Talk:George Butterworth

Best known for
The default text for Butterworth seems to be "he is best known for his Shropshire Lad", or, as it is here, for "his works based on A. E. Housman's collection of poems", but is that still true? In his allmusic.com bio it is, "for his Shropshire Lad Rhapsody", which they list together with "The Banks of Green Willow" as highlights of his output. The rhapsody is based on the same folk melody as his "Loveliest of Trees" song and it is hard to say if the poem or the folk song were his main inspiration. Personally I wouldn't have known about him if it wasn't for his idyllic "Banks", with its breath-taking ending, and the fact that Vaughan Williams dedicated his London Symphony to him. Allmusic lists CD recordings for each of his 17 surviving works: there are just 5 CDs with the Bredon Hills song cycle, 7 with the Two English Idylls, 16 with the Rhapsody, 17 with the (6 song) Shropshire Lad song cycle (last one made in 2003), and 40 with the Banks of Green Willow. Won't most people these days more likely know him best or even only for the latter? Afasmit (talk) 14:05, 28 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I know him for the Vaughan Williams connection, and I suspect most persons who have heard of him do also. TheScotch (talk) 08:15, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Anyway, this "best known for" phrase occurs throughout wikipedia and is rarely verifiable. I think it should be chucked--except in special cases. This is not a special case. TheScotch (talk) 05:40, 6 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Just to clarify Afasmit's comments above, Loveliest Of Trees is not based on a folk-song; it's original. The Shropshire Lad songs were written as one group of 11 songs, but published in two sets.  The orchestral rhapsody came later, based on Loveliest of Trees and With Rue My Heart is Laden.  The songs are some of the most frequently performed English art songs: there have been 11 recordings of all 11 of them, and a further 10 of the first set (Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad) only.  There have been 14 recordings of the orchestral rhapsody [all figures as of 2012]Willowmusic (talk) 05:21, 31 July 2012 (UTC).

I have altered the first sentence to read: "...best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from A Shropshire Lad". The possible confusion lies with A Shropshire Lad, which is the title of (1) a famous collection by Housman, (2) Butterworth's orchestral rhapsody, (3) the colloquial title of his best-known group of songs (strictly "Six songs from A Shropshire Lad") or (4) the colloquial name for the complete published Housman songs ("Eleven songs from A Shropshire Lad"). The new wording makes the link to Housman's poems more clear.Willowmusic (talk) 02:04, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Service file
Sometime ago I photographed Butterworth's service file at The National Archives. The images can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/11226331@N05/sets/72157626145614787/ Obviously they don't meet WP:PRIMARY, but they might still be useful in some way. David Underdown (talk) 15:46, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Rediscovered song
A lost song by Butterworth has been rediscovered at the Bodleian Libraries: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2016/dec-12 --FeanorStar7 11:15, 22 December 2016 (UTC)