George Butterworth

George Butterworth’s “Love Blows As the Wind Blows”: Three Idyllic Songs

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English composer George Butterworth (1885-1916) left behind only a handful of brief musical treasures, among the most famous being  The Banks of Green Willow and A Shropshire Lad.  Emerging from the pastoral landscape with a sense of quiet nostalgia and dreamy impressionistic color, these magical, fleeting works make us long for what might have been. At the outbreak of the First World War, Butterworth enthusiastically enlisted, and quickly rose to the rank of …

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George Butterworth’s “The Banks of Green Willow”: A Musical Illustration

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It is hard to read the biography of English composer George Butterworth without imagining what might have been. A close friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Butterworth traveled England’s “green and pleasant land,” collecting more than 450 folk songs. Butterworth’s music was influenced by these songs, and by the land itself. Butterworth signed up for military service enthusiastically at the outbreak of the First World War. Before leaving home, he took inventory of …

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Exploring the Music of George Butterworth

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Sunday is the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, marking the end of the First World War. The horrors of the “Great War” inspired a range of music, from the apocalyptic desolation of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Pastoral Symphony to the contrasting dreamlike innocence of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. Among the War’s casualties was the young English composer George Butterworth, a second lieutenant in the 13th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. At the age of 31, Butterworth was killed by …

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