at Radley College he returned to London and enrolled at the Royal College of Music, where he studied organ, piano, theory and composition. Butterworth became a collector, noting down more than 450 items, including songs, dance tunes, and dances. He collected and arranged an album of Sussex folk songs and, in collaboration with Cecil Sharp, published several books of country and morris dances.

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. Housman'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.

At the start of the war, he enrolled in the Durham Light Infantry. He was decorated twice, the second being posthumous. He died in 1916 on the Somme.

Links - There are a number of excellent web sites covering his life and work:

Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Butterworth
York Civic Trust - https://yorkcivictrust.co.uk/heritage/civic-trust-plaques/george-butterworth-1885-1916/
Sharp's People - https://cecilsharpspeople.org.uk/butterworth-george.html
EFDSS - https://www.efdss.org/learning/reso...folk-collectors/2435-efdss-george-butterworth
George Butterworth site - https://www.georgebutterworth.co.uk/ - flogging a film about Butterworth


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## Alinde

At the start of the war, he enrolled in the Durham Light Infantry. He was decorated twice, the second being posthumous. He died in 1916 on the Somme. 

"The lads who will die in their glory and never be old".


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## flamencosketches

Big fan of his music. Damn shame there's so little of it. I still need to hear his songs; I'm only familiar with the three major orchestral pieces.


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## CnC Bartok

He taught at my old school. Obviously we did not overlap....

Another of the countless wasted lives of The Great War. What could have been.......


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## betterthanfine

flamencosketches said:


> Big fan of his music. Damn shame there's so little of it. I still need to hear his songs; I'm only familiar with the three major orchestral pieces.


Do correct that error! His 'Six songs from A Shropshire Lad' is one of the best English song cycles. I'm enjoy the recordings by Roderick Williams and a young Bryn Terfel a lot.


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