Butterworth - A Shropshire Lad
GEORGE BUTTERWORTH 1885 - 1916
'A SHROPSHIRE LAD' RHAPSODY FOR ORCHESTRA
A close friend of both Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharpe, Butterworth was profoundly affected by English folk-music, and was the first composer to set to music the poems of A E Houseman. This orchestral rhapsody is based on a theme from one of the songs from the "Shropshire Lad" cycle, and was first performed in Leeds in 1913.
Just two other orchestral works together with a further song cycle form the entire output of this most English of composers, who, had he lived longer, would surely have become a household name. As it was, Butterworth enlisted in the army at the outbreak of the First World War, and, at the age of 31, was killed at Pozières in a singularly gallant action for which he was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.
Just two other orchestral works together with a further song cycle form the entire output of this most English of composers, who, had he lived longer, would surely have become a household name. As it was, Butterworth enlisted in the army at the outbreak of the First World War, and, at the age of 31, was killed at Pozières in a singularly gallant action for which he was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.
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