George Butterworth

**George Butterworth** (born London, 12 July 1885; died Pozières, France,  5 August 1916) was an English composer. He was killed while fighting in World War I.  He is best known for a group of songs which are settings of poems by  A. E. Housman.

## Early years

Butterworth was born in London.  His father was a solicitor who later became the general manager of the North Eastern Railway.  The family moved to Yorkshire soon after George’s birth. He had his first music lessons from his mother, who was a singer, He soon started to compose music. His father wanted him to be a solicitor and so he sent his son to Eton College.  From there he went to Trinity College, Oxford. At Oxford he became more and more involved with music, especially after he met the folk song collector Cecil Sharp and composer and folk song enthusiast Ralph Vaughan Williams. Butterworth and Vaughan Williams made several trips into the English countryside to collect folk songs.  Both of them were influenced by English folk songs when they were composing.   Butterworth was also a very good folk dancer.  He was particularly fond of Morris dancing.

Vaughan Williams and Butterworth became close friends. It was Butterworth who said to Vaughan Williams that it would be a good idea to turn the symphonic poem he was working on into his _London Symphony_. When the manuscript for that piece was lost in the post Butterworth and two other musicians helped Vaughan Williams to write it out again.   Vaughan Williams dedicated the piece to Butterworth's memory after his death.  When he left Oxford, Butterworth became a music critic for _The Times_ as well as composing  and teaching at Radley College, Oxfordshire. He also studied at the Royal College of Music for a short time, working with people such as Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford.

## First World War

Although Butterworth had lots of work he often felt that his life had no purpose.  When  World War I broke out, Butterworth felt that he could be useful so he joined the British Army.  He was killed by a sniper in 1916 at Pozières leading a raid during the Battle of the Somme. His body was not found, and his name appears on the Thiepval memorial, near the site of the Somme.  He was awarded the Military Cross, and a trench was named after him.

## A Shropshire Lad

Butterworth did not write a great deal of music, and during the war he destroyed many of his compositions that he thought were not good enough.  Of those that survive, his works based on A. E. Housman's collection of poems _A Shropshire Lad_ are the best known. Many English composers of Butterworth's time set Housman's poetry, including Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Butterworth wrote two song cycles on Housman's poems.  They include some of the best-loved English songs of the 20th century, especially _Is My Team Ploughing?_ and  _Loveliest of Trees_.  He used this last song as the basis for his 1912 orchestral rhapsody, also called _A Shropshire Lad_.  It is full of soft, tender music as well as passion.

## References

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 1980, .

## Other websites

- An essay on Butterworth's life and music

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: George Butterworth
- **honorific suffix**: Military Cross, MC
- **birth name**: George Sainton Kaye Butterworth
- **birth place**: Paddington, London, England
- **death place**: Pozières, Somme, The Somme, France
- **death cause**: Shot by sniper in the Battle of the Somme
- **resting place**: Unknown
- **nationality**: England, English
- **alma mater**: Trinity College, Oxford
- **occupation**: Composer, schoolmaster, music critic, professional morris dancer, soldier
- **parents**: Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth, general manager, North East railway line, North-East Railway Company