# A grim tale (two of them)



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Inspired by all this talk of Finzi: A young girl, pregnant by a sea captain, runs away to sea with him. Her delivery is difficult and there is no midwife or doctor. It's apparent she will die. She asks her husband to throw her and her child into the sea, which he does, singing a lament that she will be buried on "the Banks of Green Willow."

The composer of this cheery piece, George Butterworth, is himself killed at 31 years old in the Battle of the Somme. His men bury him in the side of the trench they have taken. His body has never been recovered.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

KenOC said:


> Inspired by all this talk of Finzi: A young girl, pregnant by a sea captain, runs away to sea with him. Her delivery is difficult and there is no midwife or doctor. It's apparent she will die. She asks her husband to throw her and her child into the sea, which he does, singing a lament that she will be buried on "the Banks of Green Willow."
> 
> The composer of this cheery piece, George Butterworth, is himself killed at 31 years old in the Battle of the Somme. His men bury him in the side of the trench they have taken. His body has never been recovered.


Hauntingly beautiful. Sebastian Faulks's _Birdsong_ is an appropriate read - which describes the _The Battle of the Somme_.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

About every ten years, although I am no military afficianado, I read a book about WWI just to remind myself how stupid humanity is capable of being.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Inspired by all this talk of Finzi: A young girl, pregnant by a sea captain, runs away to sea with him. Her delivery is difficult and there is no midwife or doctor. It's apparent she will die. She asks her husband to throw her and her child into the sea, which he does, singing a lament that she will be buried on "the Banks of Green Willow."


Well that's pretty gloomy. Now I need to go listen to some opera to cheer myself up.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Okay, the woman is dying. She chooses to be thrown into the sea. But why does the poor infant get to be thrown with her? Anyway, I can almost hear that piece playing in the background as this sorry event takes place.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

amfortas said:


> Well that's pretty gloomy. Now I need to go listen to some opera to cheer myself up.


Something like _Káťa Kabanová_ should do it. :devil:


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

If it is grim you want try Dvorak's tone poems based on Erben - The Golden Spinning Wheel is particularly grisly.


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

I have known the Butterworth piece for years but wasn't aware of the tragic story of the song. Still a beautiful piece. According to Wikipedia there is a variant of the story where it is the man who throws woman and child overboard to avoid the shame of taking them home.


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